In my last article on this subject I concentrated on what effects the increased use of Telecommuting had on the "Work-at-Home" community.
In doing so, it was made clear that "Telecommuting" was certainly here to stay.
We also know, in fact, that employers have been using the principles of telecommuting for a long time.
So what has changed? I think we all know that it has been the advances in technology, alongside the economic need to be efficient and still compete, that has made telecommuting more attractive than ever for many employers.
Sure, we all know about the obvious savings for both employees and employers in such areas as real estate/office rental costs, travel costs, "lunch" expenses, reduction in co-worker interruptions, and the list goes on and on.
Even with the advent of sophisticated forms of "web-conferencing", the savings seem to keep mounting.
But, let's also look at some of the dis-advantages as well.
Many have started to tag their concerns with such titles as "no-collar workers", and "laptop hobos" while further describing the changes as "home-shoring" in what some now call the "post-geographic era".
Their concerns are relative to such fears as employees becoming isolated "Facebook addicts", alienation of (ignoring to face) clients, lack of real social interaction, not getting adequate co-worker inputs, etc.
Concerns from the employees are also surfacing along the same lines as "feeling isolated", being lonely at home, missing out on personal interactions and so forth.
Additionally the issue of equipment support is brought up.
Often the matter of PC repairs and the like are now the responsibility of the employee, at least to get resolved, if not to bear the final expense.
Regardless, as many companies such as Capital One, and those in the Health Care sector like SCAN are referring to this as "This is Destiny"! In any case, it is worthwhile to be aware of both the pro's and the con's of this Digital Age Makeover".