> -----Original Message----- > From: Don L [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 5:34 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Why Corporate America wouldn't explore more on telework > option? > > Giving the cost of gas and never-ending traffic jam in all major metro > areas (even mid-sized cities are getting bad...), why corporate America > would not seriously consider offering its employees and consultants at > least one third of their work from home or coffee shops/virtual office > etc. nearby when feasible?
Well... some do. My company's policy is "it's up to the local site manager". At one site (Boston, MA) most people worked anywhere from two to five a days at home. At my current site (Scranton, PA) we're allowed to do a day a week at home (kind of unofficial since the actual site manager is generally against telecommuting). In short the Enterprise has provided the infrastructure: VPN with hard-token keys, laptops with encrypted drives, centralized tech support and remote management, etc. It's up to the managers to decide how to use those resources. I think it's actually a good system - flexible enough to meet everybody's needs without forcing anybody to adapt too much. There are definitely managers that, I think, don't take advantage of it but most have come around: movement of employees from group to group is pretty easy and managers are generally willing to accept good people. So a manager that doesn't keep people happy will see them move on. Now everybody still has a cube/office at their home site - we've not gotten to the point of saving money by true, full-time work at home with smaller sites. So in general this isn't really saving the company money - if anything it costs more to maintain that infrastructure. But they do gain: many things that would have previously lost a day of work (waiting for the cable-guy, sick kids, etc) don't anymore since people can work from home. Production support is also more effective since people called off-hours can be productive without having to come into the office. Overall I think everything must balance out: increased potential productivity, cost of support and infrastructure, employee moral, etc. >From what I see this isn't that unusual. If anything I think that large enterprises seem more willing to take this route than smaller companies. The few small companies that I've worked for all wanted to see you working. ;^) Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:250083 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
