Future: In Light Of The Coronavirus Pandemic, Could Telecommuting Be The Way Forward?

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 100 thousand people, infected almost 2 million others and continues to threaten the lives of 7.5 billion people. Countries are shutting their borders and putting their people on lockdown. It has effectively brought the world economy to its knees, as a global recession looks imminent. The world is currently on a standstill. As we wait and hope for the better, let’s take this time to learn from what has happened thus far.

The coronavirus pandemic foreshadows the potentially devastating consequences of a viral outbreak. While preventing a viral outbreak from occurring in the future isn’t realistic, we can still take some actions to help mitigate its impacts. One of them, is making the switch to telecommuting, which simply means, work from home. As opposed to the traditional practice of working from an office, telecommuting does not involve the gathering of coworkers. And as we all know it, a virus spreads via close interaction between people. In a bid to avoid the consequences of another pandemic, this makes telecommuting a viable option in the long run. So, could telecommuting be the future norm for us? Let’s dive deeper and have a look at some of its pros and cons.

Pros

• Time and money spent on commuting to work is not incurred by employees now that they work from home. In Fremont, California, commuters spend $49 a day getting too and from work. As workers do not have to spend money on commute, firms can reduce their worker’s salary, leaving firms with more financial resources. Employees would also have longer work hours due to the absence of commute. All in all, firm productivity could rise.
• With greater work flexibility and less stressful work environment, workers take lesser sick leave — translating to higher productivity as well.
• Workers end up being happier and having higher morale. Case in point would be Cisco, who not only saved $1B over 2.5 years by telecommuting, also saw the largest payoff in higher retention

Cons

• Some workers might struggle in time-management, as there are a great deal of distractions that can take priority over work when telecommuting (perhaps priorities in the household). Trust between manager and worker is really important in this case.
• Security concerns can surface when working from different locations. For instance, possible unsecured networks, risk of storing confidential information or accidental data release which can cause weighty consequences for a firm.
• There can be a sense of weakened communication when workers telecommute. It may take longer to talk to someone or get a question answered since it’s not possible to walk to someone’s desk and get an immediate response. Workers may also feel socially secluded by not spending time together. According to Forbes, this could lead to a loss in camaraderie, efficiency, synergy and collaboration.

Conclusion

The benefits of not requiring workers to commute go beyond just firm productivity. Commuting is a huge source of carbon emissions worldwide. Hence, reducing it would go a long way in improving the overall welfare of our world.

Better work flexibility and environment, as well as evidence of higher morale of telecommuters suggest the likelihood of an encouraging reception by workers when introduced. This could very much ease the whole process of making the big switch to telecommuting in the near future.

On the flip side, whilst security concerns can be easily dealt with safe working practices, cons of telecommuting seem to centre around communication problems and the lack of real life social interaction in general. Although these are major concerns, they are manageable in the short run with the recent developments of many remote communication technologies. For instance, Facewall, which goes by the tagline ‘The human face of telecommuting’ is a video chat platform that aims to give telecommuting a human touch with its unique features. With such tools in place, along with the rapid advancement of technology, the common problems with telecommuting would soon be no longer.