New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) continue to influence our lives on the professional, economic, social and family levels. As a consequence, we are faced with new values, new relations and new behaviours which we have to adopt or to adapt to.
One of the innovations brought by these technologies -and in front of which we are still perplexed and hesitant- is telecommuting or distance work which is presented as a means to reduce costs and to increase productivity.
The fundamental characteristics of telecommuting are:
a- The place of work is no longer the same, it is distance work.
b- There is a new form of organization of work.
c- The interactions between the employee and the employer are achieved primarily thanks to the means of telecommunications.
All experiments in this field show that telecommuting has many advantages and opens new prospects for a better productivity, a better life for the individual and the family. Yet, experts point out that there are still a few drawbacks.
I- Advantages:
a- Advantages from the point of view of the telecommuter:
decrease of stress and increase of effectiveness.
better integration of family life and professional life: telecommuters can better reconcile employment and family life.
fewer absences due to family urgencies, mainly for telecommuters with children.
reduction of the time wasted in transportation especially in public means of transport. Employees have much more spare time which they could devote to para professional activities (training, studies...) or to valorising leisure activities.
decrease of the expenses related to transport, clothing and meals taken outside, thus improvement of the purchasing power and the standard of life.
increase of autonomy and responsibility.
b- Advantages from the point of view of the employer:
increase of productivity.
possibility of recruitment of high quality employees.
reduction of space costs.
reduction of costs related to absences and delays.
c- Advantages from the point of view of the community:
decrease of unemployment rates in less industrialized areas through maintaining people in their regions.
reduction of pollution due to road traffic.
reduction of traffic jam and road accidents.
increase of population stability.
reduction of costs of stress-related diseases.
II- Disadvantages:
a- Disadvantages from the point of view of the telecommuter:
possibility of exposure to loneliness.
fear of being cut from professional environment (office, colleagues…)
difficulty of reconciling family life and professional life for those who do not know how to organize and manage their work well.
difficulty in managing time for those who are not well-organized.
possibility of negative effects on the career: slowness of promotion, likeliness to be forgotten, neglected…
fear of female agents of telecommuting as a means which might accentuate or revive career disparity with their male colleagues.
b- Disadvantages from the point of view of the employer:
fear of an excessive independence or loss of control of agents.
fear of the changes resulting from the passage to telecommuting: need for changing all work methods and communication with the personnel and the users.
fear of novelty and its probable results in general.
III- Profile of a good telecommuter:
The personality of the candidate is determining. A good telecommuter is independent and autonomous ; he/ she works with clear objectives and with little supervision. He/ She shows proof of responsibility, reliability, self-discipline and respect of priorities and deadlines. He/ She generally does not have a direct relationship with the management of human resources or he/ she is able to manage them remotely.
To be able to succeed in his/ her work effectively, a telecommuter needs the support of his/ her employer, to remain in contact with his/ her company or administration and to pursue the goals which are allotted to him/ her by regularly communicating information on the evolution of his/ her own work and that of his/ her collaborators.
IV- Conclusion:
The possibilities offered by the NICT in the domain of telecommuting, teletraining and teleconferencing are enormous. Consequently, reflecting seriously on this new flexible method of work is essential in an era where the technological know-how is in constant evolution and where competitiveness has become more merciless than ever.
In the developing countries, it is high time that mentalities evolve and open on the experiences achieved in the domain of telecommuting and teletraining in the developed countries. Governments are called to combat reactionary tendencies which are opposed systematically to progress and which prevent the others from advancing in this way. They ought to sensitize and to encourage employers to take measures towards the implementation of telecommuting.
High School English Teacher, ICT Trainer, Collaborative Projects Coordinator.
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