Will the future of work involve any travel at all?

by Jim Ware

June 23, 2008 at 7:33 pm · Filed under Distributed Work, Web Commuting

I think we may be at a genuine tipping point. The rising price of gasoline and other energy appears to finally be affecting people’s actual behaviors – on the job and off. There’s growing evidence that sales of gas-guzzling SUV’s and trucks are dropping like a rock, while more and more people are trying to find ways to reduce business travel, including personal commuting.

I’ve seen two major articles just this week about companies considering four-day work weeks, launching or expanding telecommuting programs, and doing everything they can to reduce inter-office and (sometimes) even client-related travel. And in our own consulting work we’ve even heard one CEO think out loud that she may have to offer her employees incentives or subsidies to come into the office to meet with their colleagues.

Here are the articles (well, it’s one article from the International Herald Tribune and one press release from the Institute For Corporate Productivity).

The Herald Tribune (June 10):

“As gas prices rise, some US employers look at cutting down on workers commutes”

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (June 23):

“With Fuel Prices Rising, U.S. Companies Work Quickly to Reduce Employee Travel”

I found this paragraph from the Herald Tribune story particularly intriguing -and a sign of things to come:

This week [the week of June 9], the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation requiring the head of each federal agency to set policies allowing qualified workers to work from home or another convenient location [emphasis added]. Giving relief from high gas prices was one factor cited by the sponsor, Rep. Danny Davis, an Illinois Democrat.

What’s happening in your organization? Would you rather work from home (or nearby) one or two days a week, or commute as usual but do it for four ten-hour days? What other things are you considering as a way to reduce driving time and cost for your employees?

Special thanks to Lisa Horner of Citrix Online for pointing me to the Herald Tribune article.

Tags: telecommuting fourdayweek gasprices futureofwork productivity

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4 Comments »

I’m self-employed, and working from home, and I wouldn’t ever consider a car commute.
That said, I think traditional “telecommuting” is not the future, because it results in social isolation. I fully believe in co-working, which means you working together with others in the same room or building, but not necessarily with colleagues. That would be more of a coincidence. If there were co-working facilities in every neighborhood, it would remove the need for driving, yet keep the social aspect of the workplace. In fact, I think it would result in an enormous boom in creativity and exchange of ideas, because people from different companies will naturally engage in conversation with each other there.

Thanks for your comment. My experience completely parallels yours. And I wholeheartedly endorse the idea of “co-working” facilities. There are many more of them like citizenspace springing up not only in the Bay Area but around the country. I am convinced we’re seeing the very early stages of a wholesale revolution in the “landscape” of office facilities. Someday the idea of commuting to a downtown skyscraper will be as obsolete as the buggy whip.

For more on that concept, see our article from a couple of years ago, “Business Community Centers,”

Working from home is ideal. You most likely save at least an hour a day that would be used for commuting, you are comfortable, more productive and clearly save money on lunch. I do agree that it is very isolating and lonely depending on who you are and what you do. If you are on the phone a lot during the day, not much changes, but if you constantly converse with your coworkers about work issues, then a lot will change. I strongly believe though, that if you do work from home, you need to have a social outlet during the day. Whether that’s meeting people for lunch, exercise or whatever. That is where I completely agree with co-working sites like citizen space. It allows you to choose where you want to work, but still have a social environment.

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