Telecommuting ??
I have just joined this site within the last 24 hours and find it astonishing that there has been "NO" mention of liberating the work force?
I worked and lived in the DC area for 40 years and since the invention of the PC and internet connectivity, find it hard to believe that all these millions of people sit in traffic for hours on end to sit in front of a PC, connected to the same internet as in their homes.
"WHY" do we continue to do this???? Lets just forget about the millions of barrels of oil we could save, our time spent traveling to and from, the fact that the more fuel we consume the higher the prices paid for things like FOOD, the more our employer has to shell out to provide you with a conditioned work space in which effects how much they can pay you, etc, etc.
As long as we all can get together and shoot the poop at the coffee pot about non work related items, wasting company productivity, etc. Makes it all worth while, wasting all these resources, right???
I would like to suggest to all of you here, Congress, our local leaders, etc. that congress puts forth a bill that would give the business owner an incentive for liberating their work force, just makes sense to me at least……
Thoughts??
Chris
I worked and lived in the DC area for 40 years and since the invention of the PC and internet connectivity, find it hard to believe that all these millions of people sit in traffic for hours on end to sit in front of a PC, connected to the same internet as in their homes.
"WHY" do we continue to do this???? Lets just forget about the millions of barrels of oil we could save, our time spent traveling to and from, the fact that the more fuel we consume the higher the prices paid for things like FOOD, the more our employer has to shell out to provide you with a conditioned work space in which effects how much they can pay you, etc, etc.
As long as we all can get together and shoot the poop at the coffee pot about non work related items, wasting company productivity, etc. Makes it all worth while, wasting all these resources, right???
I would like to suggest to all of you here, Congress, our local leaders, etc. that congress puts forth a bill that would give the business owner an incentive for liberating their work force, just makes sense to me at least……
Thoughts??
Chris
Views: 0
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dale Nelson on -
We could ask: why are the feather consumer and the feather producer located so far apart? And we might ask why the grocery does not have a hot house on the roof producing produce right at the spot it is sold. Using technology available to Julius Ceasar. And producing in a controled environment where salmonella and ecoli can be kept off the food.
We need to rethink and reorganize a lot of things.
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Permalink Reply by Daryl Oster on -
Telecommuting is good -- but as ATT used to say it's "the next best thing to being there" virtuality is getting good -- being there is still best. I'll take a warm hug over the hottest web se* any day.
Also, even if telecommuting and staying at home 24-7, we all still rely totally on TRANSPORTATION -- the master key to basic survival. We do not depend on oil, we depend on transportation -- we cannot avoid the need for transportation it is a true dependency that will never go away. Unfortunately transportation presently depends on oil production, and oil production is peaking.
The PickensPlan to transition vehicles to natural gas is a great start toward 100% energy independence. ETT implementation will accelerate reaching the goal faster than any alternative fuel scheme. Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT)™ is patented transportation technology that can accomplish 50 times more transportation per kWh than electric cars or trains, it is cleaner, lower cost, safer, faster, and electric. See www.et3.com for more info, or contact Daryl Oster at et3[at symbol]et3[dot symbol]com , *352*257*1310* Crystal River FL 34423-1423
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Permalink Reply by Pat Carroll (gpa) on -
oh and we can use all the unused parking lots to grow trees back where they were in the first place, wow, we would have come full circle.
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Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on -
...and THEN we can build out the open spaces in the tree branches for adult club houses...and use tin cans with string attached to "network" and "telecommute" among the trees.
"Golly, your shure do blend" Milisa Torme in "My Cousin Vinny"
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Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on
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Hi Chris,
in response to my "G-Man" comment does that mean that you would feel more at home if your idea were ensconced in some governmental or bureaucratic shrine? Government stupidity and citizen malaise has gotten us INTO this mess and continued government stupidity and citizen malaise will not get us out of it. Since the concepts of government function and stupidity seem to be inexorably tied at the hip it seems that we are left with the electorate trying desperately to get over its terminal case off malaise.
I have SEEN the status quo trekking to work at the Pentagon on the beltway and I even have a friend who traveled the route for 7 years from Walkersville, MD twice a day. He was primarily needed for his mental expertise (who and what he knew and not what he could physically do). As a full bird Colonel in the Joint Chiefs of Staff 5 section. It is assumed that his "military function" (what and who he knew) could be telecommuted to his house. But the fact is, a military job (even a remote airborne sniper running a predator drone) that is executed at the console of a computer keyboard is NOT done in the warmth and isolation of ones bedroom. THAT is why that funny shaped building sitting in a large swamp just outside the nations’ capital was built, to CONSOLIDATE personnel for the benefit of interaction and human communication. Military logistics is a team effort not well suited to telecommuting.
Telecommunications, where it is a viable methodology, is WELL on its way (out of) this country, to places like India. "Helow, this is Boob, how may I helep you today”.
After all, the base concept is really simple, a handset, copper wire, an ability to read the English language (speaking it is NOT high on the agenda) and a computer monitor with all of the troubleshooting trees displayed. "Mr. Lary, tank you fer waiting. I am sorry about the delay. Can I get you to turn off your modem please"?
