Gas Prices, Telecommuting, and My Dissertation

Someone asked me the other day when I thought the price of gas might impact the number of drivers on the road and thus the demand on petroleum. This question tells me that a lot of people are thinking about the same thing, the fuel budget.

Admittedly, I am thinking about it too. However, I am a telecommuter and my family has only one car that my wife and I share. We both need to leave the house for different things and rarely at the same time. Making the one-car family notion a reality in our home. But, this is not the case for most people. In fact, most people need to commute places for work and thus need more than one car and lots of fuel. Which explains the steady or increasing demand for fuel. Which takes us back to the question, when will gas prices adversely impact people’s driving habits?

The short answer is: when organizations, leaders, and managers are trusting, capable, and prepared enough to allow workers to telecommute (or at the very least consider a shorter work week and reduce the number of days needed in the office).

Telecommuting is a big scary word for employers because they feel that control over employee productivity will be lost or jeopardized if the employee is not in the office every minute of each working day. Certainly there is some legitimacy in this concern, but it is easily overcome with the use of technology, trust, and proper leadership.

A manager of an instructional design team once told me that the jobs he oversaw were not telecommuting positions because he felt the team needed to collaborate amongst themselves and other departments. This could be another reason, but the communication was phrased in such a way that it was easy to tell the big fear was that the team members would exhibit skills and autonomy that would render this manager irrelevant to the organization.

The reality is that telecommuters get as much or more work done in a week than people who work in an office. They do this in a shorter time frame because they are free of the politics, distractions, and sidelining present in every office.

It comes right down to the willingness and execution of employers to make telecommuting a reality for the workers. Once this happens people will not need to commute to work as often, reducing travel, and gas demand along with prices.

How does this relate to my dissertation? Simple, a collaborative training interventions have the possibility to link workers together remotely and in a robust environment of exchange and discourse. This, in turn, promotes performance and productivity. On the surface the research warrants some investigation into just how this could be accomplished. My research examines the link of these technologies through training to worker performance. Off shoots of my research could include the use of wikis, podcasting, and blogs to office communications, politics, and workplace dynamics. All of which might be part of the nudge needed to allow for telecommuting.

I telecommute and I am more productive, more focused, less stressed, happier, and a better employee because of it. Not to mention that I spend a total of $125 on gas each month now, can you say the same for you or your employees?

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