The option to work from home is a welcome perk for many employees. Today, 25% of Dell employees work from home either full-time or a few days a week. The company is aiming to double that share to 50% by 2020. Yet, on the contrary, some bosses are worried letting staff working from home since they may say ‘people who work at home who aren’t productive’ and ‘If everyone telecommutes, company culture and collaboration will fall off a cliff’.
However, I think the benefits of telecommuting far exceed those disadvantages. In chapter 5, I learned that telecommuting reduces carbon emissions, office energy consumption and traffic jams that emit greenhouse gasses. It does help developing countries such as China which has terrible air pollution and bad environment to improve their situation.
Besides the advantages of saving time on the way to offices, offering flexible hours, giving freedom to dress as employees please, telecommuting offers more jobs for disabled people who aren’t convenient to commute. It not only reduces unemployment of the disabled but also helps companies because there are many talented and well-educated people among this group.
Furthermore, telecommuting is a conscious business strategy. Costs of electrics and energy in workplaces will be highly reduced, then the money saved will be invested and employees who indeed need resources will use them more efficiently. A successful instance of Taobao in China demonstrates the strengths of telecommuting. Sellers and online store owners work at home rather than going to offices, therefore they gain a lot of benefits from telecommuting for not only themselves but also Taobao.
As global cooperation increases in recent years, people doing business from all over the world work together for meetings or project discussions frequently. Telecommuting fits the trend as well. Although it is not for all jobs and occupations, as more technologies are improving efficiency and productivity and managers are being more professional on telecommuting management I believe it will help more people and companies.
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Source:
Sahadi, Jeanne. “Dell really wants you to work from home … if you want.” CNN Money . N.p., n.d. Web. <http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/09/pf/dell-work-from-home/>.
Sahadi, Jeanne. “Want to work from home? Try one of these companies.” N.p., n.d. Web. <http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/26/pf/work-from-home-jobs/>.
Sahadi, Jeanne. “3 reasons your boss doesn’t want you to work from home … and why she’s wrong.” N.p., n.d. Web. <http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/21/pf/telecommuting-work-from-home/>.
Kotkin, “Marissa Mayer’s Misstep and the Unstoppable Rise of Telecommuting,” Forbes, March 26, 2013.
