Telecommuting Taking Its Toll?

Whatever the reasons, one cannot deny that telecommuting
does take a toll on a person's life.  And,
far from achieving work-life balance, for many, this can actually just throw
them off-balance

Telecommuting is big, especially in the US. The flexibility
to work from home is a draw that employees cannot resist. Gartner estimates that
across the world 80 mn people worked form home one day a week in 2005. About 44%
of US companies offered at least some telecommuting options in 2005, says a
survey of large employers by Mercer Human Resources Consulting. And, according
to the telecommuting advocacy group, Telework Coalition, about 45 mn American
workers telecommuted regularly last year.

Allowing employees to work from home, or from wherever they
are, is a result of new technologies that have zapped out the distance factor.
Not having to commute for 4 hours a day, being more productive, a better
work-life balance, reduced costs of absenteeism...all have contributed to the
case for a company to include telecommuting options.

In this light, last month's news about HP canceling the
telecommuting option for almost all of its IT employees came as a shock to many.
Gartner also sees the rate of growth slowing down from 12% to half of that over
the next 3 years. The reasons for the decision: to have more face to face
interaction, and to enable the employees to learn quickly from each other, and
to ensure that when people work from outside office-they actually work and not
goof off. Whatever the reasons, one cannot deny the fact that telecommuting does
take a toll on a person.

It's Not as Free as We Think: The Internet is a free
place. Everyone's free to go where they want, do want they want. So they came
up with the idea that there could be an online content repository that would be
free for all to use, free for all to edit. Truly open, free, democratic! Thus
Wikipedia was born, and till Jan 2006, according to the site, it accumulated 3.4
mn articles, with 9,437 new articles coming in every day. The Jan 2006 data also
shows that there are about 135,930 contributors, of which there are 47,926
active ones. Sounds successful. Except that Wiki has had to bring in some
controls because it is now a victim of vandalism. For instance, articles on
George W Bush are not open to all to edit, or the ones on the topic of Jews.
Some are fully protected, some semi for a limited period, while some others
indefinitely. As usage of a free encyclopedia, or for that matter any content
that is free for all to edit and use, grows, instances of vandalism will
definitely grow. And the site could have to go in for stricter measures. It
could even end up as just another online site which has its own set of content
writers and editors. Much like an encyclopedia in printed form. So are we coming
full circle? And will blogs go the same way?