Have you been following the conversation about telecommuting? Two recent moves by major corporations have turned the spotlight on this workplace scheduling practice — but not in a way you might expect. Both companies, Best Buy and Yahoo, are rescinding part or all of their telecommuting practice and calling their workers back to the office.
I didn’t see that one coming. When telecommuting first gained a foothold, proponents said we could one day become a telecommuting nation. They cited community advantages such as emptier highways and safer neighborhoods as workers spent more time at home.
Worker advocates were also enthusiastic about the work-life balance these arrangements would provide. Now employees could manage their lives while also meeting their work obligations.
Even bosses started climbing on board, noticing increases in productivity from workers who could focus more effectively away from the office. Communication via teleconferencing all but sealed the deal, allowing virtual meetings to happen anytime. Best Buy made headlines in 2005 with ROWE, or Results Only Work Environment, a model that encouraged employees to ditch even the 40-hour workweek in favor of simply getting their work done, regardless of where or when it was performed.
And that’s when I started to get a little nervous. In my experience, once an employee benefit shows positive results for the employer, it doesn’t take long to be less beneficial for the employee. Or, put another way, I rarely see companies embrace employee benefits unless they profit the company. I don’t have an argument with that, but it makes me less likely to “drink the Kool-Aid,” as they say, when a benefit becomes embedded into workplace culture.
That’s why, when companies started adopting telecommuting, I started watching more closely to see how workers’ lives would be affected. Here’s what conversations with my career counseling clients revealed.
Advantages to workers of flexible schedule and telecommuting practices:
- Reduces commuting, saving money, time and hassle
- Loosens schedules to allow parents to better respond to children's needs
- Makes it easier to manage daily life needs, such as doctor appointments
- Creates a less stressful environment for working
Disadvantages to workers:
- Blurs the lines between work and home, making it difficult to "turn off" work
- Requires space in the home for a workplace
- Decreases face time with decision-makers
- Focuses management's attention almost wholly on measurable results, ignoring less tangible contributions
- Increases management's expectation of 24/7 accessibility to a worker
- Limits the worker's ability to network casually; isolates the worker socially and professionally
There’s no doubt that the advantages can far outweigh the disadvantages for particular workers, at particular times. But I don’t think enough people consider whether they are that worker when they begin working from home.
If you wish to rise within your organization, my explicit advice would be this: Don’t telecommute more than two days a week, and don’t agree to a fully home-based assignment for longer than a year. Take this adage seriously: Out of sight, out of mind.
The counterargument can seem compelling. If your results are good, aren’t you going to be noticed and rewarded? Hmm. You tell me — are you seeing that happen? The truth may seem harsh, but that doesn’t make it less true: It’s not the most productive workers who generally get promoted. The reasons for that aren’t all insidious. After all, productivity isn’t necessarily the hallmark characteristic of leaders.
Now that the conversation on telecommunity has restarted, it seems like a good time for workers to re-examine their assumptions.
If you’ve been telecommuting as a way to achieve work-life balance, take a minute to ensure you’re not actually working 60 hours a week and giving up family time in exchange for that flexibility. And if you like how productive you can be while working from home, ask yourself: Am I being rewarded for the extra productivity? And is this leading my career where I want it to go?
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