Telecommuting

For a huge number of people, telecommuting is a phenomenal idea. I’m 3 times as productive in summer when I teach from home than at any other time. (I actually calculated this with a timer, so there is no poetic exaggeration here.)

And people who can’t accept that telecommuting is the future for many of us are simply too stuck in the past to understand that time does not stand still. Companies that hope to remain competitive will need to start abandoning the ridiculous “9-5 in the cubicle” model. With the technology currently available, the need to see people physically present in that cubicle is not grounded in any practical considerations. Productivity gets sacrificed to flatter the employer’s feeling that s/he understands the changing reality of the world. And this is simply bad business.

10 thoughts on “Telecommuting

  1. You are highly motivated in a job that you enjoy. Most individuals fail in either one or in both of these characteristics. For them, telecommuting is akin to serious shirking, especially over the long haul. That is why telecumminicating will be limited to highly enjoyable occupations where output can be verified easily by the employer.

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    1. “That is why telecumminicating will be limited to highly enjoyable occupations where output can be verified easily by the employer.”

      – Output can be easily monitored in most professions. Who cares how many hours one works and where if one brings in money, clients, customers, etc.?

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  2. I’d be interested to a see a study on the results of telecommunications on productivity. I can believe it works for you, but we can’t rule out the possibility your case is an anomaly – you’re a pretty anomalous person in general (I mean that as a compliment!) Like charlesrowley said, you’re motivated to work anyhow, and not everyone enjoys their job as much as you do.

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    1. “you’re a pretty anomalous person in general”

      – This is the best compliment I could ever get. Thank you, my friend!

      “I’d be interested to a see a study on the results of telecommunications on productivity.”

      – There are many! And they all prove that letting employers organize their own schedules is HIGHLY BENEFICIAL to the workplace. People only resist this because they can’t get over their old-fashioned mentality.

      Click to access FWWB_Fall07.pdf

      http://asr.sagepub.com/content/76/2/265

      Click to access FWWB_Fall07.pdf

      http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2011/UR_CONTENT_316944.html

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  3. I wonder about our office. We definitely have clear groups of more motivated and less motivated workers in my age group. Our management team has struggled with figuring out ways to convince the less-motivated people to churn out more work. It seems that the increased monitoring may be making a slight difference, but personally I think if you ever pushed all those people to work more hours than they’re interested in, they will all just find another job at a different firm.
    I’m not sure how much these people would have increased/decreased motivation if they could telecommute.

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        1. Very true. . . Most people are not guided by concerns about profit at all and would gladly sacrifice profit to feed their psychological problems. This is why Marxism is dead.

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