PROFFESSIONAL ISSUES 1. 2. 3. 4.

due on March 12th, 2012

Information technology leads to unemployment discuss. Is home working and telecommuting possible or not possible currently. Does information Technology use lead to deskilling? Explain. a) b) Are there health and safety issues in information Technology? What are the measures employers need to take to curb health and safety issues in work place.

Answers question 2: Helping employees balance work and non-work responsibilities has been a growing concern of corporations for more than twenty years. The interest in work-life balance issues began in the 1980s as more women entered the workplace and focused primarily on helping employees balance work and family responsibilities by offering family-friendly benefits. Telecommuting is a practice in which an employee works at a locationusually, but not always, one's homethat is remote from the actual business facility at which he/she is employed. Under this arrangement, the employee maintains close contact with coworkers and supervisors via various forms of computer, Internet, and communication technology (i.e, electronic mail, telephone, computer disks, etc.) Telecommuting is an increasingly popular work option in many businesses and industries, and its usage is expected to increase in the future, boosted by new innovations in computer and communication technology. This trend is driven by several factors. Linda Shaw, author of Telecommute! Go to Work without Leaving Home, wrote that "the labor pool of employees with specific talents will shrink, making employers more willing to make concessions to keep valued employees happy. Demand of specialized labor. A smaller labor pool combined with an increasing demand for highly skilled laborers has fueled employee-driven change in working environments. Scarce, highly skilled workers have begun to demand more flexible work arrangements, especially as they choose to live farther and farther from their employers." Demographic changes within the employees work force as a factor in the growth of telecommuting. Analysts 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 is touted as a key factor in making telecommuting an attractive benefit. Finally, new technologies have made working from home a viable alternative. With the advent of high speed modems, fax machines, voice mail, powerful personal computers, electronic mail and the like, workers can now perform their jobs without losing touch with employers and customers. ADVANTAGES OF TELECOMMUTING Both employers and employees have found telecommuting to be a mutually beneficial arrangement in many instances. Proponents cite several positive factors in particular: Happier employees. Telecommuting arrangements can help workers realize a general improvement in their personal "quality of life." They avoid long, stressful commutes, thus gaining more time for pleasurable activities and more flexibility for changeable tasks like child and elder care. Increased retention of valued employees. Many businesses lose workers when those employees undergo significant life changes, such as starting a family or relocating to another region or state because of a spouse's career. Telecommuting is one way in which a business may be able to continue to utilize the services of an otherwise unavailable worker. It is also touted as a tool that permits workers to minimize use of "personal days" in instances where they have to stay home and care for a sick child, etc.

Increased employee productivity. Business studies evidence both suggest that employees are often much more productive at home, where "drop-in" interruptions and meetings are not distractions. Instead, the teleworker can focus on the job at hand. Of course, productivity at home is directly related to the employee's level of self-discipline and abilities. Cost savings. Businesses can often gain significant savings in facilities costs like office space and parking space requirements when staff members telecommute. Conserving Energy By telecommuting to work instead of using more conventional methods, there is a great potential to save energy. The three major areas where energy can be conserved are:

Vehicle-related materials and resources; Highway-related materials and resources; and Office-related materials and resources.
Preserves Our Environment by reducing land use requirements for highway expansion and by reducing slow-moving automobile emissions. Highways and parking lots are continuing to consume large quantities of our land surface area. If a larger percentage of people telecommuted to work, existing highways could be reduced in size and parking lots could be converted to parks. One of the largest sources of pollution is the automobile. This is especially true of slow-moving automobiles that often exist in heavy, congested rush hour traffic. Of course, one solution to this problem is increasing the size and number of our roads, but an even better solution is to encourage those who can to telecommute, so we will not need additional highways, parking lots, and airports in the future. And, when we do choose to drive our cars, it will be in fresh air, on less crowded streets, when we are not in a hurry to get somewhere. Promotes Safety by reducing highway use by people rushing to get to work. There are thousands of traffic-related deaths every year and thousands more people severely injured trying to get to work. In addition there is substantial property loss associated with traffic accidents that occur as people take chances in order to make the mad dash from home to the office. Often times people have made the trip so often that they are not really alert, often fall asleep and frequently become impatient by traffic jambs and slower travelers. More and more people are becoming frustrated by the insistence that they come into the office every day, when, in fact most, if not all of their work could be accomplished from their home or sites much closer to their home. Improves Health by reducing stress related to compromises made between Family and Work. The stress associated with commuting back and forth to work away from the home is real, and telecommuting offers a renewed opportunity for workers to rediscover the joys of working from their homes. This is a rediscovery, because centuries ago it was commonplace for "cottage industries" to exist where work was produced in ones home, often times incorporating the talents of the entire family in producing a product. With advanced telecommunications technology a large segment of our workers can return to this mode of "work-at-home" productivity not compromising either their Family living or their Job productivity.

There are however disadvantages associated with telecommuting. Some of these include: Lack of oversight. Direct supervision of teleworkers is not possible. Diminished productivity. Some people are unable to be productive in at-home work settings, either because of family distractions or their own limited capacity to focus on tasks when more pleasurable activities (bicycling, gardening, watching television, etc.) beckon. Security problems. The remote access needs of telecommuters and other mobile staff create a hole in security walls with every connection Isolation. The freedom of working alone comes with a pricethe burden of solitude," commented one executive in Association Management. "We all have wished for days where people would just leave us alone, and with telework, we

get our wishin spades." Partial teleworking arrangements, in which the employee spends a portion of each week (1-3 days) in the office and the remainder working from home, can sometimes be an effective means of addressing this problem. Erosion of company culture and/or departmental morale. Many businesses include certain employees who have a major positive impact on the prevailing office environment. When these employees enter into telecommuting programs, their absence is often deeply felt by the staff members left behind. In some cases, this departure from the company's everyday operations can even have a deleterious effect on the operation's overall culture. Loss of "brainstorming" ability.The informal bouncing around of ideas is difficult, or even impossible, without the face-to-face contact of a shared workplace." Perceived damage to career. A common perception among employees of businesses that embrace teleworking options is that telecommuters are placed at a disadvantage in terms of career advancement and opportunity. Certainly, some professional avenuessuch as supervisor positionsmay be shut off to workers who want to continue telecommuting, but employers should make every effort to avoid an "out of sight, out of mind" perspective from taking shape. Legal vulnerability. Some analysts have expressed concern that some employer liability issues regarding telecommuting practices have yet to be completely settled. They cite issues such as employer liability for home-office accidents under common law; applicability of the employer's insurance coverage when they work at home; and responsibility for equipment located in the home as particular concerns. Therefore home working and telecommuting is possible given the above factors. The advantages and disadvantages of the same have also been considered. References:

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