The Drive to Telework

If you work in the knowledge economy, especially in a technical field, odds are you know one or more people who telework.  The trend toward telework has become a wave in this decade. What are the drivers toward telework? Lower costs and better lifestyles are reasons cited by people I talk with about why they prefer to work remotely rather than trek to an office everyday. Environmentalists are getting into the picture, too. On CNet, a recent post talks about the green benefits of telework. 

Whatever you think about the causes for telework, it seems the trend is here to stay. I see it as a natural evolution of the workplace. In the late 19th century to mid-20th century, the industrial economy pushed tens of millions of people into factories. In the latter half of the 20th century, the rise of the knowledge economy pushed millions more into offices. In the early 21st century, we are witnessing the rise of the connected economy and a shift in the traditional office model. At forward-thinking companies like IBM, there is a lower emphasis on physical presence and a greater emphasis on productive work output.

Personally, I am a big fan of telework. I see no reason for the employees of a company to congregate in offices everyday. Most of the arguments I hear in favor of office work have to do with communications and management. Communications issues can be solved with technology, and we will continue to see business communications evolve to meet the demands of telework. Management issues need to be addressed with better management practices. I have always thought that making everyone come to an office for a certain number of hours per day is a poor subsititute for actually monitoring and measuring their productive work output.

Furthermore, the digital economy is a different animal than the industrial and knowledge economies. In this economy, we increasingly deal with bits rather than physical things. There is no machine press to operate, no paper document to send to a colleague. I can just as easily share bits with someone halfway around the world as in the next cubicle. So why should we limit the physical presence of employees, and therefore our potential talent pool, to a small geographical area? There are good reasons in certain situations (mentoring junior employees comes to mind), but those reasons a finite.

Noting all this, I would like to announce that Emergent Path is hiring for two positions, a Senior Consultant and a Junior Developer. Both position are telework positions. The Senior Consultant position is available to anyone in a major metropolitan area of the United States.  The Junior Developer position is open only to someone local to San Diego, but it is a telework position. If you are interested in learning more or know someone who would be a good fit for us, please direct inquiries to careers@emergentpath.com.