by Richard Smith

Created on: July 29, 2008

Telecommuting is likely to become more and more popular with both employers and employees as the price of fuel continues the economic benefits continue to grow for both the company and the employee and in addition telecommuting has often been viewed as a way of securing a better work life balance for the employee while for employers there are the benefits of a more productive work force combined with reduced turnover rates.

However there are a number of problems associated with telecommuting and these impact on both the employee and the employer.

1. Home is where the work is

From my own personal experience this was the biggest problem with home working for me. Home should be the place where you go to relax and spend time with your family, when I worked in an office and in my current role I prefer to stay late at work to complete whatever needs doing, then when I walk through the door I get to divest myself of my work appearance, suit and all, and then become family man, trying to switch off from the work pressures. Granted after complaints from the neighbours and family about shedding my suit I have compromised and put some clothes on but the symbolic gesture is the same.

With telecommuting the work place and home divide can become blurred, your primary place of work is still the place you live in and this can make it harder to relax and to switch off from work. On the plus side you have the potential for increased flexibility around your working day but in reality that can actually mean the working day becomes longer, the time you spend on the commute is now spent working, a big plus for the employer but maybe not so good for the employee.

This issue becomes compounded in my opinion if you end up giving up space in your house for the office, that study that was your place of sanctuary suddenly becomes a work office, worse still a corner of the living area or the basement conversion that was a playroom is now an office as well. My personal solution was to build my own shed in the garden and have my company furnish it, using the health and safety regulations as a lever was one way of making them cough up the finance.

2. Jane says that John told her that Joe was with a

A loss of social face to face interaction is very often associated with telecommuting. For some people this can be an issue as that social interaction in the office was a positive side of their working life, for many their social life can be linked with the work place, in fact many people find their life

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