Workplace Writers

Informal Report
Jackson Rozario, Raysean Joseph, Christian Thind
Humber College
WRIT 200
John McLean
November 30th 2016

Workplace Writers

To: John D. McLean

From: Workplace Writers
Date: November 30 t h 2016
Subject: Informal Report

Introduction
Todays workforce is much different then our work force was twenty
years ago. Twenty years ago your everyday nine to five worker would
commute to and from the office Monday to Friday. Now in order to cut
costs and relieve stress of workers many companies are moving
towards telecommuting which eliminates workers need to be
physically in the office. Instead they work from a tablet or computer
from anywhere they are comfortable like at home or at a coffee shop.
They are then required to be as productive telecommuting as they
would be if they were physically in the office. Our purpose in this report
is to discover whether or not telecommuting is more productive
in the workplace. Due to the cost of offi ce space and labor
currently, many companies are moving to telecommuting.
Despite the benefi ts of cost cutting is telecommuting more
productive?
Facts

Workplace Writers

72% of federal agencies have use teleworking.

86% of employees who telework at least 1 day a week improve

the satisfaction of their job.

High levels of commitment levels increase with workers that

have good teleworking arrangements.

Absentee and sick leaves declined 69%.
60% of supervisors say teleworking helps retain high performing

workers.
Employees who dont have an opportunity to telework are more

dissatisfied. Since its not offered to them they think its not fair.
Only 12% of employees who have never teleworked chose not
too. The rest have to be physically on the job, are not

technologically capable or they dont have that choice.

71.2% of teleworkers are satisfied with it.
Only 9.7% of employees who arent allowed to telework are

satisfied.
79% of teleworkers report positive change to work stress.
81% of teleworkers improved their chance to stay with the

organization.
83% of teleworkers report positive impact in productivity and

performance.
Teleworking places makes the job of the manager and

supervisors harder.
20% of managers report communication is important for their

decision of not choosing to telework.

18% of managers report work is important for their decision of

not choosing to telework.

41% of employees report team work and collaboration is
important for their decision of not choosing to telework.

Workplace Writers

Based on the facts stated, employees are more in favour for

teleworking. They say it helps them be more productive, satisfied and
motivated. Employees are happier to have the option to telework and
feel like its unfair if it isnt offered at all. Employees also produce more
work because they take less sick days when working from. Overall
employees really like the idea of teleworking and say it improves their
desire to stay at the company they are with. On the other hand not all
employees are suited for teleworking. There are requirements for
employees to be eligible to telework. The employees have to have a
good sick-day record and produce a good amount of work so the
managers know that work will be produced when allowed to telework.
Also, not all companies will benefit from teleworking just because it
works for federal organizations. Some jobs require you to be physical
on site which removes the option to telework. Stress levels for
managers increase because now they have other responsibilities like
managing the communication between the employees working from
home. Managers also show concern for lack of communication, lack of
team work, and lack of interpersonal skills.
Employees report that they are more satisfied, productive and less
stressed when offered a choice to telework, it does require more out of
managers and supervisors. It may work better with some companies
while others, it is completely impossible to offer teleworking to their
employees. In conclusion, it is essential to know what is required of

Workplace Writers

your organization to know if teleworking will be a good investment or

not.

People who Telecommute

37% of U.S workers say they have telecommuted, up slightly

from 30% last decade but four times greater than the 9% found
in 1995 (Jones, 2015) These results are based on Gallups
annual Work and Education poll conducted Aug 5-9 (Jones,
2015)

Along these lines, telecommuting is much more common among

those who have had more formal education, those who are

Workplace Writers

upper-income and those who have white-collar professions

(Jones, 2015)

While a greater percentage of U.S workers now say they have

telecommuted than in the past, telecommuting remains much
more the exception than the rule. U.S workers say they
telecommute from home rather than go into the office about two
days per month, on average. 9% of workers say they
telecommute more than 10 workdays meaning at least half of
all workdays in a typical month (Jones, 2015)

Workplace Writers

Telecommuters just as productive as other Workers

Since telecommuting became a reality for many U.S. workers,

there has been ongoing debate about whether it is more
beneficial or more detrimental to worker productivity. The
majority of Americans, including both those employed and not
employed, believe workers who work remotely are just as
productive as those who work in a business office. The 58%
holding this view is up from 47% the first time Gallup asked the
question in 1995. This is offset by a drop in the percentage
believing telecommuters are more productive than those who
work in an office, from 28% to 16%. The net result is a similar
proportion believing telecommuters are at least as effective as

Workplace Writers

those who work in offices, given that the 20% who say
telecommuters are less productive is essentially unchanged
since 1995. (Jones, 2015)

