Telecommuting: The Job Arrangement of the Future

Outline I. Introduction Thesis Statement: Telecommuting has many positive effects on families, organizations, and economy. Therefore, telecommuting should become widespread. II. Families A. B. C. D. III. Balances family-work life Allows more time with children Helps family to saves money Makes more healthier

Organizations A. B. C. D. Reduces amount of office expenses Reduces tardiness and absenteeism Boost employee morale, and improve productivity Enables employers to recruit and retain skilled employees

IV.

Economy A. B. C. D. Reduces usage of fuel Reduces amount of traffic accident Enables the disabilities to employ Reduces CO2 emission

V. VI.

Disadvantages Conclusion

Telecommuting Victor Cousins, who works in the human resources department at Sun Microsystems, has a good and well-paid job. Nevertheless, he has no office; he has just a locker at workplace. This is not a disadvantage for him. He thinks that a persons success should not be evaluated by the size of office. He loves his job and being office-less. He is a typical telecommuter. He can manage his job regardless of where he is; from home, the local coffee shop, or anywhere throughout the country, or across the country. For instance, he was able to accompany her mother when she had knee operation, doing his job at the same time (Tahmincioglu, par. 1,2). Marie Howerton is a businesswoman. She works for a company, which has offices in both London and New York, as a business information and market analysis manager. Besides her job, she has a stack of housework to do; doing laundry, dropping children off school, and then picking them up, so on. Through the technological development such as advent of mobile phones and laptop computers, her work-load has considerably been lightened. Now, she is one of the 34 million American telecommuters. Howerton has five teammates; one of them in Chicago, one of them in California, and one of them in Texas. Although, they do not interact personally, they may communicate each other during the whole day (Bartos, par 1). Especially, in the last decades, the interest to the telecommuting has significantly increased both in public and in private sector. Companies such as AT&T, IBM, Sun Microsystems employ a considerably amount of employee as telecommuters. One-third of AT&Ts managers do not need to a workplace to conduct the companys affairs. 40 percent of IBMs

employees work office-less. Similarly, a half of Sun Microsystemss workforce is permitted to work anywhere they wished (Collin, par 1). These are a few samples of typical telecommuters. These examples are a sign of future workplace (Tahmincioglu, par. 3). Telecommuting is called by different names such as telework, flexiplace (Ireton, par.2), remote work, off-site work or home-based work (Abegg, par.3). Telecommuting has a background that dates from 1970s. After the technological development, specifically in the telecommunication technology such as fax machines, mobile phones, high-speed internet, and well-equipped computers, it has become available to manage work from home or remote places. By the times goes its popularity has been increasing by adapting technological improvements to that novel flexible work arrangement. A great amount of companies are discovering the practicability and attractiveness of telecommuting. Through telecommuting, work moves to worker, instead of worker to work (Ireton, par.2). United States Congress has developed some projects to promote telecommuting all over the country. Beginning from 2000, Congress established some bills that oblige companies to establish a policy under which qualified employees of the company may take part in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible. Although, those bills were passed by the house in 2007, they have not been voted on the Senate (Collins, par.3). Although, telecommuting has a short history, its fame has increasingly risen. Its benefits have been approved by many public and private sectors. It has countless of advantages to families, companies, and economies, so it should become widespread both in public and in private sectors.

Telecommuting has several positive effects on families. Teleworkers do not need to commute. This is beneficial for many reasons. First, they do not have to drive from house to work. In most cases, teleworkers save two hours a day by working at home. This is beneficial in three ways, first they do not drive at the rush hour, so they do not get stressed because of traffic, second this gives them to spend more time with their family, and they do not pay for the gas, insurance, park, meals, etc. This directly affects the familys budget. Teleworking also reduces the rate of catching to the contagious diseases, and the risk of having accidents will decrease, because of these reasons health expenses will be lower than before. In addition, after 9/11 most people do not consider outside as a safe place, they feel secure at home (Ireton, par.6). It is difficult for a working woman who has a baby; concentrating her job and taking care of her baby in the meanwhile. Nowadays, working mothers are too busy with their job. As a result, they either put their children in a daycare center or hire a nanny or au pair. This might cost family a great amount of money. If a mother is a part-time or full-time telecommuter, she can schedule her time depending on baby or her husbands schedule. For example, many babies sleep at a particular time. This time period is good for the working family. If both mother and father is a telecommuter, this is a better solution; they are able to take care of their children in return. Further, a flexible work arrangement enables the family to observe the interaction between the child and the caregiver. Thus, families may both save money to support their budget and secure their children. (Abboud, par. 1-4). Teleworkers feel more comfortable at home, because they can control climate, noise levels, and distractions. It is

