Effects of Telecommuting on Society

When office workers spend time working from home and using technology to communicate with their workmates and employers or employees, the act is often referred to as telecommuting. For a parent especially a mother, telecommuting will involve being at home and being able to take care of the young children. It will also give an individual time to stay at home and eliminate the need to travel to work.

With the growth of modernization, communication between individuals has become different than in the previous years. The use of technology has enabled workers to connect to each other either in their workplace or at home (Cullen, 2003). This form of technology has brought a lot of advantages including reducing traffic loads and creating job opportunities. Urban life will be affected by this technology given that most people will be staying at home; therefore, there will be reduced traffic snarl-ups, and most cities will be decongested.

As people work and live in the same location, shops will relocate out of the city Centre. The cost of living will also go down given that the demand for houses around the city will decrease. Even though half the week is spent telecommuting, workers will end up not becoming productive enough (Cullen, 2003). Most of the workers will spend a lot of time on social media and other internet activities instead of work. Research has it that, telecommuting will also affect a workers ability to work effectively, because there will be no eye to eye contact, and no supervision (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007).

In conclusion, telecommuting does not necessarily bring happiness to our society. It may have advantages but the need for face to face communication in any business setting is very essential. Therefore, it is imperative that we only use telecommuting with particular kinds of jobs and only when it is very essential.