MIAZ-POISK.com

Статья в американской газете USA TODAY поднимает вопрос о минусах телеработы для женщин. Во-первых, работая дома, они не могут отдохнуть ни от работы, ни от домашних дел. Во-вторых, наниматели, которые в среднем настроены к работающим женщинам менее доброжелательно, считая их менее надежными работниками, чем мужчины, охотно забывают о них, отправив их из офиса работать домой. В-третьих, ...

Telecommuting gets stuck in the slow lane

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY

	By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
	Sara Jane Whitman, 24, works at home and tends Isabella, 15 weeks old.

Cynthia Nelson had what sounded like the ideal work arrangement: an office just a few steps from her bedroom.

But she hated it. Sure, she could answer e-mail in her bathrobe and take 2-hour lunches on a whim. But she couldn't strike up impromptu chats with colleagues. She couldn't escape work, because her office was also her home. And she really couldn't handle the way her former employer left her feeling so out of sight, out of mind.

"They literally forgot about me. They put in this computer system and forgot to put me on the network," says Nelson, 30, of Gaithersburg, Md., who quit that public relations job. "It didn't work with them at all."

Mounting studies and new research suggest that telecommuting isn't living up to expectations.

Reports show employees who telecommute believe the arrangements actually hurt family life and career advancement. A number of supervisors are so fed up with telecommuting-related problems that they're revoking the arrangements.

Companies, such as AT&T, are seeing the number of telecommuting workers stagnate or even decline.

"Remember in the 1950s they said we'd all drive flying cars and work from home? Well, we're not there yet," says Steven MacLaughlin, chief knowledge officer at Indianapolis-based Expidant, an interactive services firm that has chosen not to use telecommuting. "You can't replace the need to solve a problem by working together, face to face. When you don't have that, it causes problems, and people are just starting to realize that."

Telecommuting hasn't grown at the clip many experts first predicted in the 1970s, according to the latest government statistics. There were 21 million workers in 1997 who did some work at home as part of their primary jobs, a number that grew by just 1.5 million since 1991, according to the Department of Labor.

That reflects only people who did work at home and not necessarily those who were involved in formal telecommuting arrangements for which they were paid. Only 3.6 million employees, or about 3.3% of all wage and salary workers, were paid in 1997 for working at home.

There are several reasons telecommuting hasn't become more widespread, experts say:

•Managers remain reluctant to adopt telecommuting, especially because the pace of change in today's workplace is faster, and teamwork is increasingly in vogue.

•Employees are reticent because they fear working outside the office will hurt career advancement, especially as the economy sours and job cuts mount.

•Employers are worried that letting workers telecommute will create security risks by creating more opportunities for computer hackers or equipment thieves.

•Instead of helping balance work and family, a number of telecommuters are reporting the arrangements actually increase strain by blurring the barriers between the office and home. Co-workers call at all hours, and telecommuters also are more apt to work on vacations or after regular business hours.

Not a quick fix

All of this is bad news to the politicians and business leaders who are increasingly hoping that telecommuting will be a quick fix for the country's traffic woes and an elixir for employees struggling with work and family demands.

It hasn't worked for the federal government, which hoped to set up telecommuting centers where employees could work remotely. Now the government is considering halting funding for all but one of the 16 centers around the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, according to a General Services Administration draft report.

By 1998, total funding for the centers had reached $11 million. But the program benefits fewer than 400 of the area's 350,000 federal employees.

Many of the other expectations about telecommuting have yet to come true.

Remember predictions that telecommuting would be increasingly in demand from workers? In reality, some companies aren't offering programs because workers don't want them. More than 60% of companies that lack a formal telecommuting program say that's because there's no employee demand, according to a survey by the American Management Association.

Remember predictions that telecommuting would be accepted by managers who saw it as a tool to boost productivity? In reality, many supervisors still aren't convinced. More than a quarter of supervisors polled say the arrangements can compromise job performance, according to a February 2001 study by Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing services firm OfficeTeam. Just 21% thought they were more productive.

