Recently a senior executive I interviewed went on a long spiel about a study that showed telecommuting could cause job dissatisfaction among the employees not telecommuting. The idea he stressed was that employees don’t like feeling that they’re covering for other employees and having all of their meetings pushed onto a certain day when the telecommuters are in the office.
I think this sounds like a study based on a poorly managed telecommuting program. The study the executive referred is the one by Timothy Golden examining 240 employees at a single company. Certainly including other companies in the study could provide different results, but either way, telecommuters should strive to make it seem as if they are one row away in the office, even when working from home. Companies must support this through fast connections and possibly cool Cisco webcam setups, but the meetings should not be pushed onto one day and shouldn’t require drives into the office to be effective.
Overall, though, the comments reminded me of an old joke:
Three men were trapped on a desert island. One day a bottle washed onto the shore and when opened, out came a Genie who said: “I will grant you three wishes for freeing me from the bottle.” The first man immediately wished he was home, and *poof*, he was gone. The second man also wished he was home, and *poof* he was gone. The third man looked around for a little while and said, “Man it’s lonely here without the other two guys. I wish they were back.”
My point is that just because some people want to be in the office surrounded by colleagues, it doesn’t mean telecommuting programs should be cut. The telecommuting programs must be managed effectively to minimize disruptions to the normal workflow.
2 responses so far ↓
Chuck Wilsker // Jun 8, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Validity of Conclusions in Research Findings Questioned by Telework Coalition
After reviewing the Study “Telecommuting May Harm Workers Left Behind in the Office” conducted by Timothy Golden, associate professor in the Lally School of Management & Technology at Rensselaer, we question the validity of his research and quite frankly are surprised that it was released. Drawing conclusions on a study based on “a couple hundred people from a single company”, may say more about that company’s policies and procedures, or lack thereof, than teleworking. How can anyone perform a study with his only source of data being one medium size company and imply that his conclusions are valid for any other organization?
In 2006 we, The Telework Coalition, conducted a Telework Benchmarking study of 13 large organizations with mature telework programs. In it we asked about the attitudes of those employees who did not telework. Both our study and two previously conducted studies by other organizations in which there were multiple participants showed that the non teleworking coworkers were both enthusiastically supportive and felt teleworking was good for the organization, or at the least, the situation was a non issue.
In Mr. Golden’s study none of the distributed work program’s many benefits are measured, compared, or contrasted with the grumblings from ‘those left behind’. We have seen more employers concerned with transit strikes, the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, terrorism, recruiting and retention issues, rising gas prices, faltering transportation infrastructures, the environment, etc. than the negatives alluded to by Mr. Golden.
Were there no positives in this company’s telework program? Was there top-level support, written policies and procedures, and processes, selection criteria based on the employee and job, a communication plan (so everyone is the “loop”), training, and program evaluation (to identify/resolve any start up issues). Did this company follow these steps?
So many questions, and yet so few answers from Dr. Golden’s research.
The Telework Coalition
Washington, DC
http://www.TelCoa.org
Info@TelCoa.org
Turning my attention to the virtual workplace // Jun 19, 2008 at 5:08 pm
[…] another blog that discusses loneliness among those at home, resentment among those still in the offi… Not sure that last one applies to me, but maybe–how would I know? They’re not […]
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