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?