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 |  Mosaic 2 Reading, 4/e Brenda Wegmann
Miki Knezevic
Marilyn Bernstein
Telecommuting| Narrator: It seems lately we either work like this -- or more relaxed like this. Heidi Anderson has decided on something a bit less extreme. Heidi is one of the estimated 20 million American teleworkers. She's up before sunrise dropping her daughter at day care and back a few blocks for a money-saving day at the basement home office.Anderson: I don't have the burden of having to get dressed up to go to work, and that's a benefit to me. I save money on dry cleaning and on pantyhose that run.Narrator: Traffic reporter Lisa Bay watches travel unravel each day.Bay: There's a yellow bus broken down in the right lane.Narrator: There's little she can do except advise commuters, “Stay home.”Bay: That's bumper to bumper. You can't even see the pavement right there. This is gridlock.Narrator: Telecommuting is now so popular that America Online is adding 40,000 modems a month to keep up with traffic. Charles Wilsker's Capunet also provides speedy connections, and he lets some of his workers telecommute. What if they spend that time goofing off? Chuck says that's fine with him. He just wants results.Wilsker: If I give them a quota of X, and they produce 2X, you know. I don't care if they're watching Oprah and eating bonbons.Narrator: Heidi now only telecommutes a few days a week. Her company, Telecordia works with other firms to cuts costs and pollution by getting more folks to work at home. Traffic controllers say that telecommuting is the only way to unclog these slow-moving parking lots. In fact many companies are now rushing to make it easier for the rest of us to phone it in. Oh, and it's saving companies a bundle too.Woman: If you telework one day a week only, the company can save $10,000 per year per teleworker. Man: The average mileage driven is something like 12 to 13 thousand miles a year. That's $3,000 to $4,000 there. |
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education