DOY A. ROQUE: "I realized that I could work better under less supervision"

Getting up late is something that doesn't worry Ma. Teresa L. Pacis, external communications manager of Intel Technology Philippines Inc. And although she lives in Marikina City, the usually heavy traffic that leads to her Cavite office 46 kilometers away doesn't bother her at all. This is because on a typical working day, she doesn't have to go to her office. All she needs to do is turn on her laptop and she is already at work. She is a telecommuter.

Telecommuting is a work arrangement that allows employees with traditionally office-based jobs to work offsite on a regular basis. A growing number of companies is adopting it to promote job satisfaction among employees while further improving productivity. For the company, of course, telecommuting is also a means for significantly cutting down on office space and rental costs.

A major factor that prompts a company to allow telecommuting is the usually considerable distance between its offices and the places where its employees live. In particular, Intel adopted telecommuting for some of its office jobs in 1997 when it gradually moved out of the Bangkal, Makati City facility, and moved it to the town of General Trias in Cavite. The arrangement eliminated the time and effort required for its employees to cover that distance twice daily amid rush-hour traffic.

One of the major objectives of telecommuting is to give employees greater peace of mind and much more time and opportunities to take care of their respective families. In fact, with telecommuting, working couples
who can't afford to hire nannies no longer need to worry about bringing kids to work, and single people can more vigorously pursue their hobbies and other interests.

Telecommuting also benefits people who want or need to take a second job on top of their regular one. For instance, Doy A. Roque, managing director of the advertising agency Media Meter, finds nothing wrong with such an arrangement and even encourages it. He says that advertising people taking on extra projects is nothing new to the industry, and he doesn't believe in restricting it particularly now that telecommuting makes it even more feasible. His only restriction is that Media Meter employees who take outside jobs must not work for companies that compete with existing Media Meter accounts.

In the Philippines, it is often people in the managerial level that are permitted to telecommute, considering
that they are not paid for overtime work anyway. At Intel, Pacis says, even supervisory level employees may be allowed to telecommute provided they can justify it.

Definitely, though, not all employees will be eligible for telecommuting. There will always be job descriptions that require continuing onsite work, like those who need to operate machines and factory equipment. For these employees, companies usually offer such options as flexi-time and staggered work hours instead of telecommuting.

Telecommuting is, of course, possible only if the person is equipped with the necessary telecommunication equipment at home, so the big question is often this: Who will foot the bill for its purchase? At Intel, Pacis says, the company only provides a laptop for its telecommuters. She therefore had to make a personal investment in a homeoffice setup with an Internet connection.

Some companies that allow telecommuting provide a partial subsidy for telecommunication equipment; others, none at all. In the case of Media Meter, Roque says the company doesn't provide laptops to its telecommuters because laptops have limited graphics capability. He says he would rather invest in powerful desktops for the purpose.

Telecommuting obviously has a strong utopian appeal, but the arrangement is not always feasible for every workplace. At Media Meter, for instance, Roque notes that many of the employees still come to the offi ce regularly despite his encouraging them to telecommute instead. Apparently, for jobs that require intense group dynamics, employees would rather stay in the office to have work issues resolved face-to-face and more quickly with their fellow employees.

Also, despite its clear advantages, telecommuting sometimes does not sit in all that well for people who love meeting other people. "I got bored with working from home, so I eventually decided to sometimes work
from coffee shops," Pacis relates.

But there is no doubt about the financial benefits to be derived from telecommuting. Roque says that in the
case of Media Meter, it allows the company to have 51 employees despite having an office space of only 120 square meters. Moreover, he says, it allows the company to minimize its utility bills and administrative expenses.

To some types of companies, particularly those that require a lot of creativity, the non-quantifiable benefits from telecommuting are even greater. "Creativity can't come from a vacuum," says Roque. "By allowing people to experience more new things outside the office, telecommuting helps them to become more creative."

A major drawback of telecommuting is the matter of possible breaches of confidentiality and working ethics. Indeed, the last thing a company wants to happen is to see its secrets inadvertently or deliberately leaked out by its own telecommuters. It is for this reason that companies take pains in instituting strong security measures before allowing its people to telecommute.

Intel, for instance, runs seminars on how to handle telecommuting security issues and equips the laptops of its telecommuters with multi-layered security devices. "There's even a guideline on what you can tell your spouse," says Pacis with a smile.

As a telecommuter, Pacis says, she spends at least 12 hours online each day: "I work with my counterparts in the US late at night; sometimes they would apologize when their dogs bark. That's because they work from home as well." Indeed, the beauty of telecommuting is that the time normally spent preparing for work in a traditional job can be used to do productive work immediately.

Pacis explains that telecommuting is a new cultural phenomenon in the workplace, one in which a company invests a much greater degree of trust in its employees than ever before. In the case of Intel, she says, the company allows telecommuting because it believes in providing employees "a great place to work" and in providing them greater freedom to find happiness in their life.

At Media Meter, Roque says that because he believes in practicing what he preaches, he has designed his company's policies based on his own personal work ethics. In fact, this is how he explains why he has accepted and allows telecommuting in his company: "I realized that I could work better under less supervision."

Roque calls telecommuting a "planned let go" because it requires a company and its management to make a tremendous leap of faith and a paradigm shift in the way the company operates. With or without telecommuting, though, he sees to it that his line managers and supervisors are constantly monitoring work progress and that all of his people are mindful of their targets and deadlines. "With telecommuting, we have less rules but we have higher growth," he says.



CONTACT DETAILS:
DOY A. ROQUE
Managing Director, Media Meter
E-mail:doy.roque@media-meter.com

MA. TERESA L. PACIS
External Communications Manager, Corporate Affairs
Intel Technology Philippines Inc.
E-mail: ma.teresa.l.pacis@intel.com

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