An article by Dave McGinn (The failed revolution) just published in the Financial Post of Canada (found via Northern Telework) talks about how overall, the telecommuting phenomenon is not living up to expectations:

THE PROMISE With the advent of the Internet and tools such as e-mail, the notion of getting up in the morning and actually travelling to some far-away office seemed totally unnecessary. Back in the ’90s, companies were buying that idea. “Telecommuting is hot among businesses small and large,” BusinessWeek magazine noted in April, 1999. Advocates were quick to point out telework’s many advantages: companies would save on reduced office space costs, employees would benefit by not having to waste time or money commuting to work and all parties would enjoy a more flexible, productive workplace.

THE REALITY While the Canadian Telework Association estimates that some 1.5 million Canadians now telecommute in one form or another, up from 600,000 a decade ago, working off-site still carries the stigma it did back in 1999: “There are many managers who think that if they let one person do it then they have to let everyone do it, or that telework doesn’t work for teamwork or that management is too difficult with people working off-site,” says Bob Fortier, CTA president. Even organizations that have instituted telework programs, including Bell Canada, Inco Ltd., Bank of Montreal and IBM, are aware of telecommuting’s bad reputation. “There is definitely still skepticism and a question of ‘are you really working?’” says Deenah Patel, manager of corporate diversity at IBM Canada.

It seems that the expectations were that telecommuting was a solution that could be applied to everyone in every situation. I think that this does not quite jive with reality. As more people become educated regarding the pros and cons of telecommuting, and in what situations, industries (and types of workers) it is best applied, look to see levels of disappointment lower.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 by Yaakov Ellis and is filed under Articles, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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