Before the Internet, if you must research or need information, you should hit the books and stay at a library for hours. During these times, putting up the hours at the office was interpreted as making more work. However, times have changed. People are now aware that the hours spent doing a task, nor your ability to go to a central office is not an indication of the efficiency of one's work. Together with this awareness and the change in the ways people meet certain demands, people have been more interested with telecommuting. Furthermore, this paper will discuss telecommuting and its many aspects.
According to Johnson (2), telecommuting is usually defined in terms of the technology being used and the location. To put it in simple terms, telecommuting simply refers to the act by which individuals work in their homes through the use of technologies like the telephone, Internet, or emails. Thus, telecommuting means that one does not have to commute to a central office or the like to perform work.
IMPACTS OF TELECOMMUTING
Telecommuting has impacts on energy conservation, IT operational cost, “green computing”, and on the lifestyle of the telecommuters. The use of vehicles takes up a considerable amount of energy that are converted to harmful by products. Telecommuting minimizes the fuel used by workers, thus, conserving energy. Additionally, the energy consumed by office grade equipment is larger compared to the ones used at a telecommuters place. Using equipments that do not require that much energy likewise makes telecommuting positive to green computing. In terms of the operational cost, telecommuting was known to decrease the costs and the same goes for IT operations (Hardin). As for the lifestyle, telecommuting offers one the opportunity to work from one’s home and manage one’s lifestyle without the constraints of an actual office. This means that as a parent, one may interact more with their children or spouse, and result in positive relationships. Persons with disabilities can likewise benefit from telecommuting since the practice allows them to stay where they are most comfortable and help themselves to whatever they need in their homes. Furthermore, the stress one may get from commuting and staying in an office can be greatly reduced and allow people to focus on more important work.
NATURAL DISASTERS
Many natural disasters like wildfires or flooding have rendered many business infrastructures unproductive since most of their work can only be done in their building. To allow employees to perform business operations in the event of a disaster, there have been many proposed solutions. For instance, the recovery of data from servers has been seen as a solution to address problems like this. However, there are some who views that the improvement and modification of telecommuting can be a superior measure to address this problem. If business infrastructures are designed in a way wherein telecommuting can accommodate business operations in times of disasters, then people can be rest assured that no time will be wasted to deliver work. This entails that business infrastructures have a high and competent level of security when allowing access from telecommuters and that it is cost efficient. Lastly, business infrastructures should also be designed to allow an easy transfer of data from the central office to their telecommuters (Citrix).
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
BYOD
Bring Your Own Device or BYOD has many effects. In terms of security, BYOD poses more risk and requires more work. In IT support, BYOD can make technical difficulties harder to solve due to the differences in the devices. In terms of knowledge and data management, BYOD pushes companies to provide more conclusive policies that can help in managing data and impart knowledge. In terms of green computing, the effect may differ on the types of devices. If the devices are found to be energy efficient, then BYOD can have a positive impact on green computing. Lastly, for telecommuting, BYOD can be of huge help, especially if the device of concern makes one work more efficiently while at home. BYOD can have different impacts and this is influenced by the efficiency of the policies that will ensure that it is used efficiently for the company’s directive (Berry).
There was a time when people were pushed to exert more effort due to the demands of their work. However, telecommuting and other developments have paved the way to meet these demands better and easier. Likewise, these developments should always be carefully used to get optimum results.
Works Cited
Berry, Megan. “BYOD Policy Template.” IT Manager Daily. 2016. Web. 26 July 2016.
Citrix. “Empowering Telework, Executive Mobility and Disaster Recovery Programs.”White Paper. 2013. Web. 26 July 2016.
Hardin, Ken. "Telecommuting: Get a Clear Picture of Costs, Benefits, Requirements." IT Business Edge. N.p., 2011. Web. 26 July 2016.
Johnson, Nancy J. Telecommuting and Virtual Offices: Issues and Opportunities. Hershey, USA: Idea Group, 2001. Print.
