Telecommuting Has Negative Impact On American Office Workers, Study Shows

January 15, 2008 10:29 p.m. EST

Troy, NY (AHN) - Telecommuters in an office can adversely impact coworkers who do not telecommute in terms of their job satisfaction, a first-of-its-kind research shows.

"It could be due to coworker's perceptions that they have decreased flexibility and a higher workload," said Timothy Golden, associate professor in the Lally School of Management & Technology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who did the study.

Telework, also known as telecommuting, is a form of virtual work that entails working some portion of the week away from the conventional workplace - typically from home - and communicating via computer-based technology.

About 37 percent of U.S.-based and foreign companies offer flexible work arrangements such as telework and telecommuting, and the programs are growing at 11 percent per year, according to a report by the Society of Human Resource Management.

Golden studied a sample of 240 professional employees from a medium size company and found that the greater the prevalence of teleworkers in an office, the less others in the office are apt to be satisfied with their jobs.