Whitney Mantel
Assignment 4
BIS 361, Fall 2013

To Telecommute or Not to Telecommute: A Critical Review

Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees to not commute to a central place of work. As you may know there are many advantages and disadvantages to this, as there are to many things in life. First, one of the most important advantages is how much money will be saved for both the employer and employee. For the employee, you would save on gas and other car expenses because they would not have to drive to and from there office everyday, and it would add hours to their days by eliminating the commute. Other expenses like clothing, restaurant lunches, parking fees, and tolls would drop. Telecommuting could also reduce stress and health problems because the employee would be able to have greater flexibility to balance work and their personal life. Since no one gets meaningful work done in short periods of time, there will be greater productivity at home because there will be more long stretches of uninterrupted time. The employer would benefit from telecommuting similarly by saving money, but on real estate. They could decrease the amount of office space because don’t need big offices if most employees are working from home. This would also limit equipment costs because when their employees work from home they often use there own computers, papers, faxes and phones. The employer who is trying to withhold talented employees that are trying to manage family and work, telecommuting is the best answer for them. Additionally, communities can benefit from telecommuting as well because there will be less traffic and less energy use. Telecommuting also has its disadvantages. For managers or the employers one disadvantage is supervision, they might think that there employees might slack off on their duties if they are not being watched or wonder if they are committing the full eight hours while they are working from home. There are also security concerns because some sensitive work might not be able to transfer from the office computer the to the home computer. It could form problems in the office if some managers allow the employees who perform well to work at home and the employees who don’t do as well to stay in the office. Those employees who don’t get the option of telecommuting could file costly and time-consuming complaints. The employee could likewise face disadvantages of telecommuting. Some employees need to feel connected to other at work and telecommuting can’t provide that. An employee could lose clear site of there boundaries between work and home, making accomplishments harder to showcase. These advantages and disadvantages do vary with organizations and culture. For example, Google has created its office in Silicon Valley around workplace innovation, and as a result they were named the top place to work at in the United States. In Google’s cafeteria, they have set up their tables and chairs, much like high school, so their employees have to interact with one another. Also, creating a line for food, one that makes them interact, but not one that takes too long that they would want to leave. This was done on purpose so that their employees would have casual interaction. To have successful workplace innovation it was said that learning interactions, collaborating interactions, and fun interactions are needed. This means that Google does not need telecommuting because they have created an environment where their employees can work successfully. These advantages and disadvantages vary among organizations and culture because it depends on what type of job it is. An organization has to first recognize that not all firms or jobs are suited to having their employees telecommute. Elementary school teachers are an example because they need to be hands, and also factory workers or positions that demand security clearances. First, you have to see what all of competitors are doing. If all of the top competitors in your industry are allowing for employees to telecommute and you don’t allow it, it could hurt your power to hire talent. It does not have to be “all or none”, people are able to telecommute usually one to three days a week, which will allow both employees and employers to experience some of the pros without all of the cons. These pros and cons of telecommuting also depends the flexibility, some employers are clear about what days they need people in the office or what hours they should be available at home. Telecommuting also depends on how you manage your office. Because Google has put so much effort into creating a positive workplace for their employees, they want to come to the office to work. If one of your organizations goals it to have you telecommute you have to make sure that you are suited for this type of work. You need to be able to start things and be self-disciplined. This is one of the disadvantages of managers because they are not in their employee’s home to supervise them and see if they are completing their tasks. A good approach to telecommuting in my opinion would be that I would have to know my personality. I would have to know if I would be able to sit at home and not be distracted by voluntary things – such as using my cell phone and checking my email. I would also pick the option of telecommuting only a couple of days a week and going to the office the rest, personally I wouldn’t want to be stuck in my house all of the time. As an employee I would lean to the choice of telecommuting and also going to the office. This way I would know what is going on with my colleagues and is a chance for me to check in on my tasks with my boss or manager. I would also enjoy the flexible schedule because it would make it a lot easier to balance my work and my personal life. Additionally, saving money on gas, car expenses, and other miscellaneous things would be a huge factor as to why I would lean more towards telecommuting. From the information sources that I have listened to, read, and watched, the managers are the only ones with the problems of telecommuting and they bring up good points. Therefore, I would not change my approach because you have to trust that your employees will complete their work if you give them the privilege of working from home. So, I would determine if my employees had enough self-discipline to do their work at home and let the ones who are capable telecommute, and the ones who aren’t, will have to stay in the office.

Sources: * "Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html>. * Henn, Steve. "'Serendipitous Interaction' Key To Tech Firms' Workplace Design." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/03/13/174195695/serendipitous-interaction-key-to-tech-firms-workplace-design>. * "Six Organizational Benefits of Telecommuting." Six Organizational Benefits of Telecommuting. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://research-advisors.com/articles/ttorgbens.html>. * Wallace, Patricia M. "Collaborating with Technology." Information Systems in Organizations: People, Technology, and Processes. Boston: Pearson, 2013. N. pag. Print.