A large company has many employees who telework. This has benefits and limitations.
a) State 2 benefits and 2 limitations to the employer (4 marks) b) State 1 benefit and 1 limitation to the employee (2 marks) c) Describe 1 effect of teleworking on society as a whole (2 marks)
Benefit 1 to the employer: Reduced office costs; by having less staff in an office environment, means offices can be smaller. Smaller offices are cheaper to rent, heat and power.
Benefit 2 to the employer: Wider pool for recruitment as location is no longer important; since the employees do not have to travel to a central office they can be geographically located anywhere – over the entire World. This means employers can cherry pick the best candidates or cheapest (like BT employing staff in India).
Drawback 1 to employer: Harder to track employees’ work; since employees are at home there is no direct management of employees like there would be in an office. This makes it harder for employers to know what time employees start and finish work, whether they take the correct breaks and most importantly, what progress they are making with work set.
Drawback 2 to employer: Lack of company spirit; one of the roles of an office manager is to keep the ensure employee spirit and moral is high. This generally means more efficient workers. As employees are isolated from other employees and managers, it is difficult for them to get a sense of the common good, or the sense they are working in a team for a common goal and efficiency can suffer because of this.
Benefit 1 to employee: No need to travel; since there is no need for a morning commute to the office, there is no wasted time in traffic jams, or on the train. It also means that there is no travel costs such as train fairs or petrol/car expenses.
Benefit 2 to employee: Can live anywhere you like; house prices in central London and other major cities are very expensive which precludes some people being able to live near where they work. If there is no central office, employees are free to live anywhere they want (albeit with broadband access). So they can live near good schools or in areas with cheaper housing or near family.
Drawback 1 to employee: Lose social contact with work associates; people spend the majority of their adult lives at work and to spend it isolated from colleagues and other human interaction is hard on the human psyche. By working from home, employees do not benefit from all the other aspects of working in an office such as conversations, jokes, companionship and shared experiences. This is a great lose to anyone.
Drawback 2 to employee: Boundaries between work and home get blurred leading to stress; when the working day finishes, most people get into their cars and drive home from the office. When they reach home they can switch off from what happened during the day, all the stressful situations that may have occurred. They are in a safe and happy environment. Teleworkers cannot get away from their working environment because it is also their home environment. This can lead to a build of stress over time.
Benefit 1 of teleworking on society: Less travelling leads to less pollution; roads and rail networks are getting full. Traffic jams of stationary cars all belching out polluting exhaust fumes are helping towards global warming. All this is reduced the less people have to travel to work.
Benefit 2 of teleworking on society: Family commitments covered in home; the ‘latch-key kid’ is an increasing modern day phenomena. The child who comes home from school and does not have any parental contact until late in the evening can lead to them getting into trouble or becoming lonely. Modern day parents often have to work late in the office and loose the contact with their children often loosing out on many important stages of their childs’ life. This is causing the erosion of the nuclear family and all that entails. Teleworking means that parents are at home at all times and flexible working hours means that they can attend more family events such as school concerts, this all leads to stronger families.
2 comments:
A large company has many employees who telework. This has benefits and limitations.
a) State 2 benefits and 2 limitations to the employer (4 marks)
b) State 1 benefit and 1 limitation to the employee (2 marks)
c) Describe 1 effect of teleworking on society as a whole (2 marks)
Benefit 1 to the employer:
Reduced office costs; by having less staff in an office environment, means offices can be smaller. Smaller offices are cheaper to rent, heat and power.
Benefit 2 to the employer:
Wider pool for recruitment as location is no longer important; since the employees do not have to travel to a central office they can be geographically located anywhere – over the entire World. This means employers can cherry pick the best candidates or cheapest (like BT employing staff in India).
Drawback 1 to employer:
Harder to track employees’ work; since employees are at home there is no direct management of employees like there would be in an office. This makes it harder for employers to know what time employees start and finish work, whether they take the correct breaks and most importantly, what progress they are making with work set.
Drawback 2 to employer:
Lack of company spirit; one of the roles of an office manager is to keep the ensure employee spirit and moral is high. This generally means more efficient workers. As employees are isolated from other employees and managers, it is difficult for them to get a sense of the common good, or the sense they are working in a team for a common goal and efficiency can suffer because of this.
Benefit 1 to employee:
No need to travel; since there is no need for a morning commute to the office, there is no wasted time in traffic jams, or on the train. It also means that there is no travel costs such as train fairs or petrol/car expenses.
Benefit 2 to employee:
Can live anywhere you like; house prices in central London and other major cities are very expensive which precludes some people being able to live near where they work. If there is no central office, employees are free to live anywhere they want (albeit with broadband access). So they can live near good schools or in areas with cheaper housing or near family.
Drawback 1 to employee:
Lose social contact with work associates; people spend the majority of their adult lives at work and to spend it isolated from colleagues and other human interaction is hard on the human psyche. By working from home, employees do not benefit from all the other aspects of working in an office such as conversations, jokes, companionship and shared experiences. This is a great lose to anyone.
Drawback 2 to employee:
Boundaries between work and home get blurred leading to stress; when the working day finishes, most people get into their cars and drive home from the office. When they reach home they can switch off from what happened during the day, all the stressful situations that may have occurred. They are in a safe and happy environment. Teleworkers cannot get away from their working environment because it is also their home environment. This can lead to a build of stress over time.
Benefit 1 of teleworking on society:
Less travelling leads to less pollution; roads and rail networks are getting full. Traffic jams of stationary cars all belching out polluting exhaust fumes are helping towards global warming. All this is reduced the less people have to travel to work.
Benefit 2 of teleworking on society:
Family commitments covered in home; the ‘latch-key kid’ is an increasing modern day phenomena. The child who comes home from school and does not have any parental contact until late in the evening can lead to them getting into trouble or becoming lonely. Modern day parents often have to work late in the office and loose the contact with their children often loosing out on many important stages of their childs’ life. This is causing the erosion of the nuclear family and all that entails. Teleworking means that parents are at home at all times and flexible working hours means that they can attend more family events such as school concerts, this all leads to stronger families.
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