Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
Sensitive information is less secure.
If a person has valuable physical or electronic files at home or in an automobile, they
may be far less secure than if they were kept at the office. There is a greater chance
that the information will be lost or compromised through fire or theft.
4.
When people in an organization do not keep the same hours or come into the office
every day, it is more difficult to schedule team meetings.
Even if employees are only teleworking one or two days a week, many others in the
organization can suffer significant inconvenience.
5.
Teleworkers are less visible.
There is a danger that teleworkers will be forgotten when it's time for raises or
promotions. When somebody is “never around,” others can get the idea that the
teleworker is not making a contribution to the organization.
6.
When faced with a problem or a need for information, employees at the office are less
likely to contact a teleworker than another person on-site.
Meanwhile, many teleworkers are afraid to leave their telephones even for a short
time, afraid that if someone from work calls them and they are not around, they
will get the reputation for not being “at work.”
7.
Teleworkers are isolated.
Some jobs require people to bounce ideas off coworkers. What are people working
at home supposed to do?
8.
Teleworkers end up working longer hours for the same pay.
When everything a person needs to do his job is right there at home, he is more
likely to keep coming back to it. How does someone leave her work at the office
when her home
is
her office? Critics of telework say that overwork is the reason why
teleworkers exhibit higher productivity.
The modern business environment is highly competitive and rapidly fluctuating. As a
result, the level of commitment companies are willing to make to their employees is
dropping. Some companies once boasted that they took care of their employees and did
not engage in layoffs during business downturns. Those days are gone. The dot-com bust
led to massive layoffs in the information technology industry.
Companies are giving themselves more flexibility and saving money on benefits
by hiring more subcontractors and temporary employees. Workers cannot count on
long-term employment with a single firm. Instead, they must rely on their “knowledge
portfolios,” which they carry from job to job [13].
Information technology has given companies many new tools to monitor the activities
of their employees. An American Management Association/ePolicy Institute survey in
2007 revealed that 66 percent of employers were monitoring the Internet use of their
