Gas Shortage Leads to Bad Telecommuting
From the Eye on the Workforce Blog
by Joe Wynne
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As I write this many of my co-workers are planning to work at home tomorrow. Why? There's hardly any gas in town. Damage from Hurricane Ike has limited deliveries. No gas at most stations and at those long lines will finish up the gas before the weekend.
Telecommuting (at least some of the time) is becoming drastically more popular at companies,
prompted by recent high gas prices. In general, telecommuting is promoted as a company benefit . That approach allows telecommuting to be treated like other benefits which are not managed aggressively and can be eliminated at a moments notice.
If another approach is taken, success will be much more likely. That approach is to establish telecommuting as an ongoing program to promote work/life balance and to improve worker commitment and productivity. This approach necessitates training and monitoring for success. The other approach leads to wasted time.
Posted on: September 24, 2008 09:18 PM |
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Comments (2)
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 | Anonymous |
Yes, I would agree. The work environment is as much a part of work/life balance as are benefits. If more managers knew this and cared, perhaps they would be less willing to place workers in environments that are, by their very nature, counter-productive. For example, a writer friend just told me that his manager took him out of his office and placed him in what amounts to a beehive of activity and noise. He has to wear earplugs to drown out the commotion while he writes. His manager rationalized the move by telling him that it was more important to "be together." In spite of the fact that putting him there to begin with was a poor reflection on his manager's people skills and did nothing for his commitment and loyalty to the company, he struggles to work effectively. Now, with the manager's approval, he has started working from home two days a week just so he can produce something, anything. On the other hand, he wonders when his fickle manager will renege on his promise to let him work at home. Not a good situation, I would think. I hope my friend finds a way around this. If he doesn't, he plans to leave the department, finding a position elsewhere in the company.
It was hard to tell from your blog what your own feeling is about telecommuting. Are you for it or against it? What kind of training do you suggest? Would that be just for the telecommuter or for the manager or both? How would you "monitor" telecommuting? How could you ensure that this "monitoring" did not encompass mountains of records just so the telecommuter could prove he was working? Curious...
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