Kevin Beaver's Security Blog

Don’t waste your money on a hybrid or ethanol automobile…

Telecommute!

The politicians want us to burn more ethanol in our cars but it’s a terrible idea. Ethanol not only burns 29% more fuel than it creates, using fossil fuels to create ethanol adds even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Check out these very interesting facts about ethanol we don’t hear about in the news.

Anyway…back to working from home. I know, I know, many managers don’t believe in telecommuting. They want employees onsite where they can be controlled. It’s true. Most managers don’t like having people out of sight and therefore out of their control. I’ve worked with these people and have friends who have managers today that work the same way.

Business leaders and lower-level managers need to get a grip and look into this telecommuting thing. There’s no reason that many, many people can’t get the same work done at home that they’re getting done at the office. In most cases, it’ll be more productive as long as employees are disciplined enough to do what they were hired to do. If someone is caught slacking off, not doing what needs to get done, or even embarrassing the business with crying babies or barking dogs in the background of customer phone calls, then make those people work from the office. Let the others who are doing the right things be able to work remotely.

Five or six hours of uninterrupted work from home is way better than the average eight to nine hours at the office dealing with interruptions, background noise, and worst of all, the 60-75 minute commutes (one way!) that many people have. The commutes are enough to deaden employee morale (esp. here in Atlanta). More importantly, multitasking and interruptions at the office are productivity killers. Numerous studies have been done on this. Experts say that when the human brain is interrupted, it takes on average, 20 minutes to get back into the groove of what you were doing!

I was just listening to an audiobook during my commute to a client site this morning called The Leader in You. The book’s 13 years old but interestingly, it talks about how businesses in the 21st century are going to have to focus on people and service if they’re going to survive. I can’t think of no more perfect example of this than management supporting telecommuting in their businesses. That’s focusing on your people. And when you focus on your people, they’ll want to do more and do better. Everyone wins.

Do what’s right business leaders. Your IT staff have all the technologies needed to allow people to work from home. It’ll save your business money, boost employee morale, and help keep people from spending stupid money on their $30,000 hybrid and “flex fuel” automobiles just to save a a couple of thousand dollars over several years in gasoline.