Over at PCWorld, they've published an article about a study that claims to have found a down side to telecommuting. Apparently, if some workers in an office telecommute while others don't, then the morale of those left in the office decreases significantly.
From the information provided in the PCWorld article it's difficult to tell much about the actual telecommuting policy of the company that the researchers studied.
If the telecommuting policy was implemented unevenly - with some employees being allowed to telecommute while others were not - then I can certainly understand why morale might be lower among those employees that didn't have a choice.
Otherwise, I'm not really sure why telecommuting would lower employee morale.
In fact, there's contradictory evidence out there. Another recent article, this one from the IndyStar (originally published in NewsDay) claims that telecommuting has the opposite effect on morale.
"Want to boost morale?" The IndyStar article asks. The article goes on to answer its own question: "Offer workers flexibility." The rest of the article describes how flexible work options can help a company retain key employees.
What do you think? What effect does telecommuting have on employee morale? Which article is right?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Well yeah, it makes sense moral would plummet if the head honchos told half the employees they had the choice between telecommuting or coming in and told the other half they had to show up or be fired. The same is true if all the "lowly" employees have to show up or die, and the managers work from home on a whim. It's kind of like saying, "You're trash, and we don't trust you." It's a slap in the face.
However, I can't see how it would do anything but improve morale if all employees were given the choice. Whose morale doesn't improve when they're shown their employers trust and value them?
I know the lowest employee morale I've ever seen was for a company who didn't care if their workers would die on the road trying to get there because of doctor diagnosed night blindness, if they pulled the short straw, it was night shift or the highway. It only went to prove the company didn't think of workers as anything but numbers and gave credence to the rumors of them allowing an employee to have a heart attack and die on the phones instead of allowing someone off the lines to call 911.
Posted by: Misses E. | January 17, 2008 8:00 AM | Permalink to Comment