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Telecommuting: Workers
built 435 days ago
Telecommuting is the biggest workplace trend in the U.S., according to a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an international outplacement firm. Private and public organizations have adopted telecommuting as a sound business strategy. There are a variety of reasons for telecommuting's rapid growth: global competition, the demand for 24-hour customer support, technological improvements, workers' desire for increased flexibility, and the need to reduce overhead.
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Telecommuting would be a mortal threat to middle managers, so it will never take off. It encourages workers to self-organize, in combination with with Wikis, etc. and managers will not willingly let themselves become irrelevant.
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Telecommuting has come to be viewed by some as more a "complement rather than a substitute for work in the workplace".[13] Thus, some workers may find their work load increased to the point where they are under more stress than before. Distractions at home can have a similar effect, especially among workers who leave the office to be better able to care for small children and the infirm.
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Shaw and other observers ... note that demographic changes within the American workforce are a factor in the growth of telecommuting. These experts contend that new generations of workers are less willing to sacrifice time with family than their counterparts of previous eras. This desire to spend more time at home and avoid long commutes has made telecommuting an increasingly attractive option.
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The roots of telecommuting lay early 1970s technology, linking satellite offices to downtown mainframes by dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. The massive ongoing decrease in cost and increase in performance and usability of personal computers forged the way to decentralize even further, moving the office to the home. By the early 1980s, these branch offices and home workers were able to connect to the company mainframe using personal computers and terminal emulation.
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There are many reasons for management to consider telecommuting. Recruitment and retention of personnel often top the list. In the current environment of high demand for skilled workers, especially in technology fields, telecommuting has become an even more popular option for corporations in virtually every industry.
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