Yesterday I met with the work/life coordinator at my employer and continued to encourage telecommuting. I’m building the call to action for our website; now the challenge is to work this through the required approvals. It still feels like I keep hearing that telecommuting is a privilege for specific persons in specific roles, not an entitlement. I don’t want to imply that this is a solution for every job, but certainly I want to do more to encourage those that can adopt this practice to embrace it where possible and get those cars off the road.
Sometimes this starts to feel like a generational change, and part of the fight to keep women in the workforce. Because I’m younger than the average at my company, am I coming off like the gen-X/gen-Y slacker who doesn’t want to drive in? Or are people assuming that because I have small children I’m not taking my career seriously? Well, if no one tries, the status quo will remain. I’d love to continue to hear how this culture change happened at other companies, though. As I walk in with all my details of what other companies are doing, the knee-jerk reaction seems to be for people to dismiss it, saying, well, that company is really in a different market…but that isn’t my point. If any corporation can figure out a way to embrace the high tech options to incrementally help the environment and city pollution, we can all figure out ways to change practices.
2 responses so far ↓
Donna // Apr 7, 2008 at 5:27 pm
You are right on! You are not a slacker but a wise, informed world citizen, willing and able to get off the commuter-track, which leads to more traffic, congestion, carbon emissions. In other words, the old way of doing things, which will not work to stem climate change and congestion problems. You go, girl!
Paula G // Apr 30, 2008 at 5:15 pm
You are right! And even in organizations where you are allowed to telecommute, often it is “at manager’s discretion” which means you are left to the whims of the person you report to. Depending on their take on telecommuting or management style (results oriented — sure telecommute! or micromanager - I need to keep my eye on you)…will determine your degree of success.
Keep pushing the envelope — it is worth it personally and for all.
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