Virtual Offices and Telecommuting
Virtual Offices 2 Abstract In the Ohio CPA Journal, Roman H. Kepczyk writes, “Over 11 million Americans will work from a “virtual office” environment this year. Much of corporate America now has people in telecommuting programs, and the number of people involved has grown 18 percent each of the past two years. ... The data suggest that virtual offices and telecommuting are gaining popularity and momentum. By definition, when a large numbers of employees telecommute, that is use personal computers (PC’s) and modems off-site to communicate with an organizations computer system, a virtual office results. Virtual offices employ electronic messaging (i. ... e-mail, bulletin boards, virtual private networks), electronic conferencing systems, and various PC applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, database and project programs to perform a job. Virtual offices can be established anywhere, anytime, remotely, without the need of being present in a traditional office setting. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of virtual offices and telecommuting for both the individual and business. ... The paper concludes by suggesting that the benefit of virtual offices and telecommuting outweighs its disadvantages, provided expectations between employer and employee are clear, measurable and reportable. Virtual Offices 3 Employer Advantages Telecommuting and virtual offices offer a number of significant advantages for both the employee and employer. ... , a Washington, DC based policy research organization specializing in the study of the future, states the general advantage of virtual offices and telecommuting is “improved productivity at a substantially lower cost and more discretion for the employee in their use of work time” (Wood, 2002).