And remember predictions that telecommuting would ease family and work stress? In reality, many employees who work from home are less satisfied with their ability to balance demands than are those who schlep to offices.

Just 46% of telecommuters say they're satisfied or very satisfied with their lives compared with about 60% of non-telecommuters who give their lives such strong marks. The research project by the Boston College's Center for Work & Family also found telecommuters are more likely to work on vacations. Managers and employees agree telecommuters are less likely to have positive relationships with coworkers and less likely to get the same salary increases as peers.

Telecommuters often feel as though they have to work more to prove they are being productive, says Leon Litchfield, who directed the study of 1,353 employees.

To be sure, many workers do value telecommuting, and some companies say they've reaped substantial savings through reduced turnover, increased productivity, and lower real estate costs. Some groups maintain that telecommuting is growing and will be the work arrangement of the future.

Barriers remain

But significant barriers remain. Supervisors continue to be reluctant to adopt telecommuting arrangements, even when unemployment rates are low.

Paul Higgins, CEO of Line56 in Los Angeles, opposes telecommuting at his business-to-business news commerce analysis firm.

"It's not the culture I want to create, and it's a fallacy that they're happier employees," says Higgins, who rejected one worker's request to telecommute once a week after having a child. "If you only want to work four days a week, I'd probably say 'OK.' But don't put it as: 'I want to just telecommute one day a week.' There's 17 other staff with kids under 3 who'd like to have time to play with their family, too."

Saama Technologies, a consulting firm based in San Jose, Calif., gave telecommuting a try but decided to discontinue the program.

"We tried to go that route with our salespeople, and it hasn't worked at all," says Lisa Leigh, corporate vice president. "They got more done when they came in. We found they weren't getting as much done" at home.

Among the reservations expressed by employers:

•Security. Employers worry that letting staffers work at home can open them up to hackers or equipment theft. A new survey by Arlington, Mass.-based Cutter Consortium, a consulting firm, found that only a small percentage of workplaces that allow telecommuting have employees who actually do it. More than half of employers said security concerns were a deterrent to implementing telecommuting arrangements.

•Costs. Cost efficiencies also can be lost when equipment or services are distributed across many locations instead of one central location. Setting up remote workstations can run into thousands of dollars for new computers, faxes, printers and the like.

•Lagging technology. Many telecommuters work in home offices where lack of high-speed Internet access makes remote work frustrating.

Consider AT&T. About 10% of managers work at home all the time, and 25% do it at least 1 day a week. That was a level of telecommuting that the communications giant had expected to reach far earlier in the 1990s, officials say, and now even that number has stalled. "Last year, we asked our people what they thought would change that," says spokesman Burke Stinson. "They said broadband communication and high-speed access."

Even unequivocal fans of telecommuting admit it can be harder than many non-telecommuters realize. Sara Jane Whitman, 24, just started working at home several days a week. She spends her time on the computer, as well as caring for her newborn, Isabella.

When Isabella coos

The problem? She never knows when Isabella may coo or start crying — the kind of distraction she never has to think about when working from her public relations' New York-based marketing office.

"I enjoy it, but phone calls can be a challenge," says Whitman, a senior account executive at PepperCom. "I can be on the phone with a client. You never know when she could start screaming."

And there is a strong belief among many senior executives that today's workplace, with its emphasis on teamwork and fast-paced change, isn't conducive to telecommuting unless there is a compelling business need.

As senior vice president of CardinalCommerce, a Cleveland-based authentication platform provider, Kendall Myles says telecommuting just doesn't work at his company.

"There's a certain esprit de corps you develop working together," says Myles, senior vice president. "It's difficult to celebrate when you get that big order if everyone's not together."

---

Добавить в закладки:

Понравилась заметка? Подпишитесь на новости портала!