Human Resources
The Benefits and Obstacles of Teleworking
It's Monday morning and the alarm goes off; you wake up, make yourself a cup of coffee and sit down in front of your computer to check e-mail and start your day at work. Missing from that sequence of events, a sequence that should sound familiar to most working Americans, is the 30 minute drive to the office. With the rapid advancements in technology, the downturn in the economy, skyrocketing gas prices and questionable status of the health of the environment, do the benefits of teleworking outweigh the concerns? For a great deal of employees, work can be done from almost anywhere. The space-time dimension, which requires that work be performed at the office at a certain time, no longer applies to many jobs (Crandall and Gao 2005). For a great deal of employers a large portion of their bottom line is spent on the rental and maintenance of their facilities.
Sonny Cornelius, official portrait from .
English: William H. Brown, chairman of EEOC
John H Powell Jr, chairman of EEOCThe socio-technical innovation that is teleworking works in harmony with the current ubiquitous information and communication technologies including but not limited to; e-shopping, e-dating and e-peer-networking. Seemingly there is no plausible reason for most employers to require their employees to physically be present while working. In this paper we will discuss the positives and negatives to teleworking, and the risks for the employee and the employer, associated with allowing employees to work away from the office.
Teleworking, also known as telecommuting is, in its most basic form working from home, or another location using computers and communication technology to communicate with the main office, supervisors, co-workers, and customers. Teleworking occurs when an employee is paid for work conducted at an alternative worksite, home or otherwise, resulting in a reduction in total commuting time. The emphasis being that; the office isn't...