Telecommuting: Transforming the Industry

Telecommuting:  Transforming the Industry

Samantha Lewis

ENG 122: English Composition II

Instructor Wilson

February 7, 2016

Telecommuting:  Transforming the Industry

        Another day, another dollar.  While most workers start their day getting ready by taking showers, ironing their suits and starting their cars, telecommuters live a very different reality.  Workers with the option to work from home, often referred to as telecommuters, have the luxury of getting out of bed, making coffee, and walking into whatever room of their home they please to start their work day.  As with anything in life, telecommuting has its upsides and its downs.  In this case, the good outweigh the bad, and it can be said that telecommuting is the way of the future for the office business industry.  The technology to telecommute is available for most, if not all, computer based types of businesses, and it is up to the company executives to see the advantages of telecommuting.  These advantages are benefits for not only the company, but for the workers as well.  There has been an increase in companies choosing to have workers telecommute in recent years, signaling that there may be a change in the mindset of new up and coming executives.  With the practice of telecommuting becoming a more and more popular choice among employers and employees, positive outcomes such as increased productivity, better work-life balance, and even significant environmental improvements are becoming more evident.

A proven advantage of telecommuting is sustainable increased productivity from those who choose, or have the option, to work from home.  In a study done at Georgia Southern University, productivity was shown to increase productivity at sustainable levels (Butler, Aashieim & Williams, 2007, pg. 4).  This research shows that working from home does not necessarily lead to increased instances of employees “goofing off on the clock.”  This study indicates that employees working from home are working hard, if not harder, than their in officer counterparts.  It can also be said that “telecommuting is also associated with significantly lower work-role stress” (Allen, Golden & Shockley (2015).  Lower stress felt by workers can have an uplifting effect on the way a employees feels about their employment situation.  It is hard to be enthusiastic about your work if you are, more often than not, under stress in regards to your employment.  Additional reasons for this increased productivity may be due to a decrease in distractions, relief from office politics and the need to show that the option to work from home is not being taken for granted.  

        Opponents to telecommuting claim that distractions can and will lead to a decrease in productivity.  Distractions are everywhere, and it is impossible to remain free from all of them.  It is not fair to say that telecommuting employees face more distractions than in-office employees.  Some telecommuting specific distractions may include “housework creep and hidden costs.  Housework creep means that the employees who work from home may find that their household responsibilities increase” (Matos & Galinsky, 2015).  Household creep can potentially be a real problem for employers.  For this reason, deciding if current in-office workers, or new on-boarding employees, would be good candidates for telecommuting, it is important to know about the worker’s home life.  As with any employee, work performance is critical.  Whether in office, or telecommuting, setting standards for workers productivity levels, is crucial to any well-functioning business.  If a telecommuting employee is not showing signs of sustained, or increased, productivity, it is the responsibility of the business to look into the reason for this.  While some may see “household creep” as a distraction, others may view this as more time in the worker’s day to get regular household obligations done, and in turn, leading to a more balanced home and work life.        

Telecommuting offers a better work-life balance that today’s employees are more interested in achieving.  More and more people now understand that there is an option to work from home, and this option is very appealing to many.  Telecommuting is seen as “particularly effective for those individuals who need to consider family arrangements, for ill-health, or to reduce commuting time to provide time for other activities” (Grant, Wallace & Spurgeon, 2013).  Having the option to work from a home environment provides some workers with family obligations to attend to both work and family life.  This can include anyone from new parents to individuals needing to take care of aging parents.  Additionally, workers with health problems can now be afforded the opportunity to work from home, as opposed to having to quit their jobs and go on government assistance.  This also goes for people getting surgery who are not necessarily unable to work, only unable to physically come into the office for a period of time.  Working from home also allows for more non-work related activities such as attending a school function for a child, or even just grocery shopping.  Additionally, “        For some individuals remote working has provided a release from the restrictions of office based hours” (Grant, Wallace & Spurgeon, 2013).  Some people find it easier to work from the hours of 4:00 AM to 12:00 PM opposed to the traditional 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Telecommuting affords these individuals the freedom to do this, or even possibly, break up their work day to allow for non-work related activities in the day.

Adversaries to the practice of telecommuting take a stand that working from home does not necessarily create an instantly better work-life balance for the worker.  One reason for this may be due to “boundary management concerns associated with telecommuting that make it an unattractive work option for some employees” (Koh, Allen & Zafar, 2013).  Mixing work and home can be a delicate task.  Making sure that all members of the household know the boundaries is vital to telecommuting success.  It is not conducive to a workers employment to have various family members disrupting the work-flow.  Having a separate space that is designated strictly for working from home is one of the key ingredients to successfully telecommuting.  Having all household members understand that a workspace is separate from the home areas can almost instantly provide boundary management some new telecommuters may be concerned about.  Having the separate work space can make a home-based worker feel as if he or she is at the office, without the actual act of having to drive to the office.