Telecommuting or as it's more commonly called, "working from home" has been growing in popularity ever since its beginning in the early 1970's. There are many positive attributes tied to this type of work and in this post I plan to break these down as well as list some of the drawbacks. Then I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if telecommuting is a viable work option.
Telecommuting is beneficial for employees, employers, and communities alike. Firstly, it allows some who may not have the capability of a traditional commute such as disabled persons, stay-at-home parents, those living in remote locations to have a fulfilling and productive career. Secondly, it reduces traffic density on the roads during the important peak hour times. This not only reduces congestion, but it will also reduce pollution, accidents, oil usage, and wear of our transportation infrastructure.
For employers, telecommuting allows them to reduce their company's carbon footprint. It also allows for increased productivity from workers as time is not lost travelling to and from work. Employee morale is improved and issues such as varying time zones are much more easily navigable. For employees, work-related transportation costs and fuel usage are drastically decreased thus saving them large amounts of money. Many find that it is much easier to balance home and work-life and the conveniences of home are readily available. The overall benefit of telecommuting, in my opinion, is that it reduces energy usage without adversely affecting economic productivity and growth.
Now, the drawbacks. The main criticism seems to be that interactions and relationships that develop in the traditional workplace are severely compromised. Employers and employees are unable to talk face-to-face with one another which can be seen as a weakness in the ability to effectively manage and operate a company. Also, telecommuters may have inadequate office setups at home leading to a decrease in productivity. Along this same line of thought, telecommuting relies heavily on technology in order for it to work smoothly. Any disruption in the telecommuter's network, phone line, etc. could cause the inability to work for a period of time.
Personally, I don't think I would be able to work from home. I need a change of scenery between work and home and I don't think I could do without person-to-person interaction between my coworkers and boss. Having a phone glued to my ear all day does not sound appealing either. But I do recognize that there are many strong benefits to telecommuting, perhaps I'm just more traditional. Do you think telecommuting would work for you?
I agree with your points regarding the drawbacks of telecommuting. Additionally, the use of telecommuting removes a large portion of worker accountability. Without the presence of an authoritative figure, it is possible that telecommuters could become less productive than regular commuters. Perhaps a gradual change could make telecommuting an attractive option, but the immediate implementation of telecommuting does not seem like a realistic alternative in the present.
ReplyDelete-Chris
I agree with all of the points you make in this post Alex. Personally I don't think I would be able to telecommunicate everyday but I would like the option to if I really needed it. For example, Lets say that I am an employee that comes in to the office regularly but one day a family member gets really sick. I would love to be able to keep up with my work while being at home caring for the family member. I guess it would be a best of both worlds situation. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI agree that telecommuting could be annoying for many people because I as well need a new and separate environment to work in. I think that a new combination of telecommuting and conventional working could work well. This system would be very similar to how many factories used to be. Joe Gurinko pointed out that Bethlehem traffic used to be much lower because everyone lived in the company town right next to the steel mill. If companies built new office space that was next to apartments/condos/houses that were priced right for the company, it's employees could live there and walk to work. Or instead of a company setting up a work space they could simply require everyone to work from home and have a much smaller office for periodic meetings. My mother works in space planning and facilities management for a large pharmaceutical company. If their facilities were cut down, requiring more people to work from home, it would help the sustainability on the transportation sector and save companies money thus improving the economy as well. There are many ways to do this, it just requires some initial investment of decision for someone to say "okay, we're going to change things."
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