Giving employees the option to telecommute increases job satisfaction, right? Not for everybody.
Employees who find it hard to turn down requests or people who are disorganized or easily distracted may not find telecommuting as satisfying as working in the office, found a study by the University of Connecticut.
The study found these three types of workers are less-than-ideal candidates for telecommuting benefits:
- Employees who rely on feedback from their managers. According to the study, people who need a lot of direction to do their job can become unsettled and anxious if they don’t have face time with their manager.
- Workers with several family members at home during work hours. Most people assume that working from home improves an employee’s work-life balance. But that’s not always the case. The study found that while telecommuters’ work interfered less with family demands, family demands interfered more heavily with work. Example: Family members who’d ordinarily be reluctant to interrupt someone at work had no problem interrupting that person working at home. And for telecommuters with larger households, family demands seriously conflicted with their work demands.
- People who can’t say “no.” When trying to decide if an employee is a good candidate for telecommuting, ask: “If the person was working from home and a friend or family member asked to be driven somewhere, would the person feel comfortable saying ‘no’?” If the person can’t say “no,” then odds are they’ll be pulled away from work duties regularly.