Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently announced that she was eliminating telecommuting as an option for more than 11,500 of her underlings. Many in the industry question her motives. After all, telecommuting technology is beyond mature. The fact remains however, that many organizations, large and small, wrestle with this issue. Should telecommuting be allowed, and if so, to what degree?
To many the Mayer announcement really came as no big surprise. At Google, where Mayer made her bones, telecommuting is frowned upon. In fact, Google goes the other way and provides many on-site perks to keep employees happy while they are in the office. Even though tech behemoths like Google and now Yahoo look down on telecommuting, many other organizations, both high-tech and traditional, continue to promote the concept of working remotely.
Telecommuting has been utilized for several years now, so its benefits have been vetted fairly well. From an employee perspective, the elimination of commuting is first and foremost among its benefits. Ex-commuters in Mililani or Kapolei save a couple of hours of day by not sitting in traffic. That time can be put to more productive use. Employers like the idea of smaller, cheaper office space.
One of the main complaints about telecommuting is that it reduces collaboration among workers. This is one of Mayer’s main complaints. In a creative environment, working with others can be severely restricted when your forms of communication are telephone, instant messaging and email. Let’s face it, when put in this situation, most folks tend to email first, as it is the easiest method. It can also be a very slow method.
Other folks bemoan the loss of the social interaction. While many of us like to complain about our co-workers, the fact of the matter is that the office is the main source of human interface for a lot of folks. Further, face-to-face interaction helps eliminate some passive-aggressive behavior patterns seen since the advent of email.
Opponents of telecommuting often say it leads to goofing off. The fact is, a lazy worker is going to fool around at the office just as much as he or she would at home.
I believe that the best solution for telecommuting is a hybrid approach. Folks should be allowed to work at home a couple of days a week but not 100 percent of the time. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, but a hybrid approach gets you most of the best of both worlds.
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John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 20 years of information technology experience. Reach him at johnagsalud@yahoo.com.
