Should Teleworking be an option in every office?

Question

Could we work from home with ease rather than sitting in traffic, wasting our gas, & loosing our patience trying to get to the office?

Answer 1

I really don't see why anyone in an office type position cannot do their work from home or at least partially from home. Like come in a couple days a week and work from home the rest. The only ones who could not do that would be people dealing with customers and some phone type jobs. The myth with employers is that a person won't do their work while at home, but that is stupid reasoning. If someone does not do their work, you get someone that will. As long as someone gets their job done, it should not matter where they are doing it.

Answer 2

It is not always an option.

I am a telecommuter. In my case I am a web programmer so in order to do my job all I need is a laptop and an internet connection. I can work at the office, at Starbucks or at my home office and my work quality does not drop, since everything I need is either in the laptop or I can grab it over the net. At home I have VoiP, on the road I have a cell phone and I forward my VoIP to it, so people calling my work line have no clue where I am at the time, yet I always answer the phone immediately.

People that spend all day on the phone or in front of a computer, with no need for face to face interaction are the perfect candidates for telecommuting. Project managers do very well with this, since they spend their days on the phone too.

You are correct about the savings, it is very true. Lots of people burn a lot of gas to do a job they could do from home. This is why some localities are starting to offer incentives to employers that support telecommuting. For example, tax breaks, and satellite offices where people can go to work for a day, so they can drive for 10-15 minutes instead of an hour. You drive to that office, pick a desk and program your desk phone so it takes your forwarded calls.

Answer 3

I've been seeing more and more jobs pop up that they're allowed telecommuting. So maybe one day we'll be able to do that instead of the hassle of getting to and from work, wasting gas, etc. I've read that some businesses prefer that because it saves on their expenses, such as heat/air, cleaning up. But there are also some businesses where it's virtually impossible, and you need to be in the business every day.

Answer 4

For jobs where telecommuting is reasonable, can be a real good idea - saves money for both employer and employee. And who wouldn't like to work sometimes in their jammies?

Telecommuting only works well for jobs that don't require face-to-face contact, and where the work done can be easily evaluated so the employer knows the employee is actually working - not trying to sound cynical, but that can be a major issue.