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by Reid Goldsborough
Imagine the perfect job. You rise in the morning not when the alarm sounds but when your body tells you its time to get up. You set your own schedule and work at your own pace, seamlessly managing childcare and other home duties. You take responsibility for your output, with nobody staring over your shoulder.
This is the ideal for telecommuters, employees who work at home, freed from tyranny of traffic and the pettiness of office politics by advances in telecommunications and computer technology.
With unemployment low and good employees harder than ever to hold onto, it's not surprising that telecommuting, also called teleworking, is growing in popularity. A recent survey by the William Olsten Center for Workforces Strategies found that 51 percent of North Americans companies permit some form of telecommuting, an increase of nearly 10 percent from a year ago.
Employers can benefit from telecommuting as well as the employee through a reduction in office space requirements and expenses. And everybody profits from decreased traffic, noise, and air pollution.
Telecommuting isn’t right for everyone, however, and even when it’s right for you or an employee you supervise, it’s not necessarily a panacea. There are precautions you should keep in mind before setting up an office away from the office.
“Telecommuting works best with employees who are already high performers,” says Ann Tiefenthaler, a customer service manager for Morristown, N.J.-based AlliedSignal. The company, active in the aerospace, automotive, and chemical industries, has a history of allowing employees to telecommute, and Tiefenthaler recently set up a telecommuting program for one of the 18 employees she supervises, who had a new baby.
Everything is more challenging in a home environment, says Tiefenthaler. Employees have to be able to work independently, since it’s more difficult to ask questions and get support, despite advance in technology.
The most important step a supervisor can take to promote the success of a telecommuting program, she says, is to thoroughly discuss and agree on goals and expectations for the employee beforehand. AlliedSignal uses a series of questionnaires that both employees and supervisors fill out. The questionnaires detail such things as the hours that will be worked, the specific work activities, the childcare situation at home, the equipment and other support services the company will provide, the expenses that will be reimbursed, and how the employee’s performance will be measured.
A common concern among mangers is that employees will slack off at home. Interestingly, most studies indicate that employees’ productivity increase when they telecommute compared with working on company premises. A U.S. Agriculture Department study showed that the quantity and quality of the work at home at least several days each week was higher on average then employees that work entirely in the office. A study of California state employees revealed that two-thirds of managers felt their telecommuting employees were more effective than those who didn’t telecommute.
Distractions at home don’t bother Lynne Leiberman, a computer programmer who telecommutes for Reed Technology and Information Services of Horsham, Pa. “I like what I do. I’m never tempted to, say, clean the bathroom instead of working.”
Some telecommuters have reported that they miss the in-the-flesh, carnaraderie and the water cooler chitchat they enjoyed when working in the office. Some also have complained that the distinction between work time and personal time becomes blurred at home, causing then to work more hours than if they stayed in the office.
Lieberman has avoided these problems by telecommuting three days a week and physically commuting to the office the other two days and by keeping to a regular work schedule. When working at home, she starts the day at 7 a.m. sharp and most days finishes by 3:30 or 4:00 p.m.
To keep the lines of communication open with others in her workgroup, though, she’s made clear that it’s okay for them to phone or e-mail her after her normal work hours.
Lieberman says her supervisor was supportive when she asked to telecommute after she and her husband bought a new house an hour and fifteen minutes from her office. “He’s interested in using the latest management techniques,” she says. Other supervisors may require some persuading. Tricks here include describing how companies similar to yours are benefiting from this and suggesting a one-month pilot program to start.
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Last updated October 29, 2007