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Telecommuting, Telework & Telelifestyles

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Please note this NEW URL:
(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/telcom/commuting.html)

By definition, telecommuting is the partial or total substitution of telecommunications technology for the trip to and from the primary workplace, along with the associated changes in policy, organization, management and work structure. [ Pacific Bell Telecommuting Guide]

Q.: What is a "Telelifestyle" (Other than being a "screen potato")?

Related Resource Pages:

Internet Sites:

  • Teleworking; (Europe and the global information society - Bangemann Report)

  • Initiative Telearbeit der Bundesregierung [Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft and Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Sozialordnung]

  • Projekt Telearbeit in Schleswig-Holstein [Project Telework in Northern Germany]

    TELECOMMUTING IN GERMANY REMAINS LARGELY UNEXPLORED TERRAIN, BUSINESS IS HESITANT

    In these cost-conscious days, the advantages of turning employees into "telecommuters" seem myriad and obvious. In the United States, some ten million people are active telecommuters, working at computer terminals in their homes and staying in electronic touch with their companies. The European Union sees a similar future for its member states; the EU Commission has estimated that the number of EU telecommuters will reach ten million by the end of this decade. In Germany, two industry federations, the Electric and Electronics Industry Federation (Zentralverband der Elektrotechnik and Elektroindustrie or ZVEI) and the German Machinery and Equipment Building Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbauer VDMA), have issued medium-term prognoses that one out of ten German jobs could be performed at home or in "sa- tellite offices." And Federal Minister of Education, Science, Research and Technology Jurgen Ruttgers has set his sights on 800,000 telecommuters by the year 2000 (cf. TWIG 9/8/95, p.5).

    Despite the seemingly glowing future, businesses in Germany remain hesitant to take the plunge into telecommuting, the Frankfurter Rundschau reported recently. The reasons for this, the newspaper suggested, lie partly in the fact that companies that have tried telecommuting have not realized the savings they expected. Some large companies have tried telecommuting but retreated in the face of technical mishaps, communications problems and high costs, particularly for network usage. These companies, according to the Rundschau, are now exploring the possibilities of telecommuting with pilot projects. Also, many in middle management fear a loss of power and prestige if their employees are not physically present and under their supervision. To overcome these difficulties and support those companies that have ventured into telecommuting, the European Union has provided some DM six billion until 1998 and is also funding a series of pilot projects.

    The two industry federations estimate that some 30,000 Germans currently work at home by computer. Estimates from other sources range from 3,000 to 150,000, demonstrating the difficulty of defining just what makes a worker a telecommuter. Should the self-employed count as teleworkers? What about sales representatives, computer programmers, graphic designers, translators and mail-order catalogue employees racking up on- screen hours in their homes?

    Companies that have begun to use telecommuting include the catalogue sales company Otto-Versand, where some 50 full-time and 250 part-time employees take orders from home. The insurance company Allianz Lebensversicherung has about 30 telecommuting jobs for software designers and specialists; other insurers have a handful of teleworkers. Telecommuting pioneer IBM has remained at its level of 350 at-home workers since the inception of its program in 1991, although some 2,000 have mobile and home communications technology. Deutsche Telekom, the telephone company currently undergoing privatization, has just agreed to its first test of telecommuting.
    (The Week in Germany, December 1, 1995) 


      AUTHOR = United States. General Accounting Office. 
TITLE = FEDERAL WORKFORCE [MICROFORM] : AGENCIES' POLICIES AND VIEWS ON 
FLEXIPLACE IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT : REPORT TO THE RANKING MINORITY 
MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM AND 
OVERSIGHT, HOUSE OF REPRESENATIVES / UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING 
OFFICE. 
PUBL INFO = Washington, D.C. : The Office, [1997]. 
PHYS DESC = 34 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. 
SUBJECT = Telecommuting -- United States. 
        = United States -- Officials and employees. 
        = Administrative agencies -- United States -- Personnel management.
CALL # = GA 1.13:GGD-97-116. 
LOCATION = MicNews Documents. 
WEB LINK = http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/record=b4052361.       

  AUTHOR = United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Reform. 
Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy. 
TITLE = TELEWORK POLICIES : HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY 
AND PROCUREMENT POLICY OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES, ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, MARCH 22, 
2001. 
PUBL INFO = Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of ocs., U.S. 
G.P.O., [Congressional Sales Office], 2001. 
PHYS DESC = iii, 108 p. ; 24 cm. 
SUBJECT = Telecommuting -- Government policy -- United States. 
        = Manpower policy -- United States. 
        = Administrative agencies -- United States -- Management. 
CALL # = Y 4.G 74/7:T 23/8. 
LOCATION = GovPub Stacks U.S.
WEB LINK = http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/record=b4562958.       

  TITLE = TELEWORK WORKS : A COMPENDIUM OF SUCCESS STORIES. 
PUBL INFO = [Washington, D.C.?] : U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 
Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness, [2001]. 
PHYS DESC = i, 36 p. ; 28 cm. 
SUBJECT = Telecommuting -- United States. 
        = Administrative agencies -- United States -- Management. 
        = United States. General Services Administration -- Management. 
CALL # = PM 1.2:T 23. 
LOCATION = GovPub Stacks U.S.
WEB LINK = http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/record=b4565954.

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