Section TwoTelecommuting
Telecommuting, or telecommunicating, does not necessarily
involve geographic relocation but simply involves working at
home at least part of the time. In recent years, the number of
workers who telecommute has increased dramatically, with
estimates of more than 10 million working at least 20 percent
of the time at home. An indication of this trend toward
telecommuting is evident in the experience of U.S. West, where
telecommuters now account for 16,000 of the company’s
54,000 employees. Another example is Merrill Lynch’s Private
Client Technology Unit in which 19 percent of employees are
telecommuters. Furthermore, the U.S. federal government
also has a program for telecommuters called flexiplace that
is used by employees of agencies such as the
Internal Revenue Service.^110
Telecommuting is thought to bring several individual
benefits, including time savings from the avoidance of
commuting as well as at-home child care, ease of working for
multiple employers, access to jobs by disabled workers, and
lifestyle advantages. There is a positive impact on the
environment as well when fewer workers are on the highways.
Organizational benefits include recruiting advantages, lower
costs in using part-time workers, increased ability to use skilled
professionals on an ad hoc basis, reduced likelihood of