respond to students who addressed a question other than the one you chose and then point out either 2 weaknesses with their post or add 2 additional supporting points. 175 words each and 2 additional references

original question: Telework, that is sometimes known as working from home or from a mobile setting outside the usual office etc., can be a very flexible opportunity for many employees and in some cases very positive for an employer. Discuss the possible advantages of such a system as well as its negative pitfalls.

1. Teleworking is an option that is offered at some employers have come up with. During these times within society, due to COVID-19, some essential workers have been given the opinion to telework. Teleworking is defined as working from anywhere at any time (Pyöriä, 2018). Teleworking allows employees the ability to do their jobs at the location of their choice (Verbeke, & Schulz, 2008). Most of the time, employees must send some type of paperwork to their supervisors that details how long they plan telework, as well as the activities or tasks that they plan to do during the teleworking time.

The act of teleworking has many advantages for employers. The first advantage of teleworking involves no commuting. When a person does not have to commute, it can save the person more time, as well as gas to fuel a vehicle, or the traffic that can come with driving to work (Pyöriä, 2018). The second advantage of teleworking is the allowed flexibility that it provides workers. Workers who work from home can take advantage of the space which comes with a personal bathroom, and even a kitchen to take quick breaks in the comfort of one’s own space (Verbeke, & Schulz, 2008). The third advantage suggest that there is more productivity that is related to teleworking. A worker is 5 times more likely to do more work and be more productive in the comfort of their own setting, rather than a setting that they are forced to come to (Verbeke, & Schulz, 2008). Teleworking allows people who rather work alone, to have the opportunity to do so, thus having work done more thoroughly (Pyöriä, 2018). The last advantage of teleworking is described as employee retention. This allows for employees to stay at the job longer due to the advantages such as teleworking that they are allowed (Verbeke, & Schulz, 2008). Employee retention increases job satisfaction which means that even when new employees are hired to the job, they also are more likely to stay (Pyöriä, 2018).

A disadvantage of teleworking is that one can easily be distracted by other things that could possibly be around such as children, family members, television or other outside things (Verbeke, & Schulz, 2008). Some organizations have not used the act of teleworking for their employees for this very reason. Some believe the act of teleworking will negatively affect the operations of the organizations or the goals. Implementing teleworking proves to show more advantages over disadvantages.

Pyöriä, P. (2018). Telework

Verbeke, A., Schulz, R., Greidanus, N., Hambley, L., & NetLibrary, I. (2008). Growing the virtual workplace: The integrative value proposition for telework. Cheltenham, UK;Northampton, MA;: Edward Elgar. doi:10.4337/9781848440241

2. Due to a recent pandemic (COVID-19), teleworking IS the new norm. No longer is working from home a privilege. I have always been torn between working from home and here is my insight on it. There are a lot of positives. One is that an employee may have a flexible schedule. They can clock in when they want and be in their pajamas. Azarbouyeh and Naini found that “…teleworking has maintained good impact on the quality of life for both groups of managers and regular employees” (2014). They can also multitask while at work and maybe knock out some laundry while working from home. Another example is when a parent has to physically walk their child to the bus stop and now, they are able to. More positives include when there is bad weather. I live in Colorado and there will be days of massive amounts of snow overnight. Instead of risking an employee getting into a wreck or even at best, leaving an extra hour early for work, you as a manager know that they are safe in their house. There would be NO excuse for an employee to be late to work due to car issues, traffic, public transportation running late…etc. If an employee is sick, then you do not have to risk them going to work and getting everyone else sick. They could still potentially do some work while at home and not put others as risk.

Also, if there is an entire office working from home, then that same organization does not have to pay rent or office space on a building. They do not have to buy office supplies, hire a cleaning company…etc. Financially it makes more sense to have employees working from home, on their own dime. Pre pandemic, different organizations could use teleworking as incentive. If an employee has worked with the organization for a certain amount of time or is performing well then once a week or so, they could be trusted to work from home. That same employee now feels valued and trusted by the organization and are given more freedom. With that freedom, the standard of work productivity could be raised which is a double-edged sword.

Teleworking also has its negatives though. One is that if an employee is working remotely, let’s say even in a different state, it could get messy when dealing with taxes. Also, without that human interaction, some people may struggle psychologically. Kamerade and Burchill claim, “…working at home and heavy use of technologies will reduce the need for face-to-face communication and lead to the loss of the link with society, increased individualistic orientation (Renfro, 1985); thus forming an ‘autistic’ society-a society where individuals are isolated each from another” (2004). They need to be able to walk to down the hall and talk to other employees. They need that time away from their house and family to be able to separate the two. Some employees may struggle to understand some materials or any of the workload and feel that they do not have any outlets available to acquire the necessary information without someone being physically present to answer their questions. Another negative of teleworking is when employees become untrustworthy. It may be hard to track their level of productivity and how much time is actually spent working versus household errands. Working from home may also a variety of distractions. For example, every time the mail man delivers a package, my dog starts barking. This could create an unprofessional environment and customers, or other members of the organization may notice this.

References:

Azarbouyeh, A., & Jalali Naini, S. G. (2014). A study on the effect of teleworking on quality of work life. Management Science Letters, 4(6), 1063-1068. doi:10.5267/j.msl.2014.5.027

Kamerade, D., & Burchell, B. (2004). Teleworking and participatory capital: Is teleworking an isolating or a community-friendly form of work? European Sociological Review, 20(4), 345-361. doi:10.1093/esr/jch030