Working From Home Is Becoming Commonplace In The Corporate World
While the work at home business scams, “systems”, and odd jobs are repeated off and on across the internet, there is a quiet breed of telecommuter that has silently simply packed up their laptop, plugged in their home phone, taken a few extra classes, and proceeded the transition from cubicle to home. Most of these people, as long as they stay with their current company, will not see the inside of a cubicle again. Neither will the person who takes their position down the line.
Telecommuters now work for some of the largest corporations - not as a privilege or a perk, but as a necessity. Service managers for AT&T earn nearly $75,000 a year, assisting business clients in resolving their communications and information technology issues, and working up to 70 hours a week. Instead of doing this in the office, they get to do it in their basement.
Office workers that bring their jobs home come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from telecommunications and customer service to financial management and web design. Salaries from corporations normally vary from $40,000 to $70,000, and come with the same benefits as an in-person job, depending on the employer’s location, the employee’s expertise, and, of course, the nature of the job. The company normally supplies the equipment such as the laptop and the dedicated phone required for the work involved.
Alternative Work Arrangements
Each generation brings a different view to the workplace. Whether it is a senior manager on the verge of retirement or a fresh graduate just entering the workforce, businesses today are expanding from a traditional 9:00 am - 5:00 pm workday. Responding to employees’ needs such as time off to handle medical issues, care for family members, or pursue higher education, may necessitate a flexible work arrangement outside of using vacation time, sick time, or taking a leave of absence.
How then does an employer respond to the increase in requests from employees who desire alternative work arrangements? Flexible schedules can pose challenges in communication, may not be available to all the employees within the organization, can increase overtime expense and make it difficult to track employee productivity and attendance. However, for employees who need to balance their personal and professional lives, and for employers who need to control costs due to employee turnover, flexible scheduling may be necessary.
Overall, a shift in perception about providing flex time is occurring. Historically, companies focused only on the factors that directly affected the company “bottom line.” Older generations shared that focus and sacrificed their personal lives to achieve that overall goal. Employers are now acknowledging that flexible scheduling may be necessary to accommodate the retiring generations on their way out, as well as the newer generations stepping up the ladder.
Going Green: Saving Your Business Time and Money
Not that long ago, the term “going green” conjured up thoughts of radical environmentalists going to extremes to save a forest in the name of “The Movement.” Today, however, “going green” means so much more. As individual awareness has grown regarding how behavior affects greenhouse gas emissions or hurts local water supply; home recycling and home energy efficiency has grown from energy efficient light bulbs to entire energy efficiency home conversions.
As an extension of this personal environmental impact awareness, businesses are giving serious thought to how they can “go green” while continuing to make their businesses more efficient. Beyond in-office recycling and re-using coffee cups, companies are searching for solutions that provide the right combination of savings and benefits for both employer and employee, while enabling employers to give some intangible benefits to employees during tight economic times. One such solution is phone and web conferencing.
Phone and web conferencing by companies such as www.webpresentnow.com allows employees to hold virtual meetings from their own offices. It gives them instant access to co-workers, customers and clients without having to travel, thereby eliminating the environmental impact while lowering company costs. When you consider that a roundtrip flight from New York to Los Angeles emits 2.46 metric tons of CO2 — the greenhouse gas that goes directly into the most sensitive portion of our atmosphere – you realize how much you can make a difference by simply introducing phone and web conferencing into your company culture. [1]