The Psychological Science of Telecommuting

The idea that employee satisfaction is benefitted by telecommuting is one that has an inherent logical component. It’s no surprise that employees probably like the idea that they can work from home at their own time in their own terms, without a manager breathing down their neck and their coworkers invading their personal space.

But in science, the logic is not enough. Scientists want proof. They want to know that their assumptions are actually true.

That is why several researchers at Pennsylvania State University decided to complete a meta-analysis of all available research on telecommuting to discover if there is truth to the belief that employees benefit from telecommuting. They found the following: Family Benefits One of the main purposes of the study was to discover if there was any benefit with regards to work-family conflict. And indeed, the research showed that there was considerably less work-family conflict when there was telecommuting in the workplace.

Spending more time with your family and taking breaks to do chores and help our around the home – as well as the likely decrease in stress and lack of commute time – are very likely to improve relationships with their family. From there, it can also be assumed that the person’s overall stress levels will decrease as well. Similar Workplace Relationships An interesting finding – and one that went against previous opinions of telecommuting – is that workplace relationships could be harmed with the telecommuting lifestyle.

Research indicates that this is not the case, and that workplace relationships are rarely harmed, if at all. If the workplace relationships are not harmed, then one of the most common “detrimental” effects of telecommuting has been disproven. Independence There is also the issue if independence and autonomy.

Employees that telecommute feel and act as though they are independent workers. This is beneficial from an employee satisfaction perspective because an employee that feels they are independent is going to feel more confident. It also may be more beneficial from a productivity perspective as well, because there is some thinking that a lack of dependency on others may help improve work flow.

Telecommuting clearly has many psychological benefits, as the study indicates. Indeed, while there may be some unknown risk (perhaps productivity decreases with employees that have more leeway in the amount of work they need to complete?) the evidence says that telecommuting is a benefit for satisfaction and productivity overall.