If you are in most areas of the United States, you may be experiencing or at least have been recently experiencing a large amount of snow, to say the least. In my area of the country we don’t handle snow very well, and so most schools go ahead and close whenever there is a quarter of an inch of snow that has fallen, motorists have no clue what they’re doing and so we end up with a lot of accidents, and even my Yorkies look at me with a sign of disdain whenever I force them to go outside, “dude are you kidding me?”
This is why at a time like this, corporate telecommuting policies have never been more important. Whether you believe climate change is real or not and whether it is man-made or not you must understand that the peaks of snowstorms today have been more extreme that in any time in recorded history. More importantly, it seems as if the trend will continue at least in the near future. This means that every day that passes it gets more difficult for workers to get to their work, not to mention overpopulation in certain areas of the world, and the crumbling infrastructure of what used to be global leaders in infrastructure development.
Some employers however continue to resist creating some form of telecommuting policies for their workers, and some continue to expect that come hell or high water their employees must be at their desks by 8 AM. What’s most disturbing is that in almost all of those cases the employee has no specific need to be at his or her desk at that specific time or ever for that matter. Information technology has come a long way, and any employer can exercise their option to create a very inexpensive technology option that would allow the employee to work from home, as well as provide ample solutions for monitoring that employee’s job performance.
Meetings don’t even have to be held face-to-face anymore, and it’s not as if anything is said in those meetings which cannot be said over a teleconference or by email. In fact. It would probably be more productive and more efficient if most organizations tried to reduce the amount of bureaucratic meetings that they hold every day, and a corporate telecommuting policy might be able to help.
And yet, some employers continue to resist creating any form of telecommuting policy, even when governments have exercised telecommuting policies for a number of years now. The message here is very clear, civil servants don’t have to risk their lives in 6 feet of snow, but you may have to do it, for nine dollars an hour.
I think it’s time that employers – all employers begin to rethink their telecommuting policies especially where emergency conditions exist, and where the lives of their own employees are potentially at risk.
For now, if you’re reading this in anticipation of driving in over-the-top snow, drive safe and be careful.