Telecommuting

BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS
By Reylito A.H. Elbo
Telecommuting: How do you solve a traffic problem?



DO people in other coun tries telecommute more than we Filipinos? It appears that way. Look at our traffic problems. But before you look at the way of MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando, let me tell you this.

Maybe telecommuting, by way of combining flexiplace, flextime and electronic communication, is one approach that Fernando should start working with the business sector.

That way, he could make the three and one-half of his opponent mayors irrelevant in his new initiative as he could deal only with progressive-minded people like those that you can find in business.

With telecommuting, which is defined as transferring work from the office to the workers’ home or at remote work center (say from the American soil to local call centers), could minimize the number of workers during rush hours—well at least in the US and elsewhere.

And probably, that explains why our traffic problem remains unabated up to this day. That’s why I’m in my glum look when I’m stuck in a traffic jam as I sympathize with people on my sides—public-utility vehicles and private cars who look so bitter as if they’re going to a parents’ club meeting of the College Assurance Plan.

Granted that telecommuting would affect only a small percentage of rush hour packers, but this is enough to see more smiles on the street, at least when the pickpockets, hold-uppers, and mashers are not around. Of course, it’s possible they’ve graduated to become jeepney or pedicab drivers.

If telecommuting has become effective, then you can see more smiles on the street—the kind that you could see in a hospital basement. Of course, we’d like to smile to show openness and warmth as a person with happy disposition, because we’ve secured jobs at least to show others that we’d really like to be a part of the mad rush hour.

Now seriously, if we Filipino managers continue to have a blind eye about telecommuting, may be it’s just that we’re too old-fashioned and cannot get enough of our traditional hold and control of our workers to ensure their productivity.

But wait, how do you define labor productivity? I should say it’s like pornography. It’s difficult to define it, but we know it when we see it.

Thus, many of the reported gains in telecommuting are purely anecdotal and based on subjective and limited assessments. Unless we try it like a bold lion, like what I’m doing—giving importance to my own body clock, personal cycles of energy and fatigue which makes me productive with the many hats I’m wearing.

I’ll tell you—telecom­muting works wonder for me as a highly mobile management consultant. It increases my job satisfaction. I do my best when I work late at night. That’s how my Internet connection work to the best of its ability as I battle with my son’s Ragnarok which helps me concentrate on my consulting assignments.

Seriously, avoiding the stress of battling the daily traffic grind and the overlap with the standard workday of my clients was adequate to allow coordination at daytime and be my daughter’s driver to school at the same time.

Telecommuting, really is what we need in this world where traffic jams look unsolved.


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Rey Elbo is a management consultant specializing on human resources and total quality management as a fused specialty. Feedback may be sent to SMS to 0915-406-3039 and send an e-mail to reyelbo@pworld.net.ph.