In the first chart we see how telecommuting has increased over the years. This
increase is mostly due to Technology growing over those years, because of the
growth in technology we see telecommuting becoming easier for workers, and it
has allowed companies to let their workers work from home, by providing the
necessary tools for workers to communicate with co-workers, getting onto the
work system to complete their tasks, which ultimately allows workers to succeed
at telecommuting. This is all dependent on what an employees position allows,
telecommuting is mostly easier for workers who perform most of there work
duties through a computer. Besides position, telecommuting is also dependent on
a persons level of education, and the type of profession that person is in usually
those who are upper in income and have white-collar professions (ex:
executive/managerial, technical, sales, or administrative positions). This leads to

Workplace Writers

chart 2 which shows the percentage of successful people that telecommute

based on education, income and job type (Jones, 2015). Both Rayseans parents
telecommute; his Mother who fully tele-commutes/Works from home, and his Father who
actually Works regular hours during the day in the office, but outside of those hours
works from home in which the company provides the necessary resources for him to be
capable to do both. Besides working outside of work hours his dad also takes few days
off during the months to work from home when it's convenient for the family. Both jobs
allow them to work from a computer which is both convenient for them and the company
in that they arent taking up office space.

Although the percentage of telecommuting has increased most people

still prefer to work in the office for many reasons such as productivity
and collaboration. But this is also due to the fact that it is next to
impossible for of blue-collar jobs to telecommute. Overall people prefer
to have the freedom to work from home, those that do telecommute on
average only telecommute 2 days per month this leads us to chart 3
which shows the number of workdays typically telecommute rather
than go to the office (Jones, 2015). A lot of workers/companies have
tried telecommuting and found that it's not suitable for their form of
working style example Yahoo, who have called back all their workers to
work in a corporate office, this is due to the disadvantages revolving
around telecommuting. Some of these disadvantages are the decrease
in interactions with coworkers, the inability to balance personal and
work life, and the perception that when your working from home you

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do less work. These disadvantages come back to the reasons why

workers/companies prefer not to add telecommuting as an option
instead, as the chart shows people rather telecommute only a few days
out of a month usually convenient when something comes up within
your family and you are needed to stay home and take care of things
on that side.

Chart 4 shows us the views on productivity of telecommuters vs

workers in the office, a lot of people believe workers who telecommute
are just as productive as workers within the office, the chart shows us
that telecommuters are up 11% from the 47% in 1995 now sitting at
58% in 2015 viewing telecommuters as being just as productive as
those working in the office. These results also come back to
technology. With the growth of technology a lot of workers who
telecommute are just as productive because of the advanced
communication through technology;
companies are able to provide the necessary tools for workers to
succeed just as Rayseans dad is provided with a company laptop with
the right systems installed for him to be just as productive as if he
were in the office. Many call centre companies and technical workers
are also provided with company phones so that they can take the
necessary calls needed for them to fulfill there daily tasks. So due to
the growth of technology the productivity of telecommuters is just as

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productive as those in the office, and that number should continue to

grow as technology grows.
Conclusion/Recommendations
Through the extensive research, we have come to the conclusion that
telecommuting is not necessarily more productive then commuting but
equally as productive depending on statistically, the type of job you
are doing. We have discovered that very little to no trades and or
craftsmen that telecommute because their jobs require their physical
skills ad trades where as most of the telecommuters come from jobs
where employees are constantly communicating with others in order to
make a sale and or profit such as businessmen. Jobs that require higher
education but also require that persons presence would be jobs like;
doctors, lawyers, and teachers where telecommuting would not be an
option. Although it is proven that telecommuting is just as productive,
it is still found that it is much easier to be distracted as a telecommuter
since you arent in the office or necessarily in a home office or quiet
space where you can work form home. In order to diminish the
drawbacks of telecommuting we would suggest hand picking the most
productive employees within the company and have them
telecommute. If they succeed then the company can continue in its
process of selecting employees to telecommute as a privilege. One
telecommuting these employees will be required to maintain a quota
and if they dont will be brought back into the office. Despite the

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negatives of telecommuting, it is proven to be equally as productive as

work done in the workplace.
References

Brown, N. (2014). The Evolution of the Office: How Modern

Offices Have Evolved And What to Expect in the Future - Social
Media Week. Retrieved November 08, 2016, from
https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2014/11/evolution-officemodern-offices-evolved-expect-future/

Jermyn, D. (2012). The downside of working from home. Retrieved November

08, 2016, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/smallbusiness/sb-managing/the-downside-of-working-from-home/article595067/

Jones, J. M. (2015). In U.S., Telecommuting for Work Climbs to 37%. Retrieved

November 08, 2016, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/184649/telecommutingwork-climbs.aspx

Mahler, J. , (2012) The Telework Divide: Managerial and Personnel Challenges of

Telework. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32(4), Pages 408- 418.

Greer, T. W. , Payne, S. C. (2014). Overcoming telework

challenges: Outcomes of successful telework strategies. The
Psychologist- Manager Journal, Vol 17(2), pages 87- 111.