A : Good morning ladies and gentlemen, we meet today on your favorite radio station to talk about telecommuting. I invited Louise EMERIAU, an occupational psychologist. She will help us to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting.
L : Good morning ! Thank you for your invitation, I am delighted to be here!
A : With pleasure, I leave the floor to you. Tell us all about telecommuting !
L : Thanks, ahah I’m under a bit of pressure. To begin with… I think it is important to define telecommuting. It can be defined as a professional activity carried out outside the employer’s premises and making use of information and communication technologies.
Telecommuting has accelerated in the wake of the coronavirus health crisis, as many countries, including England, have opted for containment. The companies did not want to stop their activities. So they placed their employees in telecommuting. Faced with this, it is legitimate to question the impacts of telecommuting. One can wonder about the positive and negative consequences of telecommuting on employees.
First, let’s talk about the benefits of telecommuting for employees. I have conducted many interviews with employees who practice telecommuting. First of all, telecommuting allows employees to reduce their travel time. They are not late and are therefore less stressed.
Telecommuting allows for more flexibility in work hours and the employee can organize his or her schedule as desired. This allows a better balance between work and private life.
The employee is autonomous and can feel a sense of satisfaction and responsibility. He is not constantly controlled by his superiors. In fact, it was noted that some employees were more productive when telecommuting.
Finally, I spoke with employees who told me that thanks to telecommuting they were much less tired.
Telecommuting allows them to reduce their travel time and therefore to sleep longer.
So you can see that there are quite a few advantages to telecommuting.
A : Thank you Louise for this information. You talked to us about the advantages of telecommuting but are there any negative effects?
L : With pleasure, I hope to be clear enough because English is not my native language. So, You are right, there are also disadvantages and negative effects of telecommuting…
A : Can you tell us more about them ?
L : Yes of course. Together with other psychologists we have observed the risks of telecommuting.
There are many disparities between employees. Some have an office in their home while others have to work in their kitchen sometimes with their children next door.
Telecommuting can also lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness.
Indeed, the employee no longer has discussions with his or her colleagues. He or she may sometimes feel alone when faced with difficulties.
And the big difficulty that is expressed by employees is the complexity of differentiating between private and professional life. These are the big drawbacks of telecommuting. Well I could talk to you about them for hours but I hope I have summarized them as well as possible.
So, to summarize I think that telecommuting should not totally replace working in a company. I recommend telecommuting for one or two days a week, but it is very important that the employee maintains relational links with managers and colleagues.
A : Thank you very much for your speech Louise, it was very interesting !
L : Thank you too and sorry again for my bad accent !
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