Telecommuting Poses Security, Privacy Risks

As telecommuting becomes more prevalent, critical issues begin to surface, and PC World’s Ellen Messme looks at what can be done to address them. “Allowing employees to work from home and telecommute poses security and privacy risks that are not being addressed adequately by business or government, according to a study released Tuesday by consulting firm Ernst & Young in partnership with the Washington-based advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology.”

United States: Workers´ Compensation Coverage Expanded To Telecommuters

Mondaq’s Kara Shea reports on a landmark victory for telecommuters’ rights and protection under the law. “Work-from-home arrangements are a growing trend. And it’s no wonder with benefits to employers such as reduced overhead and increased retention as well as to employees, who avoid high gas prices and can work in their comfy slippers if they like. “But as we’ve all heard, most accidents happen in the home. The Tennessee Supreme Court recently addressed for the first time the issue of whether workers’ compensation coverage extends to employees working in home offices.

Telecommuting Is Bad For The Environment

Controversial at best, Klaus Kneale of Forbes makes a case against telecommuting’s impact on the environment. Interestingly, the comments are full of vigorous opposition. “High gas prices are making many more people consider working from home. The idea is to save some money on gas and–as an added benefit–to be kinder to the environment. But in fact, telecommuting is often worse for the planet than driving to work each and every day.”

Telecommuting and the trail system

From Oakville, Ivor Davies provides his insights on the benefits as well as pitfalls of working at home. “There are so many possible permutations of a telecommuting home life the imponderables are impossible to call but everybody will have to adjust and some will not like the changes.”

The Telecommuting Imperative
Harvard Business Publishing’s Bronwyn Fryer rants about managers’ conservative attitudes, and proposes starting points to ease the transition from traditional office work to telecommuting. “I recently ran across a press release from Korn/Ferry International with the headline, ‘61% of Executives Surveyed Believe Telecommuters are Less Likely to Advance Compared to Employees Working in Traditional Office Settings.’ Though the survey is dated from 2007, and “more people are telecommuting, I doubt that overall attitudes have changed much in the interim,” said Korn/Ferry managing director Jeff Hocking. “A lot of executives consider work a contact sport.”

Trading Motors for Modems

Patricia Daddona looks at the telecommuting trend in Connecticut, led by progressive employers who support the setup in order to gain a competitive edge in their businesses. “They found that 60 percent of the 350 employers who responded favor pursuing telecommuting to help keep or recruit workers and to cut fuel costs, he said. In addition, 37 percent of those companies would be likely to develop telecommuting programs if $4-a-gallon gasoline hit $5.”

Telecommuters need more than e-mail and a broadband connection

The Economist makes a strong case for telepresence to bridge the gap between the office experience and the mobile worker. “But as experience with telecommuting has accumulated, doubts about some of its reputed benefits have begun to surface. For instance, Korn/Ferry, a recruiting firm based in Los Angeles, finds the careers of telecommuters are believed to stagnate—as out-of-sight translates into out-of-mind.”

WORKPLACE STRESS: Employee therapy on the upswing

Feeling stressed? You’re not alone. The Courier Post Online reports on rising work-related stress due to the current economic crunch. “Requests for therapists increased 15 percent to 20 percent in the last three months, primarily driven by concerns about the financial situation,” says Richard Chaifetz, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based ComPsych,  a large employee-assistance mental health program.

Using Mediation in the Workplace to Add Value and Save Money

BharatBasha.com gives some tips on handling workplace animosites before they escalate. Bottomline: start early. “Mediation of all types of workplace disputes can happen at any stage in the life cycle of the conflict. Intervention via informal mediation by an impartial third party works and can easily be measured as a cost effective tool.”

Clearing Up a Blurry Work Life:

An interview with LifeHacker’s organizational guru Gina Trapani in which she talks about work and getting back to basics: “Many things on Lifehacker are my way of counseling myself. The whole point of thinking about this low-level, rubber-to-the-road stuff is to get to the bigger questions of where you want to be. And then to analyze if a task serves your larger goal.”