Telecommuting, also called remote work or telework, is work done outside of an office, which may be at home, in a coffee shop, or at a flexible coworking space. At once available only to a select group of professionals, the concept has become popular with both workers and employers as 56% of jobs in the U.S. are now compatible with working remotely.
Working from home has been increasingly popular since the beginning of the recent pandemic. At first, employees were not commuting and gathering in the office space to stop the rapid spreading of the coronavirus. Eventually, remote jobs became accepted by many companies and welcomed by workers.
What are the important distinctions between teleworking and other types of remote work options as well as the pros and cons of telecommuting jobs?
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What Do We Mean By Telecommuting?
Telecommuting means working away from the traditional office. Remote workers are allowed to work from a remote location and don’t actually commute to a physical office. They are given access to various telecommunication tools such as instant messaging and video conferencing apps to communicate with team members and complete their tasks. An example of those is Slack or Zoom.
Telecommuting employees need a home office or other undisturbed space and a reliable Wi-Fi connection at a minimum. Remote employees who can’t work from home due to general household noise and/or lack of space for a designated quiet room often work from a coworking space, café, or library.
What Is The Difference Between Telecommuting And Remote Work?
Remote work simply means work not done in a physical office. Telecommuting is working from a remote location at least part of the time. Your telecommuting job may be a hybrid working arrangement — a combination of working remotely and in the office.
What Is The Difference Between Working From Home And Telecommuting?
Work-from-home jobs are temporarily or permanently remote, depending on the company. You can look for a full-time, part-time, or freelance remote-friendly position with a flexible schedule.
If you work at home, you are telecommuting, but if you have a telecommuting job, you may be required to be at the main office some of the time.
When Did Telecommuting Become Popular In the Workplace?
Although telecommuting has had an extensive history starting in the 1970s, it became popular much later, when the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 was passed. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken remote working to a new level, as companies had to allow it globally, at least temporarily.
While some employers urged getting back to the office, many others made permanent telecommuting positions as a result of the pandemic. Nowadays, 56% of jobs in the United States can be done remotely, and the current predictions are 36.2 million American workers (22%) will be teleworking by 2025.
The more a job requires the use of a computer, the more likely it is a good fit for telecommuting or even working from home.
We saw this during the recent pandemic as workers in restaurants, retail, public safety, and healthcare trudged out to work every day.
What Is An Example Of Telecommuting?
Telecommuting jobs are common in the following industries:
- IT. Data analysts, security engineers, and software developers are IT specialists who regularly work remotely.
- Marketing. Social media managers, SEO specialists, and growth analysts are a few examples of remote marketing jobs.
- Sales. Sales development representatives, customer success managers, and account executives are often given the option to telework.
- Education. For instance, education consultants, curriculum developers, and researchers can find remote positions in education.
- Healthcare. Registered nurses have plenty of remote nursing job options. Some of these are a nurse case manager, legal nurse consultant, and clinical document specialist.
What Are The Benefits Of Telecommuting?
The telecommuting working environment has numerous benefits both for the company and its employees. The pros include:
- Greater flexibility. Many companies nowadays offer a flexible work schedule, also called flexitime.
- Better work-life balance. Choosing your own work hours eliminates the stress of having to wake up extra early, plus you don’t have to commute long hours when you telework. This cultivates a better work-life balance.
- Increased employee retention. Flexibility and improved work-life balance result in improved employee satisfaction, which in turn boosts employee retention.
- Increased productivity. Many workers have reported working from home improves their productivity levels.
- A positive financial impact on companies. Companies can save a lot of money typically spent on office space and employee commuting expenses.
What Are The 3 Disadvantages Of Telecommuting?
Telecommuting also has downsides, such as:
1. Lack of face-to-face interactions.
Remote workers often struggle with the isolation that comes with reduced social interaction when working alone, especially those who are used to a busy office environment. Studies have shown that mild background noise tends to improve focus and creativity, so it’s not just about office chatter.
It may be challenging to replicate the right level of ambient noise in your home office and keep it quiet enough to complete your tasks efficiently.
2. The inability of managers to supervise others as much.
Although higher-ups use time-tracking apps to overcome this, they likely can’t spend their work hours tracking every other team member constantly. Moreover, nothing can replace one-on-one interaction with new employees who may need extensive training.
Depending on the type of work, it may be more efficient to cater to the employee’s needs in the offline setting instead of prepping the training materials and scheduling multiple video calls to address the issue.
Recent figures show that productivity did not suffer when more people worked at home.
During the pandemic, many employers found that productivity did not drop even when bosses weren’t looking over workers’ shoulders. Sixty-seven percent of workers included in a study by Owl Labs said their productivity stayed the same or increased.
Statistics gathered by Zippia show that “on average, workers are 13% more productive when working from home, and overall worker productivity in the U.S. has increased by 5% since the start of the pandemic.”
3. Potentially compromised company security.
Compared to the office setting, remote employees connect to their private network. Such internet connections can be breached easier, and hackers can steal the company’s confidential information. Employees may use some sort of cyber protection (an antivirus, a firewall, or a VPN), but companies typically have better ways to protect their data on-site.