I'm NOT CALLING about my MODEM. I'm callin’ about my HARDDRIVE.
So sorry. One moment please..........Lary? tank you fer waiting. I am sorry abot the delay".......
So much for the joys of "telecommuting"
I would like to hear from you with some specificity on WHOSE jobs (in the DC area) you think are a candidate for telecommuting, their relative numbers, AND how many people are currently functioning that way.
Really, it sounds (telecommuting) like a nanny agenda issue from the group called NAGS (National Association of Gals)
Do they STILL have those "work at home jobs" were people lick envelopes in their spare time? I thought they invented a machine for that?
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Permalink Reply by Charles A. Gestner on -
It seems that you are assuming that everyone can telecommute; how is your auto mechanic going to fix your car from his home?
How is a truck driver going to deliver his cargo sitting at home?
If sales people don't have "Face time" with their customers, they won't have any. I wish I could supervise a group of locomotive repair machinists from the comfort of my home.
It seems to me that telecommuting is still an exception to the rule and always will be, it's a service driven economy, you have to be there on the front lines making the wheels turn.
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Permalink Reply by Donald Moreland on -
To Chris' point, he isn't talking about all or nothing when it comes to telecommuting. For those of us that have transistioned to the virtual office it works like this:
I am a Sales Executive, when I need customer face time, I travel. When I don't, I work from home, or the nearest Starbucks, etc., rather than go to a company office to "show" my boss and my co-workers that I am working. A Sales office is one of the worst use of office space on the planet. If you're in the office, you're not doing your job. However the majority of my "job" is on the phone and online, whether I am emailing, researching or writing proposals. In the past, all the value a Sales office had was company paid long distance, keeping a library of Sales brochures and allow for the weekly Sales meeting for a bit of a ra-ra-ra. Today's results oriented approach, cell phones with unlimited long distance, WebEx and electronic documents negates the need for the traditional Sales office. In the telecommunications industry, most of the engineers and project managers who install, configure, support and coordinate, do it in their pajamas from home!
While I am sure there are a lot more workers that could telecommute effectively, don't assume that some of this hasn't already happened. There is a reason for the explosive growth in broadband solutions, DSL, FIOS, Cable, etc. There are a lot of "white" collar jobs already telecommuting!
If you have ever been to the few Call Centers left in the US, the way their people are managed isn't by someone keeping an eye on them or listening to there phone etiquette. Its by management reports that detail the number of calls handled, wait times, customer satisfaction ratings, etc. So why are they sitting in those 2 foot wide cubicles?? More and more stateside Call Centers are using tele-workers on VPN networks. Do you think all those phone sex workers are sitting in an office? LOL!
Telecommuting is a valid discussion but it isn't going to stop the $700 billion that we're sending our enemies, but it can ( and does) contribute in a reduction of miles driven.
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Permalink Reply by Jack on -
My partner sits a PC all day doing travel bookings for a corporation. The office is half virtual at home and the other half fight traffic and use carbon points to get to a desk that could be at home. We've been begging the CEO to rethink this idea. Send everyone home. The cost is actually lower with all the telecon fees than renting office space.
The reason they are not doing it? One manager, a woman in her fifties, who "likes" to be able to kaffee klatsch all day long at the desks at the traditional office set up. She fights this tooth and nail. She is barely competent on a PC herself but somehow got into this high level managerial position and the upper management won't get rid of her. There is a real generational divide on what technology does. Older workers still see the PC or Mac as some sort of typewriter that sends out magical letters without a stamp.
Congress is just as bad. Most of them have no clue as to how to Google, or use the net other than to send email. It is generational. Just look at Senator John McSame.
We deserve the idiots we keep electing.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Worthington on -
The way I see things and perhaps I am incorrect here is, that there is an "immediate" need for financial relief for most of America.
The price of oil and energy has been skyrocketing upwards essentially over night driving up the costs on absolutely everything. I am totally behind all these things that this site is trying to accomplish with alievating our need for foreign oil and gaining "our" energy independence, thus driving the costs back down and keeping the money here.
The 'PROBLEM" is that wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas automobiles, drilling here, etc, etc. is "NOT" going to able to meet "our" needs "today", this will be several years out and "we" need something going on now.
Things such as "telecommuting" is a "now thing" if it were simply accepted and it is my opinion that "if" it was simply promoted by "our" elected officials, it would be.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Worthington on
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Looks like were driving a little less this summer due to the high prices and see what has happened? Gas dropped in price ;-)
"If" all that could telecommute, would, think about how much lower "we" could get this pricing down until "we" could put more permanent solutions in place.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Worthington on
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Bump :-)
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Permalink Reply by Freddie D. Harrell on -
I telecommute. I live in Fort Worth and my office is in New York. I have been doing it for 2 years. It saves 58 miles of driving a business day (12,860 miles a year). I have my own equipment and eliminated the needed office space required at my office. I have not been to the office in the two last years. Our company is in the process of expanding the program. I am much more efficient and effective in this environment.
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