SUMMER 2012 23

Workplace and Employment

By Kimberly Thompson
U
pwards of 2.9 million Americans
telecommute, according to research
cited in The State of Telework in
the U.S., a June 2011 report by Kate
Lister and Tom Harnish for Telework Re-
search Network, a consulting frm. That
might seem insignifcant out of an overall
workforce exceeding 140 million, as tallied
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But 85 of
the 100 Best Companies to Work For na-
tionwide this year with more than 1,000
employees include telecommuting as a
perk, data show from a February survey in
Fortune magazine. So did a comparable
number of top-ranked large businesses an-
nually back to 2007, per Fortune criteria.
Also, telecommuting soared 61 percent
between 2005 and 2009, and based on
current trends, with no growth acceleration,
regular telecommuters will total 4.9 million
by 2016, a 69 percent increase from the
current level but well below other fore-
casts, estimates The State of Telework in
the U.S. No wonder that of 10 Workplace
Trends to Watch in 2012, an article by Mi-
chelle V. Rafter posted on Entrepreneur.com
in February, telecommuting places second.
What explains this development?
Companies are offering telecommuting as
a way to give employees more fexible
schedules and in some cases make up for
not offering bigger raises, but also to curb
offce space expenses, Rafter summariz-
es. Obvious causes: the recent recession
and the eco-friendly movement.
Who utilizes telecommuting? The State
of Telework in the U.S. breaks down the
fgures as follows: private for-profts at
2.2 million-plus telecommuters or 76 percent;
local, state and federal governments at
roughly 405,000 combined (113,000,
138,000, and 153,000 respectively) or
almost 14 percent; and private nonprofts at
about 300,000 or 10 percent. The typical
telecommuter is a 49-year-old, college-ed-
ucated, salaried, nonunion employee in a
management or professional role, earning
$58,000 a year at a company with more
than 100 employees, the study details.
Its easy to romanticize the popularity of
telecommuting. You dont have to drive (or
take public transportation) to and from
work, saving time, money, and energy all
the more satisfying on bad-weather days.
Your favorite foods and beverages are a few
feet away. You wear what you want and
groom yourself as you so choose. Your taste
in music, along with your preferred decibel
level, prevails. You decide when to take
breaks and what to do on them and in
some cases the very start and end of your
day. Your bathroom never has lines. And,
completely on your own in utter privacy,
you arent interrupted by chatty coworkers,
meddling bosses, or needy clients.
But telecommuting comes with its own
challenges and stresses. It requires, frst
and foremost, discipline. Temptations
loom, from surfng the Internet to taking a
nap to minding the kids. No one is around
to penalize or report you, or praise or help
you, as at an offce. Plus, your home
might not be set up for work as effectively
as a place of business is.
Loss of productivity from telecommuting
threatens in other ways. Standard offces
allow and demand social interaction,
even if theyre divided into networks of cubi-
cles. Face-to-face time with colleagues, supe-
riors and subordinates is important, both for-
mally (meetings, projects, emergencies) and
informally (via the supply closet, water cooler,
parking lot). Technology enables employees
to work virtually anywhere at any time, but
live exchanges often play a key role in job
success. Break room chats and impromptu
lets do lunch dont exist in a home offce,
and the inspiration, synergy, problem-solving
and camaraderie that bubble up at these times
and other moments might suffer.
So isolation can take its toll on telecom-
muters. And the very freedom from corpo-
rate life that telecommuting implies can
turn into a gaping hole that the telecom-
muter struggles to fll (resulting in bigger
problems, for the fumble of one usually
makes others stumble, too). Technology
leads to the assumption that instant infor-
mation substitutes for physical displace-
ment. But technology cannot replace the
human element that creates a sense of be-
longing to an offce culture.
Telecommuters, then, and employers,
must bring together home and offce
workers. Company and department events,
parties and outings unite personnel,
prompt people to get to know each other,
and foster bonding moments. Weekly
meetings that cover company updates, de-
partment news and individual questions
also tighten connections.
Here are other tips for telecommuters:
Designate a distinct work area.
Set a daily schedule and stick to it,
e.g., arrival, departure, lunch, breaks,
appointments, deadlines.
Minimize distractions.
Keep up appearances; look and act like
a professional.
Socialize in downtime; dont go stir-
crazy all alone.
Be active. Working at an offce requires
movement. Find comparable exertion to
going to and from vehicles, in and out
of buildings, up and down stairs, etc.
Its not clever psychological trickery.
Its having respect for the work you do,
wherever you do it, observes veteran tele-
commuter Kevin Purdy in How to Work
from Home Like You Mean It, an article
posted in January on FastCompany.com,
billed as a progressive business media
brand. He continues: working from home
doesnt have to change how you get work
done, but it does change nearly everything
else about your gig. n
Kimberly Thompson, a
National Board Certied
Counselor and Licensed
Professional Counselor
based in Houston, Texas, has
provided career transition
workshops and career
counseling for more than 20
years. She has coached all levels of management
in both the public and private sectors and
developed numerous career transition and career
services programs. Thompson has written widely
on issues dealing with job loss and contributes a
weekly column and blog called Career Rescue
for the Jobs section of the Houston Chronicle;
go online to blogs.chron.com/careerrescue/.
Purchase her Career Rescue app at iTunes. She
received a M.Ed. in counseling from University of
Missouri and a B.S.W. in social work from Harding
University. Email her at careerrescue@yahoo.com;
put Phi Kappa Phi Forum in the subject line.
Working through Telecommuting
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