possible that teleworkers lose less time at family emergencies. In addition, home-office tax is less than office tax. Apart from these benefits, it is almost impossible to burglarize teleworkers house during work hours, because they are mostly at home (Ireton, par. 7). Another obvious advantage of telecommuting is that it lets people balance their work and family life. This advantage may not be tangible. However, if we notice that telecommuting supports the decreasing number of children who are put into daycare centers, we can comprehend that it is tangible. Telecommuting enables parents to be able to do their jobs at home. Therefore, they spend much time with their children. Finally, they do not have to send their children to a daycare center (Collins, par. 10,11). Telecommuting allows closer kinship and strengthens family ties. It is a great opportunity to work at home sharing quality time with family members. Therefore, strong family ties can be established and traditional family values can be conveyed to the next generations. Also, telecommuting leads employees to save time. This time can be spent on finding constructive solutions of family problems. Strong families make up strong societies (Johnson, par. 7). The most teleworkers do not face with the difficulties of working at the office such as gossips, noise, politics, or unnecessary meetings. It is also possible to join important meetings from your telework site via a conference call instead of trying to be at a place in a certain time (Ireton, par.8). Teleworking is just a management style. If the employer trusts you, he lets you to work at home. In this case, employees have the control of their work style and output. After all, workers performance should improve, and this results in getting a better job opportunity or promotions (Ireton, par.9). In

addition to these advantages, telecommuting provides much satisfaction. According to considerable amount of surveys and researches, telecommuters are very glad to work with their colleagues thanks to telecommuting. They also do not have to involve in office politics, which can makes workers irritated and decrease the level of an employees satisfaction (Collins, par. 12). Telecommuting has also several tangible benefits to companies. Telecommuting boosts employee morale, and improves productivity. An employee, who works at a workplace and needs to commute to everyday, does not have enough time for other priorities. As telecommuting provides an opportunity for workers a flexible work schedule to commute less, they could share time for other priorities. Experts at telecommuting such as Crandall and Gao declare that telecommuting improves employers productivity, enabling them to use commuting time with their families or for other social activities, so companies would take advantage of increasing their production. The International Telework Association and Council published a report that titled Telework America 2000. It is reported that productivity for those companies whose employees work at home increased on average 15 percent and those whose employees work at a telework center increased on average 30 percent (Collins, par.12). Being away from all kinds of distractions that occur at the workplace is the most important justification for the increase in productivity. In addition, according to a research conducted by Nilles, a telecommuter takes two days less off per year for illness than a standard employee (Par.12). The Virginia Department of Taxation verified that

telecommuting was a logical business decision that enhances productivity and employees morale. That state declared Monday as a statewide Telework day to urge state agencies and private companies to test telecommuting and how could be taking advantages of it. Its benefit in terms of both taxation and cutting cost is substantial. According to the Virginia Department of Taxation, companies can save a huge amount of money annually in rent, parking, and utilities (Davison, par. 1-3). Telecommuting reduces amount of office expenses. Companies can cut real estate cost up to 20 percent and payroll 10 percent, creating flexible workplace; allowing employees work at home (Fitzpatrick, par.5). Working from home only requires one-time expense such as setting up high-speed telephone line, fax, and printer at the employees home, and giving laptop to employees. Thereby, companies do not need to establish extra workspace, park spots, etc. This is a great economical acquisition for companies (Olsztynski, par. 7). Telecommuting also, reduces tardiness and absenteeism. Employees, who work at home, are not stuck in traffic, rain, or snow (Olsztynski, par. 8). One of the most appealing sides of telecommuting is workers do not need to dress suitable to work requirements every morning; they are free to wear what they wish (Rogue, par. 4). The next evident advantage of telecommuting is to enable employers to recruit and retain skilled staff. For example, a woman after giving a birth or a senior employee near to retire is like to leave for work. Companies, by providing opportunity to help employees work from home, continue to take advantage of them (Martino. 532).

