[wordup] Telecommuting: Not an Easy Fix

[Adam Shand]

I've been following the whole "work club" / third space / fourth space 
thing and I think it's really interesting.

If anyone has any links, books, recommendations on how these ideas have 
evolved and what experiments there have been it would be much 
appreciated.

Adam.

From: http://workclub.blogs.com/gate3/2005/04/telecommuting_n.html

Telecommuting: Not an Easy Fix

There it is, on the front page of today’s Financial Times, in a list of 
energy saving recommendations issued in a proposal by the IEA 
(International Energy Association). Point #5 is the simple statement: 
“Telecommuting: Inform public of benefits of working from home”.

The article, and it’s prominence on page 1 is prompted by the rocketing 
price of oil – and heightened anxiety caused by the Goldman Sachs 
report of prices as high as $105/barrel.

Reducing long commute distances IS a significant part of the answer. 
The problem though is that, as we know from the past two decades in 
which telecommuting programs have been tried in various forms, more, 
much more, is going to be needed than simply “informing the public” of 
its virtues. Proponents have for too long oversimplified what it’s 
going to take to shift the modern post-industrial workforce to accept 
telecommuting as their norm. Telecommuting isn’t just another commuting 
option – like choosing to pick up passengers that allow driving in the 
commute lane. It is/will come about as part of a major shift in 
organization design, work patterns, urban patterns and culture and will 
be enabled by a myriad of new technologies (already here) and more 
importantly, social institutions and service industries.

Of course, what I’m getting at here is the WorkClub – or to use the 
definition I’ve been using lately – networks of ubiquitous, shared 
(aggregated) work spaces that provide access to work support services 
and technologies, social networking and learning opportunities. And the 
key characteristic of the WorkClub is that it should be really close 
(say 5 – 10 minutes commute) to where someone LIVES (which is why they 
need to be ubiquitous, and provide common work systems when they are 
away from home (which is why they need to be a network).

So, why is telecommuting as it is mostly promoted not so simple – and 
therefore not succeeding to the degree that it is going to make a big 
enough impact on oil use. Like anything complex, the reasons are many 
and interrelated. Here are a few (discussed at greater length below);

1. WORKING AT HOME IS NOT THE (WHOLE) ANSWER.
2. SHIFTING THE COSTS INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT FROM CORPORATIONS TO 
WORKERS.
3. JUSTIFYING THE SHIFT OF INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT BACK TO THE 
CORPORATION
4. CHANGING CORPORATE STRUCTURES TO REALIZE THE FULL BENEFIT OF 
DISTRIBUTED WORK
5. CHANGING URBAN STRUCTURES TO FULLY ENABLE DISTRIBUTED WORK

1. WORKING AT HOME IS NOT THE (WHOLE) ANSWER.

At least not for the majority of people who, as it turns out, really 
NEED to be around other people to stay focused, stay awake and stay 
inspired. And it turns out that those other people don’t need to be 
their boss, or even co-workers; just other people who are equally 
intent as they are in getting a good days work done.

2. SHIFTING THE COSTS INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT FROM CORPORATIONS TO 
WORKERS.

One of the unspoken realities of past working from home arrangements is 
that it has been a massive shift of infrastructural costs from employer 
to employee. Few corporations, till now, have had very generous 
programs for covering the myriad costs of keeping an office functional. 
This will have to change if employees are going to be willing, in large 
numbers, to give up corporate privileges if there is also a 
corresponding cost they will have to bear.

3. JUSTIFYING THE SHIFT OF INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT BACK TO THE 
CORPORATION

At the same time, few corporations will be willing to pay incremental 
costs of telework arrangements if there are not concomitant savings and 
productivity benefits. To gain the former, this means they’re going to 
have to shut down significant amounts of corporate real estate and 
services. To gain the latter, they’re going to have to provide 
employees with more than just a DSL line at home. They’re going to have 
to create, or subscribe to programs, systems and services that give 
their employees the best resources, training and technology – some of 
which simply won’t be feasible if they are chained to their home office 
any more than if they are chained to a cubicle.

4. CHANGING CORPORATE STRUCTURES TO REALIZE THE FULL BENEFIT OF 
DISTRIBUTED WORK

Well, I didn’t say it was going to be easy or painless – if people are 
going to work in a fundamentally different way, organizations are going 
to have to have a fundamentally different relationship with their 
employees. We are already seeing this in the move to free agency. But 
that is just the beginning – and it is a challenge that is fraught will 
all the complexity of evolving labor relations.

5. CHANGING URBAN STRUCTURES TO FULLY ENABLE DISTRIBUTED WORK

Now that we have overhauled work, the corporation and work support 
institutions, if we’re really going to reduce profligate consumption of 
energy (even if it is renewable) and trade out insane commutes for 
something more humane, the very urban fabric is going to have to 
change. Putting it simplistically, people will work, as in pre 
industrial revolution cities, where they live. And that will mean fewer 
industrial parks, smaller corporate campuses, mixed use "CBD"s and 
residential areas as dotted with work support facilities (I’ll continue 
to call them WorkClubs) as they are now with churches, restaurants and 
coffee shops (which may well play a significant roll in this evolving 
urban design – but more of that later).

When you look at it this way, “telecommuting” is simply too small of an 
idea to capture the richness of the opportunity and the complexity of 
the challenge we have, as a society, ahead of us to move away from our 
addiction to oil. If “informing the public about the benefits of 
working from home” starts us out on that path, I’m all for it.

Posted by Neil Goldberg on April 01, 2005