Weaker bonds with co-workers, perceived higher workloads may fuel their discontent.
By Garry Kranz Comments 0 | Recommend 0
The Downside to Telecommuting: Enabling people to work remotely often helps
companies offer better work/life balance,
which experts say contributes to improved retention of top performers and is a
boon to recruiting new talent. But what effect does this have on co-workers
whose jobs still require them to trudge to the office every day? A new study by
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute suggests they may become dissatisfied with
their jobs and eventually seek other employment—potentially cancelling out any
retention-related benefits of telecommuting. Timothy Golden, an RPI professor
who researched the topic by studying a sample of 240 professionals at an
undisclosed medium-size company, cautions that there may be several factors at
work. People who aren’t able to telecommute
may find the workplace less enjoyable, have weaker ties to co-workers and feel
less of an obligation to their organizations. They may also perceive that their
workload is increasing to make up for that of telecommuters.
Workforce Management contributing editor Garry Kranz is based in Richmond, Virginia. E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment.
Reproductions and distribution of the above article are strictly prohibited. To order reprints and/or request permission to use the article in full or partial format, please contact our Reprint Sales Manager at (732) 723-0569.
Comments
Guidelines: Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed
from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies
or any other policies governing this site. You are fully responsible for the content you post.
= Member Only
