Web Commuting on the Rise

Whether you call it web commuting, remote working, telecommuting, or working from home, trends are pushing this to be increasingly attractive alternative for both employers and employees.

• Jun 16, Master the Art of Working Remotely
• Jun 18, New research shows working remotely causes more problems
• Jun 19, Are Remote Workers Good or Bad for Business
• May 23, My 9 hour commute, the joy of remote working
• May 16, 5 Tips for Keeping it Personal When Web Commuting
• Mar 9, Forrester Research, 3 Million US Telecommuters by 2016

Obviously, web commuting isn't for everyone and some positions absolutely require more face to face time or meeting attendance. Other factors to consider are the culture of the company. I had a friend whom worked at a company where the new CEO started enforcing time sheets for check-in/check-out, let alone any discussion for remote working. Needless to say, people went from being passionate & working late and weekends, doing whatever it took to get design done or for a new customer, to later doing the bare minimum and looking elsewhere for more creative employment.

The point being that giving people the flexibility to work when they want, where they want, and for as long or short as they want, can be a good thing and could be done more. Especially in design or development, where some creativity sparked by passionately trying to solve a problem, getting to that "Eureka" moment. Sure, all companies would love their employees to be doing this all the time but the culture & environment needs to both accommodate and encourage these activities.

Probably the biggest drawback of web commuting is not having the "team" effect or having a bad apple that abuses the system. The team effect can be made up for with other social activities, instant messenger, regular webcams, and other all-in-the-same-boat type of projects. The worst is the bad apple, someone whom is always working from home but everyone knows is doing squat. Lack of engagement, not being proactive, defensive, redefines the term passive aggressive. While this could be blamed partially on web commuting, out of sight-out of mind, it's more likely just a lazy employee, and wouldn't be any different if they were working in office.

All the new web and SaaS based applications will only make web commuting more attractive. For years now, people have already been able to access most of their private & work networks as needed. The difference being all these web apps, social networking included, starting to help make up for some the team talk or water cooler discussions that were previously missing. This removes some of isolation aspects, getting closer still to ideal virtual office.