We’ve officially wrapped up Thanksgiving. We have survived Black Friday. We supported Small Business Saturday and now we are knee-deep in Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year.
According to analyst Brian Pitz, there will be over $2.9 billion in online sales today in the United States. While a majority of us are logged on to our computers looking for incredible cyber deals, I want to take this opportunity to focus on our computers, our laptops, our tablets and our smart phones.
Aside from buying Christmas gifts, these digital devices can accomplish so much these days. Armed with my iPhone and my iPad I can accomplish most of my traffic work. I assume that many of you can do the same.
That is what I want to address here. So many of us can do so much on our devices, that I am making a plea to all of the bosses out there to start allowing their employees to telecommute in the coming year.
I realize that there are many jobs where telecommuting is simply not an option. Technology will really have to be really advance before garbage men will be allowed to telecommute. But, for those businesses where it might be feasible, please give it a shot in 2016, even if it is a little as one day a month.
The easiest way for us to decrease congestion on our roads during morning and afternoon rush hours is for more people to start telecommuting. Not only that, but it is a lot cheaper than adding new roads or new lanes to our infrastructure.
According to a Gallup poll released in August, 37 percent of U.S. workers say they have telecommuted, up from 30 percent last decade. That number has increased from only nine percent in 1995.
On average, those that telecommute do so for about two days a month, with nine percent of workers telecommuting more than 10 days a month.
The biggest hesitation for employers not wanting to start offering telecommuting options I would imagine the fear that workers will be less productive.
Those that do telecommute were questioned in the Gallup poll and 56 percent felt that they were just as productive as their office-bound counterparts, while 24 percent felt they were more productive and only 18 percent saying they were less productive.
Those same views are trending up across the board. Fifty-eight percent of Americans, both employed and unemployed, think that people that work remotely are just as productive as those who work in an office, up from 47 percent approval in 1995.
Again, I know that there are many types of businesses where telecommuting is simply not an option. But, for those companies where it might be a possibility, please consider offering it in the New Year.
Our computers can be used for more than buying discounted underwear on Amazon; they could really start to help our commutes.
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