The reasons for and against telecommuting can be complex or simple depending on which view point you take. From a manager's view point telecommuting is a very dangerous undertaking that requires a high readiness level on the employee's part. Allowing an employee with a low (R1, or R2) readiness level to telecommute is not likely to result in a positive manner. When an employee has a high readiness level and a definite desire to attempt working in the home, for some reason or another, many factors should be considered. What kind of schedule does the employee feel constitutes telecommuting? Generally speaking, telecommuting is defined as spending at least one day out of a five day work week working in the home. Is one day home enough for the employee? Or, too little? How does the employer decide how many days to allow? Does the em

It sounds as if I'm not really impressed with telecommuting but that's not true. Let's look at a few of the really solid benefits for the employer. The employer can offer telecommuting as an option for prospective employees to improve recruitment. The current employees could be offered it to keep them around. Saving one employee could save the company a large amount of money. "Most employers don't keep accurate records of the costs of losing good employees and finding and retraining replacements, but there have been estimates ranging from $30,000 to over $100,000 to replace a professional." The ever present crunch for space could drive a company to reduce the amount of office space it requires. Telecommuting makes the employee provide his own office space. It's been shown that telecommuting does increase productivity with typical increases in the 15 to 25 percent range. These gains may come from the significantly less time a person spends at the company water cooler. A company can improve customer service by making use of telecommuters. It would cost much less to have a few people answering phones at home at 3 o'clock in the morning than running a skeleton crew in a heated/air-conditioned, lighted, and such office building.

2. Compute! Magazine, Oct. 91, Vol. 13 Issue 10, "Workplace", D. Janal

So what's in it for the employee? That depends mostly on which particular employee we are referring too. Telecommuting allows someone with a physical handicap that could not actually commute to the workplace to still function as a valuable employee. It would allow someone who has small children and feels a

Some common words found in the essay are:
R1 R2, Telecommuting Telecommuting, Magazine Oct, Byte Magazine, readiness level, Don Crabb, WestView Press, Workplace Janal, Research Press, 91 vol, office space, telecommuting complex,
Approximate Word count = 1086
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)