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Subject:Re: Do as I say, not as I do From:"William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com> To:<peter -at- knowhowpro -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:10:54 -0500
The amount of money wasted stuck in traffic is staggering. A recent study
shows $121 billion is wasted.
As to company costs, they save a lot really, but ONLY if it is full time
telecommuting, not the one day every two weeks sort of thing.
1. Reduced office space. Instead of office space for 1000 employees, they
may need it for 50. Of course, then their headquarter building doesn't look
so grand.
2. Less energy costs. Lights, heating , air conditioning, water, and so on
for 50 people is much less than 1000.
3. Less building costs. A 1000 space parking lot is an environmental
nightmare in some locations, so they need nearly the same amount of green
space (grass, trees, plants) so instead of 10 acres of asphalt and 10 acres
of grass, they could have 1 acre total. Now multiply by the price of prime
real estate.
4. Insurance. Insuring against the issues of employees sick or hurt on
company property is not cheap. But if they are at home, you don't have to.
5. You get more work out of them, if they are truly working. Unfortunately,
many part-time telecommuters view it as an extra vacation day. But those
fulltime ones frequently put in 45 and 50 hours, all while being paid only
40 hours.
6. Absenteeism is much less. Many don't go to work because a kid is sick or
they are waiting for a delivery or a friend to show up or whatever. But if
you work from home, you are with that sick kid AND still working. The 15
minutes away from the desk when that delivery guy shows up is much less than
the 8 to 12 pm you are gone for the typical service delivery.
If the company does the one day telecommuting, they have eliminate none of
the expenses and only added some. That is why it doesn't work. You'd think
those guys with MBAs would understand that, but they don't.
Internet access in most homes are to the point that business can easily be
handled. I've worked from home in lots of teleconferences with video since
2000. Back then, I was the first on the block with DSL and one of the few
individuals who had high speed Internet access in town. There were lots of
T1 lines, but for companies. I had full access to the documentation control
servers and to any other server I needed. The only thing that didn't work
was an IP phone. As I passed from Sprint into AT&T on the way to work, AT&T
put a massive slowdown on the access times. As such, IP phone was more like
CB radio - talk, wait, listen, wait, talk, wait, etc. It was hardly duplex.
If I routed through Europe and around the world, I was just as fast or
faster.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Erika Yanovich" <ERIKA_y -at- rad -dot- com>
To: "William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>;
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 1:58 AM
Subject: RE: Do as I say, not as I do
Elementary, Watson.
Don't print, turn off lights - be green to save expenses for the company.
Don't telecommute - don't be green, the company doesn't save on expenses and
doesn't care about yours.
Erika
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Gold" <peter -at- knowhowpro -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: Do as I say, not as I do
Telecommuting probably would become more acceptable to employers when/if
the supporting infrastructure is in place, especially if they don't have
to
pay for it themselves. Public or industry-based funding of access points
with enough bandwidth, could make teleconferencing, Face-Timing, Skyping,
etc., all be part of the deal, a "given," so every participant could have
the same access to coworkers from remote locations that exists in a
central
office.
The example of how much pollution and energy cost that electronic travel
saves over physical commuting, could support arguments for public funding.
Savings on road and bridge wear-and-tear for current infrastructure, and
the lessened need to build new infrastructure for ever-expanding traffic,
are only one potential source.
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