Not the tv show. I mean your office. Save gas, save time, save money, save your family and save the planet by shutting down your office. It is a no-brainer. Or is it?
I just got my October issue of Wired magazine. Brendan Koerner has written a cool article on telecommuting. Fear of loosing control has kept 60% of American companies from allowing their employees to work from home. However 81% of managers believe that telecommuting improves productivity. The article also points out that it costs more than 15k per year to provide one employee with 200 sqft of cube space. With gas prices at $4 a gallon, workers can save an average of $1,200 if they worked from home. Check out the Penn State study.
It is time to decentralize, downsize, optimize and telecommutize. We now have the technological resources to make virtual offices much more real. Now you can get rid of your business computers, servers, phone systems, and the software needed to run them. Oh, and how about those folks that keep insisting that you need all of this stuff. Well, that's your decision.
"The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown about Telecommuting: Meta-Analysis of Psychological Mediators and Individual Consequences" is available online at www.apa.org/journals/releases/apl9261524.pdf.
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1 comment:
In principle I think you are right on. We have created office space that is for large meetings, production, and counseling only. It's hard to reproduce the dynamic of a creative meeting via teleconference, but for the most part offices are no longer needed. I use Panera Bread, Lifetime Firness, and other venues for free wifi and meetings with 1-2 people. I use my home for personal work. And I use the library for deeper study.
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