There are several, remarkable and tangible benefits of telecommuting to economy as well as families and companies. Telecommuting enables the disabled to be recruited. There are several employment obstacles for many people who are disabled. One of the supreme troubles is insufficient or lack of reliable transportation. Another is that they are not supported with necessary work equipments to make them successful or feel comfortable. However, through telecommuting, companies can effectively integrate the disabled with job (Paraplegia News, par.1). Therefore, both workers with disabilities and countries can take advantage of telecommuting opportunities; the disabled make money to support families and for countries, unemployment rates goes down. Telecommuting reduces consumption of fuel. As it provides an opportunity to telecommuters with working at home, they do not need to drive to work, so the number of vehicles in the traffic will be decrease. In addition, there would not be the need to expand roads, which cost millions dollars. According to a study which was done in Japan, telecommuting can reduce the traffic jam between 6.9 percent and 10.9 percent (Collin, par.17). With less commuting, usage of fuel will considerably decrease. Moreover, telecommuting also results in reducing air pollution (Par.17). Telecommuting makes travel time and expenses decrease. It is one of the most important benefits of telecommuting. It was declared that employees spend 28 minutes going to work on average each day from the 2000 American Community Survey (Collins, par. 9). The time has swelled to 7 more minutes over the 10 years prior. The travelers time will continue to grow in the urban sprawl. The total time will equal to 57 minutes a day that could be reutilized in other places, such as for

personal priorities, if employees telecommute. This number can change. For example, the features of a geographical area where people live can determine whether the number increases or not. Overall, 19 million dollars was spent in a day in 2005 by federal workers around the world to go to work and come back home. The expenses of commuting have gone up because of the increasing of fuel prices since 2005 (par. 9). Besides wind and solar energy sources, telecommuting can also save energy. In fact, telecommuting is more important than wind and solar sources to reduce pollution and save energy. With telecommuting, the cost of energy expense falls down to the minimum level. Working at home decreases the tendency of using cars. As a result, it minimizes energy and fuel consumption and also oil dependence to foreign countries. People use 136 million gallons of gasoline for their car in a year. Moreover, in the United States nearly 60 percent of oil is imported. Therefore, 100.000 dollars are spent in a minute to buy imported oil. Now 4.439 million gallons are being saved thanks to telecommuting. In addition, telecommuters, whose numbers nearly 16 million around the world, facilitate traffic run faster in rush hour because their cars are not on the road. It can eliminate the traffic problem such as traffic accident and the number of people who die in traffic accidents (The same, par.1-5). In addition to its benefits, there are several challenges for teleworking. We should consider this situation at two major groups; challenges for company, and challenges for employee. First of all, the network access causes a lot of problem. Especially high-speed internet connection is not available for rural areas. The network capacity of the area

should be available (Brandon, par. 21). Communication is also a big issue. Sometimes video conference is not enough for costumers, they want to touch the product, and the distance would cause communication problems. Some workers prefer to send important documents via their public board band connection. This causes a kind of security problem because it is easy to get in the network and steal that document (Par. 21). Second, interruptions should cause several problems. Of course, employees are not working in the same places with coworkers, but they are working with their families. They have a kind of focusing problem while their family members at home. There are some possible solutions such as locking yourself in a room, using basement. In this case, employees start to feel isolated (Par. 28-29). Technology limitations are a significant problem for employees. It is hard to get every technology at every house. For instance, in some houses, just dial up internet connection is available and the other has board band. The worker who uses dial up internet connection would always fail to join video conference. One issue goes beyond these problems, which is about security. It is easy to control employees at office, but at the house, there is no chance except trusting employee. Telecommuting is a self paced program that may not work for everyone. (Brandon, par. 30-31). In conclusion, as we see from all above stated reasons telecommuting is beneficial; even though, it has some pitfalls. These negative factors can be prevented if it is implemented properly. Fifty years ago, telephone was not widespread. Twenty years ago, the web did not exist. Now, we are in an era that we are able to reach everything with a

single-click. Moreover, telecommunication equipments are extremely well developed. As a result, telecommuting has become available. Since last decade, it has been referred as an alternative work arrangement especially in the developed countries. It is seen as a job of the future, so many governments and private sectors should support telecommuting. Especially after the last economic crisis, fuel and construction cost have increased rapidly. Working at home seems attractive to both companies and employees to save money by reducing office expenses. Being away from managers or stressful atmosphere that occurs at workplace improves productivity and makes workers happier. Happier workers comprise happier families and happier families make up happier society. Telecommuting is not appropriate for all rank of employees - just for the qualified staff -. Therefore, it promotes the productivity and the proficiency. Moreover, telecommuting promotes fewer cars in the traffic. Therefore, carbon dioxide emission, the rate of car accident, consumption of fuel, and traffic density on the roads will be decline. The objective of telecommuting is to make life simplifier. I strongly believe as well as many governments and agent that telecommuting should become widespread.

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