Benefits and Disadvantages of Being a Telecommuting Employee
If you decide to work from home, or telecommute, you can choose between being a telecommuting employee or a telecommuting independent contractor. There are several benefits and disadvantages to being a telecommuting employee instead of a regular employee.
A telecommuting employee generally has the same type of job requirements that a regular employee would have, except he or she would telecommute instead of traveling to their place of work. Income tax, social security, unemployment, and other taxes are deducted the same way that a regular employee’s taxes would. Also, some telecommuting jobs have benefits similar to regular employee benefits such as health insurance and paid vacation.
Telecommuting jobs require a greater degree of trust and honesty between employers and their employees. Employees who are self motivated and honest may be rewarded with telecommuting options. The lack of oversight may cause some employees to slip from their job focus, thus making the option less effective for both the employee and employer.
A major benefit of being a telecommuting employee is not having to travel to work. As a telecommuting employee, you might have to “be at work” during particular hours of the day, but you might not ever have to travel to your job, or you might travel just a few times per month. This offers a great degree of freedom for where you choose to work rather than a regular employee who is confined to his or her job location.
For those who do not like working from home, telecommuting may be a disadvantage. Although your employer still controls when, where, and how you work as a telecommuting employee, a degree of self motivation is still required to meet deadlines and perform the job the way your employer requires. It may be easier for some to focus on their work while physically at their location of work.
A person who does not like driving might be more suited to telecommuting work. Many workplaces are offering part-time telecommuting options for workers who have portions of their jobs that can be performed at home. This helps reduce commuting costs to workers and benefits those workers who have a longer commute or wish to limit the amount of driving they do.
Communication between telecommuting employees and managers is much different than regular employees. For regular employees, their managers can discuss job progress and other issues directly on site. There are often specific meetings where progress, goals, and evaluations are discussed.
Telecommuting employees can communicate with their managers via phone, teleconferencing, email, instant messaging, or other methods. However, if there are not specific meeting times set, there may be several distractions to the telecommuting employee from managers attempting to continually update their employees.
For both employers and telecommuting employees overall costs are generally lower than if the employees commuted to work. If a substantial number of employees work from home, overhead costs may be much less for employers. As noted before, employees save on gas and other commuting costs. Also, employees save on child care costs in many cases.
Overall, being a telecommuting employee may be good option for people who wish to save on child care costs, who are honest and self motivated, who dislike driving, and who don’t mind combining work and home.
by 
Erich J. Ruth
Erich J. Ruth provides technical support for National Software which is the parent company for 1099FIRE. 1099FIRE develops and markets a comprehensive range of products that enables any size of business or institution to effectively manage and comply with year-end filing requirements. 1099FIRE is an employee-owned company located in Phoenix, Arizona.
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