Tannishblog

The New York transit strike of the past week showed employers what many office workers already knew: that the daily commute need not be a requisite of the job. For millions of people in America, whose jobs consist of monitoring machines like the phone, fax and computer, it no longer matters where one sits.

The computers can help alleviate pollution. They can ease the strain on our overused highway infrastructure and help rid our nation’s reliance upon foreign oil. Computers can lessen roadway fatalities. All of this can be achieved at no cost to businesses.

All this can become reality by allowing corporate employees to work from home. As we’re talking about affluent middle-Americans, who already have computers in the home, wireless networks and broadband, cell phones and sometimes fax machines. All that needs be provided is a virtual private network access to their company’s servers to make daily commuting obsolete. Internet services exist where meetings can be done through teleconferencing and networking which work fine for the routine, agenda-steering meetings common to all companies.

This can happen. All that’s missing is trust. Employees have an unfortunate history of getting by without motivation, skirting duties, and other nefarious means to eek a paycheck with minimal effort. As a result, corporations don’t trust their employees. CEO’s and board members, meanwhile, have a sad track record of failing to provide incentives to employees, cutting benefits for increased profit, and forcing conformity - often squashing individualism and undermining creative problem-solving. The message for generations has been “do what you’re told or be replaced.” Employees don’t trust their employers, either. What’s missing one both sides is ethics. To make this commute-free dream a reality is a simple honor system. The company rewards the few existing employees whom it knows to be self-motivated by allowing them to work from home without a cut in pay. The motivated employee now acts as an example for others. Eventually, the company can see real benefit as it scales down its real estate costs in both office space and parking spaces. Some inner-city companies could save millions annually.

Imagine: millions of commuters absent from the rush hours. Lives made more manageable do to increased flexibility, in which you won’t have to miss junior’s soccer match because you can do that report in the evening and still email it to your boss before morning. Image a quieter, safer city due to less traffic; spending less on auto maintenance and gasoline; and the establishment of a higher level of ethical, incentive-based behavior on behalf of employees and corporations alike. All this as by-product of America’s love of modern technology, and all brought to light by the time-honored tactics of organized labor.

If only someone would notice.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2005 at 8:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.