Telecommuter Poll Shows Less Than 1% Participation

Telecommuting remains slow to catch on with the American work force, a survey shows, with less than 1% of the employees whose organizations allow them to work from home taking advantage of the option.

The nationwide study, based on a poll of 155 employers, found that skeptical middle managers are the main obstacle preventing the more widespread practice of telecommuting.

“Managers won’t give up control. They still can’t trust that employees are working when they aren’t present” in the conventional workplace, said Dana Zackin, co-author of the study commissioned by the Conference Board, a business research group in New York.

While other studies have also found that only a tiny percentage of office workers do their jobs from home, what Zackin found most surprising was that the number remained low even at organizations that, at least on paper, endorse telecommuting. More than two-thirds of these employers also contributed to the cost of telecommuting, doing such things as paying for computers, telephone services and office supplies.

Along with losing control over employees, the survey suggests, middle managers resist telecommuting because they are concerned about their ability to meet customer needs and to treat telecommuting and non-telecommuting workers equitably.

The study comes amid the recent disappointment among many telecommuting proponents over the slow growth of the practice in Southern California after January’s Northridge earthquake.

Many hoped that traffic problems stemming from quake-damaged freeways would prompt more people to work from home, using computers and fax machines, but rapid road repairs, resistance from middle managers and other factors limited the gains.