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Are you spending too much time here?
I know what it's like to fear for your job. Earlier this year, the publishing company where I work fired more than half of our department's employees.
I survived. But it certainly made me -- and the department's remaining employees -- uneasy.
Fortunately, I'd already been telecommuting, for several years. But if it was a move I had only been considering, would I have the courage to ask my bosses after these firings to let me work out of the office two to three days a week?
I don't know.
An interesting story in the Los Angeles Times today addressed this very issue. The writer, Annys Shin, reports on the growing number of employees who are giving up on work-life benefits -- including telemarketing -- in an effort to do absolutely nothing to offend their bosses.
Experts quoted in the story say that these employees are working longer hours without complaint. They're taking on extra jobs and responsibilities with no expectation of earning pay for them. And they're certainly not asking their bosses to let them work from home.
I understand this. No one wants to get fired today, not with the national unemployment rate now at 8.5 percent. Taking on extra work and not asking for raises or other perks is one way that employees can make themselves indispensable.
Problem is, no employee is truly indispensable. If your boss needs to fire you to save money, your boss will do it without a second thought, no matter how much unpaid overtime you put in.
And what if the bosses of the world get used to employees working longer hours with no complaint, or taking on additional jobs with no extra cash? Once the recession ends and companies start making money again, will they still expect their workers to suffer silently? There's a very real possibility that they will.
Comments
Dan,
Here is a letter to the editor i wrote: “As Cuts Loom, Will Working From Home Lead to a Layoff?” (Mar. 23, 2009), employees who decline telework and managers who resist it squander a tremendous opportunity to help their organizations weather the recession and emerge a more profitable enterprise. Telework has been proven to help businesses save
millions of dollars on real estate, energy, and other overhead expenses. It also increases productivity by 10-30 percent. Work-life balance is a necessity not just “nice to have” as incorrectly stated by Deborah
Keary of SHRM. And, contrary to Annys Shin's suggestion, the savings and gains are enabling companies to avoid layoffs and even create new jobs. In North Dakota, for example, where the state of the state is “strong,” Governor John Hoeven reports that companies are actually expanding precisely because they have embraced telework. When the national economy begins to recover, the businesses that succumbed to fear of telework will remain crisis victims. But those that were willing to rethink the
traditional workplace and to tap the crucial benefits of flexibility will prosper.
Chuck Wilsker
President & CEO
The Telework Coalition
Washington, DC
Hi, Chuck:
Thanks for writing. I agree with your letter. I just wish more companies did, too.
Dan
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