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Do long commutes, rumors of corporate downsizing, office politics, noisy cubicles, inadequate child-care options, and lack of a peaceful place to work get you down? Do you dream of working on your back deck instead of the back office? Have you always wanted to work from home, but couldn't figure out how? Then consider telecommuting.
Every day in America, millions start their workday by walking down their hallway from bedroom to office and logging on to go to work. Total commute time: one minute.
The typical teleworker in the U.S. is male, in his forties, and married, according to the International Telework Association, an organization that surveys this group annually. An estimated 17 million teleworkers work from home at least once a month. A much larger number (29 million in 1999) are "day-extenders," catching up on reading, e-mail and other tasks from home instead of staying longer at the office. Some 8 million are full-timers, and work remotely all the time. Of those workers who don't currently telework, 39% would like to.
Though males outnumber females almost two to one, telework is a great work option for women. A flexible work schedule allows a working parent to participate in their children's school activities, provides freedom from stressful and long commutes, and creates a peaceful work environment far from the constant interruptions of the office. It also frees up time to spend with family or friends or community life, is a great help for parents of teens and invaluable for those who care for elderly parents at home.
This workstyle goes by many names-telecommuting, remote freelancing, eworking, teleworking, distance contracting, virtual temping, elancing-but whatever it's called, the common element is working from a distance.
Variety of Jobs
Teleworkers range from home-based traditional telecommuting to never-in-the-office, virtual-office situations. Here's a sampler of some of the women who telecommute:
- Nancy. A nuclear engineer at a power generating station in Arizona, Nancy checks into the plant in minutes by riding her modem to work, avoiding a car commute of over 80 miles one way.
- Kate. Living in a rural area of North Dakota, where high-tech jobs are rare, Kate finds work on the Internet. She provides secretarial and administrative services as a virtual assistant. Kate works for four clients, each requiring from 4 to 8 hours of her time each week.
- Estelle. A human relations manager for a health-care firm in Petaluma, California, Estelle drives to a telework center just minutes from her home and saves 20 hours a week that she used to spend on clogged Northern California freeways.
- Margot. A manager of a global team for a communications company, Margot works from her home in Atlanta, Georgia two or three times a week. Her staff is located on both coasts of the U.S. as well as Latin America and Europe.
- Diane, the CEO of a virtual women's clothing company, runs her organization from her loft in New York City. With key employees living as far away as Milan, she decided to let her staff stay where they liked to live and telecommute to work.
- Tracey. An auditor for the State of California, Tracey lives across the border in Nevada and works out of her home office full-time. She sees her manager about twice a year at meetings in Sacramento.
- Lin, A customer service representative for a travel reservation agency in upstate Washington, Lin is a full-timer too. After working at her company for a year, she qualified to work from home and signs on to her company's network to handle customer calls remotely.
- Jane. We hear that Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift will soon be doing her job from home as well. She's expecting twins, and her home is 2 1/2 hours from the statehouse.
Popular Workstyle
Telecommuting is the biggest workplace trend in the U.S., according to a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an international outplacement firm. Private and public organizations have adopted telecommuting as a sound business strategy. There are a variety of reasons for telecommuting's rapid growth: global competition, the demand for 24-hour customer support, technological improvements, workers' desire for increased flexibility, and the need to reduce overhead.
As more and more employees are looking for worklife flexibility, they're requesting, and sometimes even demanding, telecommuting as part of their employment offer. Companies see telecommuting as a useful recruiting tool in a tight labor market and as a way to reduce personnel churn.
The high cost of real estate is another major growth factor. Since real estate represents about 20 percent of a corporation's total assets, reducing the amount needed has major impact on the bottom line. Companies with telecommuting programs report saving as much as 30 percent in reduced overhead expenses.
Productivity improvements also drive telecommuting growth. Telecommuters are 10 percent to 30 percent more productive than they would be in the corporate office, according to a report published by Cornell University's International Workplace Studies. Less stress, longer hours worked, and fewer interruptions cause such productivity gains.
Companies with telecommuting employees report one or two days less absenteeism per remote employee per year. Teleworking is proven to decrease sick days, days lost to child-care emergencies and time taken for doctor appointments. Simply reducing the average employee absentee rate by one day a year can mean adding one or two points to a company's profit margin, according to studies released by CIGNA corporation.
It's clear that telework makes sense for the organization and for the employee too.
What You Can Do
To find a job that may allow you to telecommute, assess your skills and look for work that matches your expertise. Once you're hired, learn the ropes, build a trust level, and then suggest occasional work at home. If you have the appropriate skills, you can find a telecommutable job, but the company may not allow full-time telecommuting or may require that you spend anywhere from three months to a year in onsite training before you can work from home.
Note: If you are interested in learning more about telecommuting, please stop by this section often. We'll be posting answers to questions, helpful resources, and links to other sites with information about telework jobs.
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June Langhoff is a nationally recognized eworking expert and the author of The Telecommuter's Advisor: Real World Solutions for Remote Workers. Langhoff, a telecommuter herself, writes about the portable workplace for a number of national publications, websites and ezines. Her Telecommuting Resource Center (www.langhoff.com) provides loads of advice for people who want to get started telecommuting plus tips for people who already work outside the office.
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How to get June's book.
The Telecommuter's Advisor: Real World Solutions for Remote Workers is the textbook for remote workers everywhere. It provides a roadmap for working from any remote location-home office, airplane, train station, hotel room, traffic jam or waiting room. Chapters include Setting up Your Home Office, Coping with E-mail, Staying Productive, Working on the Road, Working Together, Safeguarding Your Work, Troubleshooting, and more. The book is available at local bookstores or you can order it through Amazon.com's convenient website. Over 110,000 copies sold.
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