An option that works

In the early 1990s, telecommuting, or working from home, became a popular public policy solution to rising gas prices, worsening traffic and transportation funding headaches.

The rallying cry was “work is something you do, not something you travel to.”

Yet, here we are about 15 years later, and there’s an article in the paper about a woman from the Spokane County Assessor’s Office who works from home. Unfortunately, that is still unusual enough to count as news.

It would seem that several developments would have conspired to make telecommuting a more popular option, but, alas, that has not been the case.

Gas prices in 1993 averaged about $1.05 a gallon. Today, they are three times that. Technological advances have vastly improved personal computers and networking capabilities. High-speed connections are readily available.

But participation in telecommuting remains disappointingly low, even though many workers love the idea. Telework Coalition estimated that 24.1 million people worked from home in 2004, but two-thirds of them were self-employed. And that’s just a sliver of the overall U.S. work force of about 225 million people.

The Washington state Department of Transportation estimates that about 6,700 Washingtonians worked from home at least three days a week in 2005.

Still, many employers remain unconvinced. Clearly, telecommuting isn’t a universal option; in many jobs there is no reasonable substitute for physical presence in the workplace. But even when that’s not necessarily the case, the grip of tradition holds tight.

In many situations, though, telecommuting makes good business sense.

Various human resources surveys have found that it cuts down on sick days and absenteeism because morale rises. Plus, elimination of workplace distractions boosts productivity.

Telecommuting is second only to compensation as the best way to attract talent, beating out such considerations as additional vacation days, better insurance benefits and signing bonuses. The attraction for workers is one of flexibility, convenience and costs. A driver with a modest 15-mile round-trip commute in a car that gets 25 miles per gallon can spend about $2,500 a year. And there are the costs for dry cleaning and other things that arise from working in a formal environment.

It’s not often that self-interest meshes so well with a societal benefit. That’s the beauty of telecommuting. But until we can break free from tradition and tap its full potential, it will continue to make news as a novelty act.