Note

This is the summary of a presentation based on a Keynote Address that John Gundry delivered to the Business Day of the 14th International Telework Academy Conference in Pori, Finland on 28th August 2009.

A copy of the full presentation is available on request. See "About the author" below.

SUMMARY

In autumn 2008, I ran training classes in teleworking for 400 people from two separate UK organisations. In both, office buildings were closing and the people in my class were being forced to telework full-time, mostly from home. Although the organisations were quite different I saw a similar reaction to this involuntary teleworking from these two sets of people:

• Neither was pleased about working away from the office and neither had requested this move.
• Both reported that full-time teleworking was different to occasional teleworking and was less attractive and more problematic.

It seemed to me that full-time involuntary teleworking stress-tests the people and the practice. I note that the success stories about teleworking that we are presented with are based on the less extreme workstyle of voluntary part-time teleworkers. My first-hand evidence and a review of the literature lead me to believe that:

• Teleworking up to two days a week can work well,
• and stories about this dominate the marketing of teleworking.
• But teleworking has drawbacks,
• and these drawbacks are amplified when teleworking is stress-tested by being involuntary and full time.

But it is exactly that involuntary full-time teleworking that is growing as employers cut cost and carbon by closing offices.

Concluding, it's clear that not all teleworking is universally welcomed. To prevent employee disengagement, both its positive and negative aspects need to be openly discussed and thorough solutions put in place, especially (but not only) when the arrangement is involuntary and full-time. I present a Telework Adoption Formula to guide organisations in doing this.

NOTICES

Resources on telework

Relevant to this topic, Knowledge Ability offers the Successful Telework training workshop and the Don't Travel - Work Remotely short online class, more detail of which can be seen here . We also offer two consulting packages Are You Ready for Telework? and Telework Audit more details of which are here.

About the author

Dr John Gundry is Director of Knowledge Ability Ltd, a UK-based company that provides international training and consulting on virtual teams, remote working and teleworking. Please contact me (with details of who you are) to request a copy of the full Stress-testing Telework presentation as a pdf file: gundry@knowab.co.uk - +44 (0)1666 826654

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