Poll: Some choose telecommuting over marriage

Holidays bring out the oddest press releases. Case in point: Valentine’s Day

Would you give up your spouse to telecommute? According to a new poll from TeamViewer, an online collaboration provider, some people would.

Here are their stats:

• Give up social media: 34%
• Give up chocolate: 29%
• Give up their smartphone: 25%
• Give up shopping: 20%
• Give up a raise: 17%
• Give up daily showers: 12%
• Give up spouse: 5%

Only five percent of those surveyed said they would sacrifice married bliss in order to telecommute. So guess which stat made the headlines? The lowest number.

What would you give up in order to telecommute?

Santa’s gone virtual

Now even Santa Claus works from home. This year, a Toronto shopping center replaced its physical Santa with videoconferences via Skype sessions. Kids can have up to ten minutes of Santa’s online time.

The Toronto Santa is free to customers; other Santas cost a bit, ranging from $5.99 the first minute and $2.99 each additional to $29.95 for ten minutes PLUS a personalized note from Santa AND a link to the video recording of the call. For those on a budget, there’s a bargain rate Santa-like chat using a 99-cent iPhone app.

For more information, check the Wall Street Journal’s chart for Comparing Santa Video Chats.

GSA will no longer pay for employee parking

Finally, a government agency’s parking and telework policies are in agreement

Earlier this week the US General Services Administration issued an email saying that it would no longer pay for employee parking at their federal office buildings in the capital area.

The email was from Cathleen Kronopolus, Regional Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service for the National Capital Region. Kronopolus wrote,

“As of August 1, 2011, all GSA personnel (employees and contractors) who park in a federal building or in a GSA-leased location in the National Capital Region will be required to pay for parking.
GSA recognizes that it has a responsibility to increase the sustainability of the Federal government and can do so by reducing the environmental impact of the green house gas emissions we generate. One way we can do that is by reducing incentives such as free parking. Charging for parking is commensurate with common private sector practice.
GSA encourages other modes of transportation (biking, rail, bus, etc.) and the use of telework/mobile work.”

Now, if other companies and government agencies follow suit, and stop subsidizing people to drive to work, maybe we’ll see a telework growth spurt.

Teleworking: anti-green?

Google sends me a daily email alert with telework news. My hackles came to full alert this morning when my inbox revealed this item: “5 Ways Telecommuters Aren't Green.”

I clicked on the link expecting an anti-telecommuting diatribe. Imagine my surprise when guest blogger Chelsea Gladden (Flexjobs’ Director of Marketing & PR) opened with a 2009 Cisco survey finding that their “employees stopped 47,320 metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released and saved $10.3 million in fuel costs each year by telecommuting.”

She went on to suggest five ways telecommuters could be MORE GREEN – doing things like recycling, having a green plant in the home office, turning off the A/C, etc. All good advice but I can’t help feeling annoyed by her misleading headline. Was pitching a press release to the sustainability audience just a cheap way to get publicity?

Workplace flexibility by the numbers: Buildings

40% Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of total U.S. energy consumption. [1]

40 to 50% of unoccupied offices with remote workers are vacant 40 to 50% of the time [2]

50% cut = 20% reduction A 50% reduction in building electricity use would immediately translate to a 20% reduction in overall energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. [3]

3.3 billion sq. ft.  If telework increased another 10%, US could save 3.3. billion square feet of office space.

60% of workplace executives predict decreased need for office space as a result of future workstyles [4]

£10,500 ($17,200) cost/desk/year [5]

£6.6m ($11 million) Cost of unused office space in a typical London office building of 150,000 square feet that houses 1,500 workers on a sharing ratio of 1.2 people per desk with cost per square foot per annum of £80 ($130)  [6]

Telework by the numbers: Commuting

9 out of 10 Americans commute to work by car [1]

40 hours An average American spends the equivalent of a 40-hour workweek stuck in traffic every year, wasting $100 billion in time and fuel. [2]

77%  Telecommuting can reduce automobile travel by 77% [3]

4.7 million cars Teleworking already takes more than 4.7 million cars off American roads daily [4]

7.2% of GDP For every $14 produced in the US economy, $1 is wasted just getting employees to work (a loss of US$1 trillion or 7.2% of the gross domestic product of the country. [5]

3% fewer cars For every 1% reduction in the number of cars on the road, there is a 3% reduction in traffic congestion. [6]

1 out of 4 miles 25% of all miles traveled in the US is traveled as a commute to/from work. [7]

2,000 miles Reducing the amount you drive by just 2,000 miles can save 1,100 pounds of CO2e a year, or 3% of per capita emissions. [8]

Note: For more about telework’s environmental benefits, see my guest blog, Going Green With Telework, for BROADBAND for AMERICA. 

Telecommuting a major draw for IT workers but IT management is clueless

Source: April Dice Report - Remote Control

Dice.com, a US-based online recruitment firm, released the results of a survey asking if tech workers would take a 10% pay cut to telecommute.

A third of respondents (35%) answered yes.

Alice Hill, managing director at Dice, commented on the study: "What's remarkable is that even after two years of flattish compensation, technology professionals are willing to sacrifice $7,800 on average to work from home."

 

"We asked this same question nearly three years ago and got nearly identical results," she added. "Telecommuting is a viable option companies can offer to retain and recruit top talent, while saving compensation costs. Maybe if we called it cloud commuting, CIOs would buy-in."