“Telecommuting” refers to workers doing their jobs from home for part of each week and communicating with their office using computer technology. Telecommuting is growing in many countries and is expected to be common for most office workers in the coming decades. How do you think society will be affected by the growth of telecommuting?
The trend remote working is proliferating fast; a lobby vehemently opines that this trend is going to endure and will afford both favorable and unfavorable impacts.
This arrangement will render unprecedented convenience by allowing online negotiation of professional obligations from the comfort of homes, allowing more quality time for families owing to big time savings on account of commuting time. Also, it will be possible to spare some time to focus more on physical and mental wellness: taking meals on time and also devoting some time towards exercises. These things cumulatively are anticipated to render mental satisfaction, enabling striking a correct a right balance between professional and personal lives.
Additionally, the indirect effect of this will be felt on the environment in the long run, by virtue of traffic snarls, especially during peak hours becoming a thing of the past, as fewer individuals will be traveling to and from their work places, thereby mitigating emissions from fossil fuels dramatically, and thus, alleviating air pollution.
However, the social circle of those operating from home might gradually diminish; they may not get an optimal chance to interact professionally and socially face-to-face. Furthermore, this evolution might have a dominos effect; the business of companies manufacturing uniforms, or serving workers with food and refreshments - such as tiffin careers of Bombay in India - a crisis could descend as the demand for such products and services would decline, creating joblessness in ancillary sectors, and affect society and the economy adversely.
In hindsight, disputes aside, telecommuting is a path breaking concept and even though there are going to be some downsides, those engaging in such work settings will be able derive unprecedented versatile benefits: the pitfalls can be overcome with prudent steps.
