My first work from home experience was as a medical transcriptionist. I initially began the position on site at the hospital. Then, the hospital decided that transcriptionists would be more productive and the hospital would save expenses on overhead if the transcriptionists worked from home. Their assumptions turned out to be true. Productivity did increase, and the transcription office was utilized for other purposes. Even though I am an extrovert, at the time I really enjoyed my work from home experience. I went to school full time during the day in a traditional university setting, and I worked full time at night. I was able to do my homework on breaks. Also, I didn't feel isolated because I had my classmates for my social experience. Moreover, my coworkers and I had already developed a bond in the office and would get together for coffee or to take walks or to go shopping. Our department director, furthermore, required the transcriptionists to come into the office at least once a month for a meeting. This experience was almost 20 years ago. Today, organizations are still debating over whether or not their employees should work on-site or work from home.
Since my first work at home experience, I have held several "work from home" jobs, including working as an adjunct faculty member, tutoring, and even writing this blog. I would tend to agree that working from home does increase productivity and reduces overhead for the organizations using the work from home option. For example, as an adjunct faculty member, I did not have an office. Thus, working from home afforded me the opportunity to have virtual office hours from my home office space. Of course, that meant that I also needed to conduct all other activities outside of the classroom at home. Those included reading assignments, grading papers, conducting research, preparing class materials, making copies. All activities outside of the classroom were done while at home. Of course, classes were taught primarily on campus. However, I did teach online for one university and taught a blended course for another (half online and half face to face).
One university would have an adjunct faculty meeting once a semester. Another university had an adjunct faculty office, where faculty could come in to prepare for class or grade assignments. I likened this to the student room in graduate school. The faculty room was an open room with several computers and a couple of printers and a copier where faculty (students in graduate school) would come to work. However, the amount of work that was actually completed was minimal. Instead, it was time to socialize, discuss issues with other faculty, or maybe to print out papers before class. The adjunct faculty office, in general, was a distraction to getting work done, unless I arrived very early and made sure I was the only one there. I made sure not to wait to do my classroom preparations in the adjunct faculty office because chances were that my productivity would be very low. Instead, I longed for my own office at the university or at least a shared one with one other person.
Many employers and work from home employees will tout increased productivity as the best reason to move out of the office. Employers also experience decreased human resources issues, greater control over work hours (many work from home employees are monitored electronically), and reduced overhead. Work from home employees claim not having to deal with office politics, schedule flexibility, and reduced commute costs are all benefits of not going into the office. However, is working from home as wonderful as it is made out to be?
In my work from home experiences, I have found that some positions lend themselves more easily to work from options than others. Staff positions, such as medical transcriptionists or data analysts, do lend themselves more easily to working from home. In these positions, productivity and completing tasks in a timely fashion are of the utmost importance. I should note that many of these positions that provide the work from home option pay less than other positions in the organization. However, it is still of tremendous importance that staff feel connected to their organizations. Telecommuters may start to feel distanced or detached from the employer and feel like they have been "thrown to the wolves." I remember feeling that way as an adjunct faculty member. I felt disconnected from other faculty as well as the university at times. Also, there is a certain amount of knowledge and information that could be gained simply by physically being on-site at an organization. Employees could bounce ideas off of each other and gain insights into problems they might not have otherwise considered.
In my opinion, the work from home option should be available to staff level employees when productivity or a quiet, private space to work is of great importance. Nevertheless, those employees should be encouraged, if not required, to visit the physical organization at regular intervals. A work from home employee should never feel isolated or "thrown to the wolves." Moreover, the work from home option should be limited to staff rather than line positions. Line positions do not render themselves well to work from home option because of other demands of the job, such as employee evaluations, budgeting, strategic planning, and management. By this, I am not saying that line positions should not be able to do work at home, but the bulk of their time should be spent physically at the organization.
Since my first work at home experience, I have held several "work from home" jobs, including working as an adjunct faculty member, tutoring, and even writing this blog. I would tend to agree that working from home does increase productivity and reduces overhead for the organizations using the work from home option. For example, as an adjunct faculty member, I did not have an office. Thus, working from home afforded me the opportunity to have virtual office hours from my home office space. Of course, that meant that I also needed to conduct all other activities outside of the classroom at home. Those included reading assignments, grading papers, conducting research, preparing class materials, making copies. All activities outside of the classroom were done while at home. Of course, classes were taught primarily on campus. However, I did teach online for one university and taught a blended course for another (half online and half face to face).
One university would have an adjunct faculty meeting once a semester. Another university had an adjunct faculty office, where faculty could come in to prepare for class or grade assignments. I likened this to the student room in graduate school. The faculty room was an open room with several computers and a couple of printers and a copier where faculty (students in graduate school) would come to work. However, the amount of work that was actually completed was minimal. Instead, it was time to socialize, discuss issues with other faculty, or maybe to print out papers before class. The adjunct faculty office, in general, was a distraction to getting work done, unless I arrived very early and made sure I was the only one there. I made sure not to wait to do my classroom preparations in the adjunct faculty office because chances were that my productivity would be very low. Instead, I longed for my own office at the university or at least a shared one with one other person.
Many employers and work from home employees will tout increased productivity as the best reason to move out of the office. Employers also experience decreased human resources issues, greater control over work hours (many work from home employees are monitored electronically), and reduced overhead. Work from home employees claim not having to deal with office politics, schedule flexibility, and reduced commute costs are all benefits of not going into the office. However, is working from home as wonderful as it is made out to be?
In my work from home experiences, I have found that some positions lend themselves more easily to work from options than others. Staff positions, such as medical transcriptionists or data analysts, do lend themselves more easily to working from home. In these positions, productivity and completing tasks in a timely fashion are of the utmost importance. I should note that many of these positions that provide the work from home option pay less than other positions in the organization. However, it is still of tremendous importance that staff feel connected to their organizations. Telecommuters may start to feel distanced or detached from the employer and feel like they have been "thrown to the wolves." I remember feeling that way as an adjunct faculty member. I felt disconnected from other faculty as well as the university at times. Also, there is a certain amount of knowledge and information that could be gained simply by physically being on-site at an organization. Employees could bounce ideas off of each other and gain insights into problems they might not have otherwise considered.
In my opinion, the work from home option should be available to staff level employees when productivity or a quiet, private space to work is of great importance. Nevertheless, those employees should be encouraged, if not required, to visit the physical organization at regular intervals. A work from home employee should never feel isolated or "thrown to the wolves." Moreover, the work from home option should be limited to staff rather than line positions. Line positions do not render themselves well to work from home option because of other demands of the job, such as employee evaluations, budgeting, strategic planning, and management. By this, I am not saying that line positions should not be able to do work at home, but the bulk of their time should be spent physically at the organization.
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