Study: Telecommuting is wish, not reality

By Porter Anderson
CNN Career

(CNN) -- "You could almost say telecommuting is anti-commuting," says Cynthia Morgan. "The Number 1 reason people gave for wanting to telecommute was to avoid a lengthy commute" by road, rail or otherwise.

But on Monday when techies.com publishes the results of its new study on telecommuting in the information technology (IT) professions, morning drive-time radio DJs will have no reason to worry about their jobs. The results of the techies research -- released in an exclusive advance to CNN.com/Career -- indicate that even in the most tech-savvy of career arenas, telecommuting has yet to gain much traction.

"With all the talk of telecommuting," says Morgan, techies.com's executive producer and vice president for content, "it's not a hugely widespread practice, even among techies. A survey like this one about telecommuting would naturally draw a high percentage of telecommuters. But we found only 48 percent of respondents saying that they actively telecommute."

QUICKVOTE Let's go at this two ways. Do you telecommute -- and how do you feel about it? Yes, I telecommute now, and I like it. Yes, I telecommute now, but I don't like it. No, I don't telecommute now, but I'd like to. No, I don't telecommute now, and that's just ducky with me. View Results

Data was gathered in this instance from 1,953 tech professionals registered with techies.com, a major issues-and-employment hub on the Web for technology professionals and employers. And the response suggests that psychological barriers to telecommuting are still in place.

"The fear that managers have," Kathy King of Oregon's office of energy told IDG's civic.com last year, "is that everyone will want to telecommute, and they'll be gone all the time. The old-style managers who believe you have to walk around and look at people are retiring. The thing that will move it along the fastest ... is a lot of the new, progressive managers coming in."

If those "new, progressive managers" do arrive, Morgan and her researchers say they'll find a ready work force.

"An overwhelming 96 percent of those we surveyed said they'd like to work from home at least a few hours each week.

"And 39 percent said they'd take a pay cut if they were allowed to telecommute. Even if they had to take that pay cut," Morgan says, "our telecommuters might come out ahead, since several also told us that telecommuting has reduced their costs for gas, auto maintenance, parking, tolls and even clothing."

After we take the obligatory pause to contemplate, just briefly, the potentially freeing idea of that clothing business Morgan mentions, we press right on to what she says is the second most-popular reason offered by respondents who want to telecommute: "Controlling your own hours. A lot of techies are famously night owls," Morgan says, "and even those who aren't often wind up staying on call through the night in case a server goes down or an application blows up. Being able to correct problems from home can save wear and tear on your sanity.

"Those who do telecommute," she says, "told us they've benefited both in their personal lives and their work productivity. Stress reduction was the Number 1 benefit cited, overall, with improvement in partner or family relations coming in a close second."

But the techies surveyed offer the same reasons for not telecommuting that King had mentioned earlier: "In most cases, tech workers don't telecommute because their bosses discourage it or their companies prohibit it," says Morgan. "Sixty percent of help-desk and support workers don't telecommute at all -- often because they're in the office supporting all the other telecommuters. In some cases, they're working on large, expensive equipment that you just can't take home with you."

Dialing for dollars

•   Salespeople turn out to be the most likely group to telecommute, at least a few hours per week, according to the data gathered by techies.com. Also high on the list are engineers, systems administrators, database managers and project managers.

But only 9 percent of the surveyed techies were full-time telecommuters. Their concentrations were, in most cases, in sales, Web development, data management, marketing and product management.

•   Of managers responding, few said they're full-time telecommuters, but a comparatively high 83 percent of them said they do telecommute at least one hour per week.

•   Women were more likely to be full-time telecommuters than men, but they were slightly less likely to telecommute overall.

•   Technical problems were the single biggest gripe heard from what Morgan describes as "virtually every telecommuter -- they told us that high-speed Internet access is essential to keep you in touch with the office. Today it's possible to remotely connect with the office so well that it's just like sitting at your office PC. If you've got a 56K modem, however, it's just like sitting at your office PC in slow motion. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

The techies.com survey didn't touch on security issues among telecommuters, either. During the high-propagation periods of the "Code Red" and "Code Red II" worms, for example, it was pointed out by many specialists that a remote laptop, if not properly armored against infection, can become an entry point for malicious code.

Ringing in a 'nay'

Some who have tried telecommuting said they didn't like it. "They couldn't work at home because there are too many distractions. Or," Morgan adds, always appreciative of irony in a survey's findings, "they couldn't work at home because there weren't enough distractions.

"Several people told us they needed face-to-face time with co-workers, for exchanging ideas, catching those spur-of-the-moment projects that result in a promotion -- or just hanging out at the water cooler."

And from one of the survey's respondents, this rather compelling comment on what might for many be an unexpected aspect of telecommuting -- fear of appearing to be goofing off: "I always worked twice as hard at home," this respondent wrote. "I felt like if someone called and I was in the bathroom, for example, they would think I wasn't working. So I rarely took bathroom breaks and made sure I as always available if the phone rang. I'm much more relaxed in the office."

Overall, Morgan and company turned up two key reasons offered for not telecommuting: reduced chances for advancement and lack of interaction with colleagues.

"And others warned us," says Morgan, "that telecommuting isn't a good idea if your company is economically unstable since bosses are less likely to regard you as priceless if you're not in plain sight.

"In fact, most told us that companies are very reluctant to allow frequent telecommuters to manage others -- 29 percent cited that as the single biggest negative impact that telecommuting had on career advancement. Many also said that telecommuting seems to slow down raises and bonuses."

Suiting up for dressing down

The techies.com survey respondents said that equipping a home office for telecommuting is usually the responsibility of the employee.

"Even full-time telecommuters often told us they furnish their own office and computer and/or communications equipment," says Morgan.

"Seventy-five percent of those who telecommute say their employer has supplied them with a laptop computer and a little more than half have special software installations for telecommuting.

EXTRA INFORMATION Have a look at some more charts of data  gathered in the techies.com survey on telecommuting.

"About 40 percent say their employers also cover expenses for office supplies and provide toll-free telephone access to the main office. Only about 32 percent of our respondents said they pay for a home office's Internet service provider (ISP) and fewer than 20 percent supply additional technology -- a printer, scanner, fax or personal computer."

And in what Morgan finds a surprising bit of data, the Southern states showed up with the most telecommuting activity in this survey, logging in 13 percent full-time telecommuters.

"I went into this survey thinking that the tech-rich West Coast would have the most telecommuters, but that wasn't the case." The West came in with 10 percent full-timers. On the other end of the spectrum was New England, with 7 percent full-time telecommuters."

If there were an enthusiasm scale attached to the techies.com survey, though, it's pretty clear the telecommuters would be heard out-shouting the doubters.

"It allows me to accomplish large tasks whenever the inspiration strikes," wrote one respondent. "Many's the time when at 10 p.m. I said, 'Oh! That's how to fix that!'"

"I have no interest at all in office gossip," wrote another, "who's doing what to whom, what my co-workers' opinions on the news are. I find such talk childish and distracting, and yet the only way I can escape such nonsense in an office environment is by listening to loud music with headphones, which presents its own problems."

And, surely, the battle cry of telecommuters everywhere: "Go for it if you can -- it's great to work in your PJs!"

Another techies.com survey is underway at the moment, this one on online job boards -- their effectiveness, accessibility and so on. If you're interested in participating in that survey, click here for details.