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Telecommuting
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Telecommuting is a rapidly growing trend in American business. The number of companies offering telecommuting as an option to employees increased from 6 percent in 1993 to 33 percent in 1998, according to a survey in Business Week. Telecommuting is expected to continue to grow as new occupations that are shaped by modern communications come into existence. "Workers in newly emerging jobs won't have to fight past patterns or expectations," Peter Coffee wrote in PC Week. "'Telepresence' via fax, e-mail and (increasingly) video will be their norm and not an awkward innovation." In fact, some experts believe that telecommuting may be only the first step in the creation of increasingly sophisticated working environments, as information technologies continue to change the way people work.
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Telecommuting can be the perfect solution when you're trying to maintain some kind of balance between your family and career. But you need all the facts before things can run smoothly. Each month Michael Dziak, president of InteleWorks Inc., offers suggestions to make telecommuting easier in Telecommuter's Hotline , a forum for telecommuting moms who want to be in the know.
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Telecommuting will have far-reaching implications for all business owners in the future. As the labor pool shrinks, businesses large and small will compete for workers, many of whom will ask for the telecommuting option. Fortunately, telecommuting has advantages for everyone involved. It saves businesses money by reducing space needs, turnover, and sick time, and improves employee morale by increasing personal time and flexibility. Of course, telecommuting ... involves some potential pitfalls. For example, supervisors may find it difficult to deal with employees who rarely come to the office.
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Telecommuting, [E]-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home (WAH), or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy limited flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting.[1] All telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. A frequently repeated motto is that "work is something you do, not something you travel to".[2] A successful telecommuting program requires a management style which is based on results and not on close scrutiny of individual employees. This is referred to as management by objectives as opposed to management by observation. The terms telecommuting and telework were coined by American Jack Nilles in 1973.[3]
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Telecommuting involves working at a location other than the conventional office. It could be your home or even an office close to home. Telecommuters use technology like computers, fax machines and the phone to relay information. Telecommuting does not have to be a full-time arrangement. People who telecommute may do so only two to three times a week. Telecommuting generates a number of employer, employee and community benefits.
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Telecommuting is seen as a solution to traffic congestion caused by single-car commuting, and the resulting urban air pollution and petroleum use. Initial investments in the network infrastructure and hardware are balanced by an increased productivity and overall greater well-being of telecommuting staff (more quality family time, less travel-related stress), which makes the arrangement attractive to companies, especially those who face large operating costs related to the need for a central office. Even so, telecommuting has not been as widely adopted as expected. "The number of U.S. telecommuters falls somewhere between 9 million and 24 million—far short of the 55 million telecommuters that some forecasters predicted would be in place in the early 2000s. Although the majority of Fortune 1,000 firms offer telecommuting, more than half say that only between 1 percent and 5 percent of employees participate in such programs".[5]
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