Contrast this story by Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal with the story below and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that many organizations are still wresting with the role and value of telework.
Working from home, or telecommuting, is becoming more popular among workers as technological advancements allow for it.
But is everyone a fan?
The conventional wisdom is that allowing people to work from home can hurt business. Telecommuters might be less productive, more inclined to quit and perform less well than workers at the office.
In January there was an interesting article on MotherJones.com about the pros and cons of working from home. Called “Practical Values: Works Well With Others,” the article taught me a lot about telecommuting. It also got me thinking whether or not I would do well doing all my work from home.
Good article that looks at the pros and cons of telework.
You’d think that with a majority of federal employees allowed to telework, most of those would do so. For some reason, more than one third of those employees know their agency’s policies on teleworking though. Not only did they know they were permitted to work (some part-time, some even full-time) but when they did know they had the option, they weren’t clear on the specific program policies.