March 13--Occasionally work from home? The decisions by Best Buy and Yahoo! to not allow employees to telecommute may have made you frown.
You probably can relax. A survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an outplacement and executive coaching firm with headquarters in Chicago, indicates most employers don't plan to follow suit.
According to the survey, 80 percent of 120 human resources executives polled said their companies currently offer some form of telecommuting option to employees. What's more, 97 percent have no plan to eliminate that benefit.
An estimated 3.1 million people consider home to be their primary place of work, according to the Telework Research Network. While that figure is up 73 percent since 2005, it represents just 2.5 percent of U.S. nonfarm payrolls, according to a news release by Challenger, Gray and Christmas. An estimated 64 million U.S. employees, nearly half the workforce, have a job that is compatible with telecommuting, the company said.
Feel free to email those figures to your supervisor, while still in your PJs.
--Eric Mortenson
