It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times:  It's Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise

WE all know what telecommuting is and who does it. It's working from home (or maybe a Starbucks), and it's usually done by someone in their 20s, or a mother with small children.

Well, no. Actually, the typical telecommuter is a 49-year-old college graduate – man or woman – who earns about $58,000 a year and belongs to a company with more than 100 employees, according to numbers culled from the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey.

And the phenomenon appears to be growing. The annual survey last year by the Society for Human Resource Management found a greater increase in the number of companies planning to offer telecommuting in 2014 than those offering just about any other new benefit.

This winter might help push the trend even faster. Federal employees in Washington who worked from home during four official snow days saved the government an estimated $32 million, according to Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, and its research arm Telework Research Network.

[Laura]

Yep. I really think that telecommuting can help economies in places that don't have a lot of industry and help people in those places find jobs without having to leave. They can work at home and spend their paychecks in their home towns.

Also, it gives the worker freedom to travel. At a previous job, they hired a freelancer to manage a project. At one point, she randomly decided she wanted to go to Spain. So she did for five weeks - she went sightseeing in the mornings and worked in the afternoons and evenings so that she matched Eastern Standard Time during work hours.

The only thing I dislike about the telecommuting revolution is that it makes it harder for a worker to ever disconnect from work. If you can work anywhere, then you can work on a snow day, vacation time, etc.You can check email in the evenings.


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