The End of the Steady and Predictable Increase in Telecommuting?
Say it isn’t so. What with broadband, WiFi and all manner of mobile commuting why would the telecommuting trend end? Sue Shellenbarger addresses this very question in a recent column.
The call came toward the end of my hour as a recent guest on a Minnesota Public Radio talk show. “Jim from Minneapolis” said he and many of his telecommuting colleagues were being called back to the office.
After years of working productively from home, Jim said he was surprised and disappointed.
Although working from home has been expanding steadily, some chinks are appearing in the trend. A few big promoters of home-based and mobile-office work arrangements, including AT&T, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and parts of the federal government, have called some home-based workers back to the office, causing some to quit. The callbacks are small and don’t reflect a full retrenchment, but the factors at work — a push to consolidate operations, and the notion that teamwork improves when people work face-to-face — suggest other employers might follow suit as recession clouds loom.
The article continues.
Broadband Reports also discusses this new trend of companies calling workers back to the office.
Shellenbarger’s offers tips for retaining your telecommuting job.
• Perform well. In explaining the callbacks at Hewlett-Packard, Chief Information Officer Randy Mott said last year that telecommuting “had gotten applied more broadly than really made sense,” and would be limited to “people who are proficient and who’ve shown they can perform over time.” Make sure measurable objectives are set for your job, then meet them.
• Increase your visibility. One behavior sure to irk managers is to use work-at-home freedom to move to a location so remote, such as Hawaii, that travel costs soar. Although Intel disputes the assertion, people familiar with the callbacks there cite such abuses as a factor. Wherever you’re located, find ways to remain visible.
• Make an effort to collaborate. Elliott Masie, head of the Masie Center, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y., research organization, says many younger managers are comfortable collaborating online. But as pressures mount, older managers may revert to the notion that to build teamwork, “it’s important for everybody to sit around and sing ‘Kumbaya’ together,” he says. It may be wise to join that chorus.
Special offer: Get a FREE Work-at-Home Success Kit worth $50 when you sign up to find hundreds of freelance jobs.
There are some legitimate issues with telecommuting that keep many people from embracing this very fuel efficient way of getting to work. This does not mean that telecommuting does not work. It just needs to be altered in order to gain acceptance among some employees and employers.
Telecommuting 2.0 calls for the use of Remote Office Centers to provide workers with all of the facilities that are normally available in a corporate office – but from a location near where they live. Remote Office Centers lease out offices to individuals from multiple companies in a shared telecommuting center conveniently located around populations centers, so that commutes are never more than a mile or two each way. Remote Office Centers provide: professional grade internet access, a professional phone system, a mail stop, security, and a real office. Centers are owned and managed by commercial leasing companies that specialize in services needed by remote workers. Workers can search for and find remote office centers using a free search engine available at: http://www.remoteofficecenters.com
For some workers, there is no better work environment than a home office. Others have needs that can best be served by a remote office center. The main goal is to cut out long and wasteful commutes that drain bank accounts and put a strain on the economy.
Telecommuting and traditional office environments can be combined to form a compromise that draws from the best of both worlds – Telecommuting 2.0.