Telecommuting Backlash

coondoggie writes to tell us that advocates of the telecommute have stood up against recent finger pointing based on recent telecommuter screw ups. One of the more notable screw up was the recent loss of many veteran's personal information by a VA employee. From the article: "Despite years of growing acceptance, telework still has such detractors. 'The No. 1 challenge is cultural inertia. It's motivating the middle managers, teaching them a new way of doing work,' O'Keeffe says. 'It's the Luddite mentality that we need to change.'"

Comments

Giving up on telecommuting

[Anonymous Coward]

Ive been telecommuting for over 5 years now and Im about to give up.
People are resistant on working in ways to accomodate telelcommuting. People will wait for me to visit the office..even if thats many weeks - rather than pick up the phone.
I also find that when people want to play politics - you are at a severe disadvantage when telecomuting.
Every time management changes you have to reconvince them its viable and I have decided over all that
Thats despite the fact that I work in an IT department for a large vibrant and successful company that prides itself on its forward thinking.
  So after 5 years - Im giving up - not for technical reasons.. which I have been able to manage one way or another - but because the culture - even in IT is just not accepting of telecommuters and in fact disdvantages them.

Think of the rainforest

[robertjw]

Really, what is more important, saving the planet or a few million VA records. I think the number one reason to support telecommuting is so people can live in the area of their choosing and still earn a decent wage. Commuting is wasteful of both time and energy. I can't believe the sierra club and greenpeace don't push telecommuting more.