Our ability to use technology to communicate in different ways, with different people, and across different mediums has allowed jobs to be taken from the office to the bedroom. It is strange to think that only forty years ago, working from home wasn't even a common option when choosing a career. And today, most of my friends parents work out of their home offices or at least complete some of their work in a home setting.
The telephone made instant communication possible. The internet made information more accessible and in-office tasks portable. And then innovations like Skype and group messaging lead to video conference calls and the ability to communicate with an entire team of staff all the way across the globe.
These tools have sparked an age of telecommuting, which I believe can have both positive and negative implications for companies, individuals, and our world as whole.
One of the benefits of telecommuting is not having to physically commute to a workplace. Not only is this convenient for an employee, but it reduces traffic congestion and environmental impact. Also, a company does not have to limit its hiring process to individuals who live or would live in the area, and employees do not have to move for their career.
Although telecommuting saves time, employee energy, and the environment, telecommuting presents major setbacks for the company that has distributed staff members. It eliminates the real face-to-face connections that exist in a normal work environment and limits the team-centered atmosphere of a workplace.
My own experiences with working in an office have revealed the value of working side-by-side with the entire staff. I work for a wealth management firm, and communication technologies are used in pretty much everything that we do. Whether its calling clients, distributing an electronic newsletter, emailing home office, or having an appointment with a client over Skype, communication technology is involved in almost every task.
With that said, it would definitely be easy for anyone in the office to work right from home. But.. being in the same building as everyone else, you see how the team atmosphere is a breeding ground for learning from one another and developing new ideas.
My favorite part of the week is our Monday team meetings. We come together on Monday afternoons to talk about updates and goals for the week. Sure, we could have the meeting over Skype, but there is something about having real, face-to-face interactions with all of the staff that adds value to the experience. I think this mashable article puts it best when describing being in the same room as your co-workers- "you can see facial expressions, you can feel energy in a room."
I think that if telecommuting becomes a reality for most careers and we begin to rely on video conference calls and email as our sole forms of interaction, we will weaken our capability to communicate with others and truly work with a team. Think of all of the invaluable ideas that have resulted from those "water cooler" conversations that take place in the office.
While communication technologies have definitely added value to the workplace, they are not a substitution for real-life communication with co-workers.
"On the other hand, consider serendipity. If you put dozens or thousands of creative people under one roof, a few might connect and create something that they wouldn't have thought of if they stayed home in their pajamas." - check out a full article about Mashable's thoughts
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