Sometime back I had a chat with a friend of mine on how terrible the Nairobi traffic had become, especially in the morning and evening, my friend attributed this to 8-5 work schedule of most Kenyan employers, this means that fare prices hike in the morning and evening and are relatively low the rest of the day. Most employers demand that their employees get to work by 8 AM and not leave before 5 PM regardless of the workload.
I worked in an Electrical/Mechanical consultancy firm before as an IT support fellow, sometimes I could go without work for days but still I had to be at my work place at 8 and not leave before 5.30- that was the rule and every employee had to respect that, the said friend of mine (Electrical Engineer) lost his position in this firm apparently because he did not report to work on a Saturday ,since he felt there was no work on his desk to be done on that Saturday only to be served with a suspension letter upon coming on Monday which was thereafter followed by a termination of contract (he is in the process of establishing his own firm and promises to give his employees flexible working hours provided they get the work done satisfactorily and in time)
With the advent of technology, you don’t have to necessarily be in the office to get the work done, though this also depends on the nature of work one does. If we can have e-learning, distance learning, e-court proceedings why not e-working (Teleworking/telecommuting) if the nature of your work allows it?
….Telework occurs when information and communications technologies (ICTs) are applied to enable work to be done at a distance from the place where the work results are needed or where the work would conventionally have been done…
Currently I work in an ICT oriented NGO and I am more of a teleworker, we do a lot of our meetings on Skype, correspond a lot through emails and exchange and share files through dropbox, my work also involves tutoring, I don’t have to be physically present in a class to give lectures, with the help of software such as camtasia, I can create very professional lecture videos and notes so that even people who are not in my country of residence can still attend my classes online.
I must confess more often than not I have to give a lot of explanations to the kids especially why I claim to be busy working yet I don’t ‘go to work ‘in the morning like their daddy does, this reminds me of a rather interesting scenario- this kid came over and was like “kindly let me use your computer to play a game” since I was very busy, I politely declined and told her I would consider her request once I complete my work. Her response kind of took me a back, she was like- “you pretend to be busy working yet you are not!”
I have realized that it is not only kids who don’t understand this teleworking concept, but even grownups themselves, for instance my pals and siblings don’t take me seriously when I tell them am teleworking, the question that mostly follow is ‘Where are your offices situated?’. A lot of importance has been pegged on ‘going to work’ than the work itself
Having teleworked for some time now, I have got this to say:
Advantages
This article tends to summarize the advantages of teleworking: http://www.ventanazul.com/img/weblog/telework-people-sample.pdf
Drawbacks (I have these to say on drawbacks)
- With teleworking, you can easily become a workaholic, since there are no breaks typical of 8-5 work schedule, for instance I rarely realize its lunch time and most of the time I work well past midnight depending on the workload
- You miss out on the social aspect of life; mostly you are alone in your room or virtually with people in chat rooms, so you don’t get time to interact with your workmates and even others. You can even take like a whole week without leaving the house.
- If you are not careful, you can become unkempt, since your level of interaction with others is somewhat limited, therefore the taste of fashion and being smart takes a back seat coz most of the time you are alone anyway.
- Hmmm, and am wondering if this comp will render me infertile :) , as usual ,mostly I work from my bed which means I normally place it somewhere on my abdomen- and am afraid of the radio active rays it produces :)
- I wouldn’t recommend it to fresh graduates, in my view it suits those who have got enough experience and are rather established in their work.
