Telecommuting

Many workers are seduced by rosy illusion of life as a telecommuter. A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer. A manager comes in to his office three days a week and works at home the other two. An account stays home to care for her sick child; she hooks up her telephone modem connections and does office work between calls to the docter.
These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality. Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a certain age, young children caanot recognize, much less respect, the neccessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support is neccessary if the parent is to get any work done.
Management, too, must separate the myth from the reality. Although the media have paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting, in most cases it is the employee's situation, not the availibility of technology, that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.