Stanford GSB: Stanford Business August 2000

Illustration by Tim Bower

ONCE UPON A TIME, Stephen Reed, MBA '76, had a 'real job.' Sure, he ran his own business in a creative field, television production, but he felt just as much like a working stiff as the next guy. Slaving away to cover the overhead costs of a Manhattan office and keep his staff busy, Reed had lost touch with the creative projects he loved and the life-style he craved.

There had to be more out there. While kayaking last summer along Kauai's Na Pali coast, Reed asked himself, "Hey, why can't I live here?" "I was established as a TV producer, and clients knew me. I could still keep in touch with them and pitch ideas via cell phone, email, etc.," says Reed.

In January, Reed dropped out of the rat race, turned on his modem and fax machine in Hawaii, and practically set up office under a beach umbrella.

Reed's story isn't quite as unusual as it might appear. Fifteen to 20 million independent professionals in the United States are working from their homes, although not necessarily from the beach, says Shilpi Somaya, MBA '96, vice president of business development at Guru.com, which serves 150,000 such gurus. Somaya explains that several factors motivate Reed and others like him, including a shift in attitudes about work, a desire for balanced lives, the advent of the Internet, and a penchant for entrepreneurship. "People really value defining their own lives and careers," says Somaya.

Most of the Business School alums who responded to an email survey on working at home cheer their lack of productivity-sapping lunches and time-guzzling commutes. They like being able to work and to take breaks when they feel like it. But working at home means they live with their job. "One never locks the door and goes home. The office is always there, papers creeping out onto the dining room table," says Reed. And with true workaholic gusto, Pete Crosby, MBA '71 and founding principal of a management consulting boutique, claims he works "all hours of the day and night, seven days per week!"

While it can be tempting to work nonstop, household distractions abound, and a big pile of dirty laundry has uncanny powers to push consulting projects to the back burner. Most procrastinating reportedly involves house or yard work and running errands, things that have to get done anyway. But certainly, such noble diversions shouldn't count as procrastination "any more than the 'how-was-your-weekend' conversations you get drawn into in a busy office," objects Christine Herron, MBA '97, who worked from home while launching a firm that enables international e-business. Some alums own up to less defensible diversions, however. Dave Stoldt, MBA '87, an independent financial consultant who sometimes bolts out of bed in the wee hours when inspired to work, confesses to a period of pure escapism: "For four weeks, I'd stop everything to watch Law & Order reruns at 1:00 pm every day."

In home environments, dining rooms and guest bedrooms have morphed into offices, and more than a few china cabinets are doubling as file cabinets. There's no telling how many gadgets have been rolled into closets and slid behind curtains. The vote for the most coveted piece of equipment goes to an all-in-one printer, copier, scanner, and fax, and the latest high-tech must-have for the home office is DSL even if there are some headaches involved in installation. Naturally, a mobile phone is a necessity, and many alums don't leave home without it. That means occasionally conducting business while shopping at Costco, according to Miriam Rivera, JD/MBA '95, a legal and financial consultant for startups.

Perhaps out of sheer envy, many folks, acquaintances, colleagues, clients, still don't appreciate those who work from home as true professionals. Barking dogs and noisy toddlers sabotage conference calls, ultra-casual clothing screams "slacker" to the neighbors, mid-afternoon workouts arouse suspicions about employment status, and regular attendance at the kids' soccer games attracts "Mr. Mom" or "just a mom" labels. Prejudices might change over time, but for now, maintaining as professional an image as possible can help. Nick Davis, MBA '72, working as an energy management and conservation consultant, realized that ice cubes clinking in his iced tea glass in mid-afternoon "was probably not creating the best impression with clients and collaborators on the other end of the phone." His solution? "Switched to a plastic tumbler."

Although the rare alum, like executive ed program participant Rajnish Jain, insists on business casual, the majority of grads working at home have reverted to their student wardrobe: T-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, and shorts. Pete Crosby often runs his consulting business in the "dog-walking outfits that I put on at 5:30 am for a two-mile stroll with my boxer pooch, Daisy."

Some, having experimented with working in pajamas, find that it's helpful to don street clothes when working, even if they only move up to sweats. At this rate, wearing a suit becomes an attention-grabbing rarity. "The women in my neighborhood have jokingly cat-called me when I'm seen in a suit and always wonder what's up on those occasions," says Stoldt.

Alums are divided over the feasibility of sharing the workday with a significant other who also works at home. Although some honeymooners like being together every moment of every day, others think they don't have the self-discipline to handle it, and yet others question whether that much one-on-one time is healthy or desirable. "If my wife was working at home too, I'd have to go back to a corporate setting," Stoldt insists. "I would always be trying to waste both our days with old movies and chips and salsa." Kiyoshi Suzaki, MBA '81, a semi-retired management consultant, puzzles: "My wife does not want to see me too much at home. I still do not know why."

Despite the challenges, an office at home, whether it be a coffee table or a converted tool shed can provide an oasis of flexibility, freedom, and independence. "Twenty years ago, if you said you were an independent consultant," explains Somaya, "some people might think you had been laid off and were watching talk shows and eating cereal all day. That stigma is gone."

Like Reed, whose life in a beachfront house on Oahu sounds almost too ideal. "I rise earlier to deal with the East and West Coasts, but in the afternoon yes, I head to the beach. This is turning out to be a very good decision indeed."

Lifestyle: Your Buffet is Ringing

Lifestyle:
Your Buffet is Ringing