For the last week or so I’ve been seeing a survey picked up by one media service after another. Basically they were all saying “People who telecommute are out of sight, out of mind, won’t advance in their careers, etc.”
The message has been “telecommuters are shooting themselves in the foot” because they’re not in the office every day to play the office politics.
I never mentioned the report because – for one reason – many telecommuters want something besides career advancement. They want to be at home with the kids or have freedom and flexibility. Rising up the corporate ladder is going to eliminate that for them.
I also wanted to see who’d respond from the telecommuting community. And here’s what I hope will be the start of a landslide of reaction.
After all, telecommuting
1. Gives workers flexibility and greater satisfaction with less stress on the family
2. Saves overhead costs to employers
3. Reduces traffic overload during rush hours
4. Gives companies the ability to keep functioning during epidemics or other times when a “disaster” response is necessary.
Here’s a portion of the response in CIO’s “The Dirty Little Secrets of Telecommuting”:
I’m a telecommuter, and I work out of my home. With ease, I can tap into every system back at HQ — just like everybody else. And the thing is, I’m far more productive working out of my home office than I ever was when I worked out of CIO magazine’s offices. (I also have an extra hour and a half every day because I don’t have to slog through Boston’s notorious commute each work day.)
But here’s the burn for all of this: Of those executives surveyed, nearly half of the respondents said they would consider a job which involved telecommuting on a regular basis. So, while they think that others are committing a career-limiting move (or CLM) by telecommuting, half of the respondents would do it themselves, if given the right situation.
Get it? No. Here’s a quick recap: Senior executives say those employees who telecommute are committing career-suicide, yet those telecommuters are just as or more productive than office dwellers, and if given the option, many of those senior executives would give telecommuting a try.
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