Search This Blog


  •  

Our Guest Blogger

  • Jane Allerton is an innovative marketing professional with global experiences in the pharmaceutical, engineered materials and IT industries. In her work, she has been able to combine her technical strengths with human form factor and ergonomic studies. Jane earned her dual BA in Chemistry and German from Rutgers as well as her MBA after an expatriate assignment in Germany. She has also worked in Paris.

Monster Blogroll

Del.icio.us Links

Join the People List

Get this Blog

About Comments

  • Comments are moderated; they should appear on the Monster Blog within one business day.

Disclaimer

  • Although the Monster Blog contains several individual voices, it is still part of Monster, and use of the blog is governed by Monster's Terms of Use. By viewing and/or contributing articles or comments to the Monster Blog, you agree to Monster's Terms of Use.

Feedback

Legal Stuff

« How Will Your Employer Thank You at Thanksgiving? | Main | Socially Conscious Commercialism? »

November 08, 2005

Thank Goodness for Telecommuting

I got some "conscience feedback" about last week's dis of the DOT for their "Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters" awards. I made my criticism on the grounds that the recognition seems to undervalue support for public transit compared to carpooling and telecommuting. While I think public transit needs much more emphasis, recognition and support for telecommuting is admirable too.

Full disclosure: I'm a big beneficiary of employer acceptance of telecommuting and remote work in general. Fact is, I'm writing this about 3,000 miles from my usual office desk, keeping in virtual touch with my colleagues all day via email, IM and phone. And I'm not alone.

According to the Telework Advisory Group for WorldatWork's annual survey, 45.1 million Americans work outside the office. Telecommuting (AKA telework) has always been a key part of the vision driving the creation of ubiquitous high-bandwidth networks linking individuals to each other, to employers and to work opportunities. Consider eBay in this context -- all those sellers working for themselves from home and at the same time, interacting with a global customer base. Telework is much more than dealing with a few work emails from home.

Still, it seems many employers think employees who work at home cannot be trusted, according to this recent survey of 120 HR execs. Of course, this makes me wonder if the employees at the surveyed companies trust their HR execs? And the IRS and Supreme Court have weighed in on tax issues, which means out-of-state teleworkers may get hit with double state income taxes. Still, I'm thankful Monster's HR staff and management are very supportive of remote work.

Here are some useful resources on telework and telecommuting issues:

Share this post: Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Bookmark and Share

Posted by Ryck on November 8, 2005 at 12:57 PM in The Daily Grind | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515e7c69e200d834d33abb53ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Thank Goodness for Telecommuting:

Comments

Distrust for those that work from home?

That would explain why everyone I tell that i work from home look at me like I'm either a porn king or a scam artist:-)

M.K

Posted by: Home Based Business | Jan 1, 2007 5:41:07 PM

If work from home oppourtunities did not exist there are a great many people who would still be sitting on social services being wholely unproductive.

It is my experience that the majority of people who work from home are dissabled and would otherwise be unable to earn a living for themselves.

Tellework, especially the internet, is responsible for aiding a great many people in earning a living where they otherwise couldnt, and greatly bennifits our national workforce.

The Work From Home concept has really only taken off in the last few years, and I think we overlook a huge demographic (dissabled persons) who bennifit from it.

Work From Home ... hated by most employers ... loved by a demographic we largely ignore.

Ian Bakewell
http://www.workfromhometipster.com

Posted by: Ian Bakewell the work from home tipster | Dec 1, 2007 2:09:08 PM

Just because telecommuting concept is widely utilized, is it time to tell our children "Do not be a doctor, nurse or teacher. You will not be lucky enough to work from home?" With increased telecommuting, social relationships are dying...

It is scarry to think of a future where people only commutes for pseudo FAMILY-LIFE balance and environmental protection. If you want to be a real environmentalist, live in small houses, condos, townhomes where you do not need to waste excessive energy, water, and stop Telecommuting from your large backyard while drinking your hot coffee and getting paid in full.

Telecommuting should be only limited to online based businesses where you do not necessarily need to interact with staff for professional growth, such as ebay sellers, online marketing businesses, etc.

Are you one of those telecommuters who sits down at his/her desk at 8a.m. and leave at 5p.m.? And admirable dedication...?

Posted by: Career Tunnel | Dec 16, 2007 5:19:05 AM

I teach college online and find that it has great benefits. The first is that I'm helping a growing percentage of non-traditional students who are trying to better themselves while dealing with both work and family responsibilities. Also, unlike what others have reported, I've found it easier to develop a closer relationship with my students than I've experienced in the classroom. I'm not sure if it's because of the freedom of the internet or the maturity of the student, but I'd guess it is the latter. I also appreciate the fact that I can work from anywhere, be it a coffee shop or at a vacation resort.

My last comment leads me to the negatives. I personally find that there can be many distractions at home. It takes a lot of discipline (or deadlines) to overcome this. Also, I am never truly away from my work since the assumption is that due to the wonders of the internet, I can always be reached.

One thing is true, however, is that the internet has changed our communication processes for better or worse.

Posted by: Terry | Dec 27, 2007 10:17:30 AM

I have been tele-working for around ten years. I'm a 45 year old systems programmer on mainframe systems. This has worked out really well for me, as I sometimes have odd hours I have to work, such as putting in changes into the systems at 1am in the morning. The thing that often puts off managers is they don't know how to remotely manage people. What I find is that the best way to track what a person is doing is by looking at their status report each week, as compared to someone who is doing a similar job, but in a physical office building. They should be very similar. However, I would put my work ouput up against anyone working in a cubicle any day of the week. Since I have my own dedicated home office, complete with fax/printer/copier, dedicated phone line w/ voicemail service, and provide my own office supplies, I am cheaper to employ than someone who has a physical cube in an office building. I also don't get the distractions that I had when I was in a building, such as people stopping by and talking about their personal interests, people standing outside my cube talking, etc. It is just my wife and I at home, so there are no distractions. My wife has her own home office as well (yep, she works from home also as a DBA administrator). I do agree that the manager should ensure that the employee does have the proper environment. For instance, I would not think it would be a good fit for someone with very small children, as I would think that taking care of them would be a full time job, and not one you could do while trying to put in a full day of work. The bottom line, however, is a manager should be able to verify someone is doing work by their work output, regardless of whether that person is in a corporate office building, or in a home-office.

Posted by: odiverdano | Dec 31, 2007 5:49:21 PM

In general I just don't trust the corporate world. I have been downsized 2 times from the financial industry. I now work from home in direct sales field and I call all the shots. I totally control the bottom line and my earning potential. My feeling is that if you have the disipline to telecommute then why don't you start your own home/intenet business?

Posted by: Tim | Jun 6, 2008 2:52:58 PM

Post a comment