Microsoft, telework?

Microsoft's never been big on telework. The company believes its employees are most successful in a centralized collaborative environment—the Redmond campus.

But signs are the company might be changing its attitude.

First, on Dec. 1, the UK Register ran a story called "Trust your employees, says Microsoft," that lead like this:

"British managers need to learn to trust their staff if the UK is to realise the full potential benefits of mobile and flexible working. This is the message of a newly-published white paper written by Carsten Sorensen on behalf of Microsoft UK.

"Microsoft argues that technology will be a key enabler of changing the way we work. It sees a shift already happening: organisations are becoming less centralised and more distributed, and the infrastructure of a corporation will, increasingly, be something employees carry with them. Technology also means that remote workers can be monitored in a way that would have been impossible in the past."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/30/mobile_trust/

Microsoft is loosening up? Joining the distributed workforce of the 21st century? Cool. Better late than never, right?

Or maybe - nah - just maybe, its trying to sell more software? Or maybe it's just trying to sell more software in the UK.. or Europe...or worldwide or…hmmm.

Then just today, I'm reading a story from an online publication I never read that says Microsoft, worried about security, is rolling out smart cards to "thousands of its teleworkers."

Now Microsoft doesn't have thousands of teleworkers. What the writer meant to say was that Microsoft is rolling out smart cards to thousands of employees who remotely access the Microsoft corporate network after hours.

That's why I never read this online publication.

Still, I've got enough here to query Microsoft's PR machine WaggED. I asked them to have Microsoft clarify its position on telework, whether it does in fact allow telework, say when a spouse is transferred to another city, or when a child or parent, or the employee himself, is sick, etc.

I also asked for a breakdown of remote office/branch office employees, contract workers, etc. Of course, thousands of people are logging onto the Microsoft network. But is everybody still dutifully battling traffic to get to the campus every day?

I mean, if you work for a company that starts advocating telework as part of its business strategy, a company that says "trust your employees" to the press, but it won't let you telework or keep your job when your spouse gets a great job in Round Rock—wouldn't that make you kind of angry?

In the past Microsoft has turned down my requests to discuss its corporate work flexibility policies, so I've had to rely on scuttlebutt and industry perspective from a colleague who covers the company.

He's confirmed Microsoft is still pretty anti-telework, and knows people who've turned down jobs with the company because moving to Redmond was a condition of employment.

When I showed him the Register story, he said, "Well, Microsoft's sure not eating its own dog food on this one."

So while I'm waiting for WaggEd to get back to me, I'd love to hear from readers who have any knowledge of what goes on inside that campus when it comes to employee flexibility and work/life balance. Anything, anything at all. Other companies too. Whatever you've got.