Want to Telecommute? Work for a Smaller Firm
If you’re interested in telecommuting, some research from Smart Brief says smaller companies are the way to go. According to Business Week:
“Small companies are embracing telecommuting now more than ever, says Mike Williams of the Atlanta-based Clean Air Campaign. A survey this year indicated about 12% of the workers at companies with 21 to 100 employees sometimes telecommute.”
One advantage smaller businesses have over other types of business is less red tape. In a larger firm, rules that are meant to help bring order to their employees can sometimes mean it limits them as well. In smaller firms, there is also a more personalized work environment. People know each other a little better, and can trust that the telecommuter will indeed be working when they say they are.
I was interested about this information and took an informal (and completely unscientific) study of my own. One of my friends that telecommutes one day a week works for a firm with over 10,000 people. Two more of my friends that telecommute are at smaller companies, with less than 100 employees. When I was at my last job, we had 25 employees and my boss was madly mistrustful about telecommuting.
Let me hear from you. Do you telecommute? And if so, what size firm do you work for?
Tags: benefits, career changes, online worker, red tape, rules, smaller firms, Telecommuting, virtual office, working at homeRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Telecommuting, Working from Home
2 opinions for Want to Telecommute? Work for a Smaller Firm
G
Oct 27, 2008 at 3:33 pm
There are about 250 in the company where I work. I telecommute for about 34 of my 40 hours each week and am in the office for about 6 hours. The business is family-owned and my boss and I worked out this arrangement when I was pregnant with my first child (who is now almost six). I began telecommuting after she was born. He has had other employees who’ve telecommuted during the summertime when childcare fell through and they had no other options for having someone watch their children.
I’ve also telecommuted for a dot-com company for two years (as an independent contractor) - just about everyone telecommuted. We were all expected to be on a specific instant messenger service in order for our “manager” to communicate with us. I was shocked to find out that some of the ICs would login to the IM client via their cellphones while they were at the park, doing grocery shopping, going to the salon, etc….that kind of ruins it for everyone else and is why so many companies DON’T trust telecommuters!
Cherie Burbach
Nov 2, 2008 at 12:30 pm
G: Thanks for sharing your experience. Wow - that description about the folks that pretended to work while they were at the salon, etc. is bad news. You’re right, it wrecks it for all the legit telecommuters!
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