Distrust

I have spent most of the past ten years working from my home, both for myself and others. I started when a new employer had run out of office space and asked me to work at home. However, I found that many managers automatically assume that home workers are less productive. The opposite is the case because there are so many distractions and disruptions in an office full of people. Working at home also save the employer money on office space, furniture, and utilities. Working at home is a much better working environment for most people. I highly recommend that companies do themselves, their employees, and our economy a service by using it more. We all benefit!

Telecommuting would have a much better chance for success if a new approach were taken. Currently, people assume that the only place to telecommute is from their home. The problem is that some people will not be as productive working from their home. While some are disciplined enough and have high quality infrastructure in their home, many people have neither. This does not mean that telecommuting is not an option. It just means that people need to be provided with office space near where they live so they can telecommute from a professional facility. People can work out of Remote Office Hosting Centers located in and around the suburbs where they live and where commercial real estate is generally less expensive. ROHCs would provide a professional grade network, phone systems, security and a real office outside the home. (The card scanner security system would track employee attendance.) ROHCs would lease to workers from multiple companies in a shared center and provide all of the facilities that workers need; and most especially they would provide a place to go to in the morning to start the day and a place to come home from at the end of the day.

Telecommuting can work if employees are given the right equipment – which includes a real office and a place to work away from the distractions of home. Companies would have to pay the expense of leasing the office, but they already do that for employees in a centralized office that they have to manage, grow, shrink and commit to for long terms. Everything else is outsourced, why not outsource office space and let employees lease an office near where they live. The fuel savings alone would put that much more cash into the economy – rather than shipping it all over seas to foreign oil cartels.

Why not get the government involved and mandate, or give tax incentives to employers who allow telecommuting. The MICROMANAGERS will never buy in as they think working from home is paying you to play golf,watch tv, sleep, etc. Myself, I work many more hrs when at home than at the office.