Would You Telecommute for Less Pay?
February 24, 2009 by Cherie Burbach
Filed under Parenting
We talked about telecommuting a lot here at Career and Kids. At least once a week I get an email from someone asking me about it. Some want to know where the telecommuting jobs are. Some ask me what the future of telecommuting will be.
I saw this interesting article which talked about telecommuting, and one of the things it mentioned was that employees are NOT willing to take a pay cut if they can work from home. The article said:
“Sixty-one percent of employed respondents who are not currently working remotely are unwilling to give up some pay in exchange for being allowed to telecommute.”
While I can understand that having less pay is not the optimal goal for people, I think it may be a good idea to accept a telecommuting for less money arrangement. After all, if you can avoid paying for lunch everyday, the cost of gas, buying new clothes, then telecommuting for less money would make sense. The flexible schedule and ability to work at home would outweigh the reduced pay in many cases.
But that’s just me. Would do you think? Would you agree to work for less if you could do it from home?
“Less” is a relative term but I’ll skip speculating on how much less “less” could be and throw my vote in with the 61% who will not work for less. I don’t think telecommuting is easy, in fact, it could be harder. For instance there would be the expectation that you’re home, therefore you can fix lunch/dinner/clean house/do laundary while doing the same work. Saving on gas is not enough, unless you have a really long commute. If I could save on childcare, I would be swayed, but I don’t think working while attending to a toddler is effective. That could work with older kids. I really don’t mind telecommuting a few days a week but unless I’m also expected to deliver less work, why should I be paid less?
I know plenty of people who have said they’d take less pay in order to telecommute, but I don’t think that’s the way we should be selling telecommuting to employers. Telecommuting is business strategy. While it benefits the telecommuter, the employer receives just as many, if not more, benefits by implementing a telework plan. Thinking that you would need to take lesser compensation means you’re focusing on how it will benefit you. Focus on how you will benefit your employer first.
I have a job that lets me telecommute on occasion, say if one of the kids is home sick, weather makes travel hazardous (a recent situation) or I just feel like it. And Omie is right, the house is full of things that beg for you attention, from the laundry to that stack of papers on the table next to the couch, etc. One of the hazards of telecommuting and those distractions is it can start to spread your day out, and work ends up permeating the whole day. So there are hazards, and I would approach it with wariness. Often, after a day of telecommuting, I’m happy to get back to the office. As for pay, seeing the gas and childcare argument, I’d consider maybe an extremely modest reduction, but not much.