Topic 157

features of telecommuting, for example, environmental aspects, flexibility, productivity, business and social relationships by Vaibhav

What is telecommuting?

In simple terms telecommuting which is also known as teleworking is basically to work at home and communicate with an office or any kind of workplace through a computer, fax or a phone. Telecommuting is accreting at this time in the world. Recent figures have come to show that in the 21st century more than 30 million people in the United States were telecommuting at least once a day in a week.

What is telecommuting in business terms?

In the present world where resources are scarce time is money. There are a number of jobs today which require messages and data to be transmitted. To process or transmit information efficiently telecommuting is a good technology. Telecommuting avoids all the physical commuting a person has to do and also bring the cost of transmitting the information. Hence this technology makes work much convenient and faster as it requires less time and less work due to less physical requirement.

What are the environmental aspects of telecommuting?

In terms of environmental aspects, telecommuting has quite a few environmental benefits and some environmental costs. Some major environmental benefits that telecommuting contributes are savings in gasoline, a reduction in pollution, a decrease in traffic congestion, and lower highway accident rates.

How flexible is telecommuting?

Telecommuting is very flexible as it makes people’s work less stressful in most cases as it reduces the time and money spent on transportation. It encourages most females in the society to work as they can work at home and take care of their children, where as if telecommuting didn’t exist most females would stop working after they are mothers or while they are pregnant.

How does telecommuting raise productivity?

In economics terms “productivity” is defined as the quantity of output a worker produces in a certain period of time. The quantity of output increases in most cases as telecommuting makes processing and transmitting data much easier. As a result of this at a management level in work is made efficient and leaves the rest to the laborers. Hence in some cases where management level is a big key to the output, productivity is raised.

Is telecommuting reliable?

Telecommuting is reliable in most cases but there are cases where it is not. For instance if a employee is transmitting data via a computer to the workplace, there is a possibility that the data may be lost due to a network or some technical problem. This could be a problem if the data is not backed up. Therefore to conclude with telecommuting has certain risks and certain costs which in some jobs are greater than others.

What effect does telecommuting have on social relationship?

Telecommuting has some disadvantages and one of them is the relationship between co-workers. A boss in a company might not get to know the employee or a manager as well through telecommuting as he/she would not be able to see how productively an employee is working.