Telecommuting In The Workplace : Rough Draft

Thirty-eight percent of Americans report some tension between their work and home lives. Today’s highly publicized work/life balance conflicts are multiple, and their nature differs significantly depending on the jobs individuals have and on their family situations. Tensions between work and family life clearly have implications for the well-being of individuals and their children and ramifications for society in general. Yet because the personal needs, desires, motivations, and economic circumstances of Americans are so varied, there appears to be no single way to resolve these tensions, no universal best practices with regard to work/life balance. For example,

In mid-sized companies such as Q-tel, telecommuting is much more frequently used than work in office. According

Telecommuting has been shown to reduce absenteeism, improve retention, and reduce recruitment costs for the organization (Family, pg. 730). Increased employee moral is also a benefit associated with telecommuting (Professional Isolation, pg. 512). Offering this new benefit that is such a satisfier for employees will likely result in reduced turnover within the organization and higher productivity. A study found pubic employees who were satisfied with their telework/telecommuting benefits were less likely to leave their positions (Family pg. 732). With the reduction of office time, an increase in employee productivity is likely due to fewer interruptions from fellow employees (Lessons pg. 10). With telecommuting having benefits to both the employer and employee, this new policy should bring positive results to the

Employers allow telecommuting for many reasons, including the ability to recruit better talent, decrease overhead expenses, increase productivity, expand the employee base to include those with disabilities (Anderson, Bricout & West, 2001; Lipin, 2010; Myungjung & So Hee, 2017), and to support

“This remote work may be something we should be doing more of, according to two new studies. Working from home can be good for your health and productivity. Not only did people who worked from home report greater work satisfaction and less “work exhaustion,” they also got better sleep. Separately, researchers found that the highest performing workers were the most likely to cultivate and excel in a “WFH” environment (Gregoire, 2015)”. If workers don't prefer to work at home they are more than welcome to continue working at the main workplace. The company will give each employee the opportunity to try working from home in order to have more space at the main work

In the 1990s Telecommuting became popular. (“Wikipedia”, n.d., para.1) It allowed a way for employers to have workers that still accomplished the day to day task necessary to run a business and also allowed employee’s to work without traveling into a dedicate office building or store. In today’s society, I have noticed that there are more job posting for software developers in the United States that offer working remotely versus working at an office building. The purpose of the dissertation is to find out the habits and work ethics of successful remote workers so that a hiring manager could target those traits while interviewing potential candidates for telecommuting work.

On the Quickbase.Intuit.com website, Anita Bruzzese writes about 7 Mistakes Managers Make When Managing Remote Workers and quotes FlexJobs CEO Sara Sutton Fell, “those who are proactive communicators and are self-disciplined may thrive in a remote location and see it as a reward for their performance.” Bruzzese adds “Many employees are already telecommuting with the amount of time they spend taking care of business at home.” Again we see technology has evolved and created easier environments for completing tasks. Why wait eight hours to forward an email that needs to be seen by several people? Within a few minutes, using a smart phone, pertinent notes can be added and the information

Today’s fuel costs have put a great deal of pressure on the commuting employee and they are looking for ways to cut corners. An alternative for work commute trips is telecommuting. It is obvious that there is a tangible savings by the employee if they are able to work from their home. The employer is concerned and rightfully so that managing resources through telecommuting is more difficult than managing traditionally.

We know that balancing work and family life produces stress and guilt, not to mention the uncomfortable conviction that one day your child will cry to a therapist about how the babysitter nursed them through the chicken pox”(1). This quote is explaining how trying to balance work and family can cause stress, especially when children are involved. Children can effect parents at work and at home. Work can impact children needs and relationships between them and parents. In, “The Child’s View of Working Parents”, Daniels and Galinksy write, “Parents who have well work environments, who come home in a better mood and with more energy to invest in their children, have kids who fare better.

A revolution is spreading through the world of work because of changes in information, technology and communication. Information and technology has lessened the gaps between individuals and it is no longer necessary for people to be in close geographic location to enhance working capabilities. Telework means working at a distance and technology makes this possible. Teleworkers are defined as employees or contractors who work at least one day per month; they are also referred to as telecommuters. Research shows that teleworkers work nine days per month at home with three hours per week during normal business hours. Teleworkers seek to blend work responsibilities and personal benefits to enable them handle their work better and life responsibilities.

MedEx should roll out the telecommuting on a voluntary basis for employees with high performance evaluations. I feel this will show the employees the organization cares and has addressed their concerns based on the survey. If the telecommuting policy is implemented correctly, telecommuting can increase productivity and overall job satisfaction. If the policy is crafted to tied the privilege of telecommuting with positive performance evaluations, it will motivate employees to not lack off while working remotely. The option of telecommuting can work as a way to attract high performing top professional to the organization. Telecommuting should also reduce turnover and absences. Work life balance will always be a very important part of keeping

Past research indicated that characteristics of many jobs in conjunction with the workplace can negatively affect family life, while aspects of an employee's family situation can influence worker’s performance and behaviors toward work. This increased the incidence of stress and burnout leading to

MedEx has reported having a high employee turnover rate and based on the employee survey, there are a lot of employees that are not happy with their work commute, lack of parking downtown, and the challenge of balancing their personal life with their work responsibilities. Telecommuting is a great way for the employer to address all these employee concerns. The incentive of telecommuting would eliminate the commute time and parking associated with the commute, allow an employee a comfortable work setting, and offer a more flexible schedule allowing for employees to deal with personal issues when needed (Young, 1991). As you can see, telecommuting would benefit MedEx since it would improve the employee- employer relationship by promoting employee

* Everyone is not cut out to be a remote worker. People who are self-starters, savvy with the computer and do not have many distractions are prone to do well with a telecommuting job. When interviewing someone for this position. It should be emphasized that distractions will not be tolerated. Also employees should have a place that is dedicated for their office.

5. Anytime, anywhere, non-territorial offices- telecommuting employees now represent 11 percent of the workforce and the number increases annually 6. Increased emphasis on self-directed work groups and virtual teams- business teams are often run by cross functional teams of peers. You may become part of virtual team whose members are in remote locations who communicate almost exclusively electronically. 7. These trends mean that your writing skills will constantly be on display those who can write clear and concise messages contribute to efficient operations and can expect to be rewarded. 7.