Telecommuting Impact: Energy Conservation Benefits & Drawbacks - Essay Sample

There are several ways in which telecommuting has impacted I.T operational costs, energy conservation, shifts in lifestyles, and computing. It has both advantages and disadvantages in how the impacts are felt. Energy conservation has been impacted positively by telecommuting.

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Greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel reliance, energy consumption, air pollution, plastic, and paper waste are among the energy conservation areas that have been impacted by telecommuting. Since more people work from home, the emission of greenhouse gas has reduced. Currently, around 27 million people telecommute daily, and they experience both positive and negative lifestyles.

Due to telecommuting, it is hard to establish new workplace bonding and relationships since there are collaboration barriers. However, positive benefits such as fewer work conflicts, less time pressure linked to attending meetings, improved productivity, and better information exchange among the employees are experienced.

Telecommuting reduces air pollution by decreasing the amount of nitrous oxide (NOx) and carbon dioxide emitted in the air. Driving is associated with increased emission of these gases, which results in respiratory issues among humans if they are overexposed to the Volatile Organic Compound (V.O.C)— respiratory infections such as contracting asthma results in the individuals to shift their lifestyles. Being a mobile worker means that an employee works in several places, and traveling is part of their job. It can be associated with highway vehicles producing 35% as NOx emissions whose 13% composes of V.O.C emissions and 10.9% as particulate matter.

Telecommuting allows employees to consume less energy while at home, comparing to working from the office. According to research approved by Sun Microsystems, energy used while working from home is half that used from office. In the study, Sun Microsystems confirmed that energy consumption is reduced by 5,400 kilowatt-hours (Kwh) per annum by telecommuters. As a result, the 27 million people working from home save around 135 billion Kwh in a year. Working from home has led to a reduction in the usage of both plastic products and paper as communication and transfer of information is done via emails and office technology. Digital-based work eliminates the requirement of disposing of more than 247 million tons of paper annually.

Business infrastructure in an event where employees can't access the office building should be designed to meet the guidelines of virtualization disaster recovery and disaster recovery as a service. Through virtualization, all I.T. resources such as networks, servers, and applications are availed to the employees through a virtual host. In the event of natural disasters and fire, a worker would continue undertaking their responsibilities. Disaster recovery as a service is an approach that would allow the creation of a secondary hot site for an organization's data.

Based on an I.T. manager's perception, telecommuting has both advantages and disadvantages. Telecommuting is a strategy where managers, alongside employees, are granted the flexibility of choosing when and where they would work and accomplish their assigned tasks. The following are the disadvantages and advantages of managers adopting telecommuting in their workplaces.

The advantages are that it enables organizations and managers to reduce the cost of operating. It reduces costs in terms of saving office space and utilities incorporated in an office. It helps managers in promoting work-life balance. It is because it allows them to do tasks at an appropriate time. Managers can retain top talent alongside attracting new ones. Since telecommuting is a new culture, they attract new employees. Changing a business culture attracts a new workforce since the business culture changes.

There are several disadvantages associated with telecommuting. It is associated with security breaches. Since employees work in different remote areas, each of them is given a code to access the system. It acts as an opportunity for threats and hacking. Most employees work alone, and it acts as a challenge when tackling big projects. When working from the office, they form teams to accomplish any type of project. It leads to increased costs directed to technical support since employees require an uninterrupted connection while working from where they are located. It reduces the capability of managers to manage, coordinate, direct, and control workers. It becomes a challenge to attain set objectives.

There are different effects associated with the policy Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) on the I.T infrastructure, data management, knowledge, support, telecommuting, and green computing. Even though the policy can have many benefits, it can also be termed as unsafe since some employees might not adhere to the guidelines and policy standards authorized by I.T manager.

Due to this, it can harm an entire enterprise or business since it would mean that it is not implemented correctly. It is a policy that would allow sensitive data to be accessed via unauthorized devices. There are cases when data gets on the hands of non-employees. As a result, it is severely compromised, and the threat is tremendous (Lembach & Lane, 2013). Employees who use their own devices may open gateways for spyware, viruses, and malware, resulting in attacks from an unknown source. Therefore, to eliminate such threats, I.T manager can either emphasize reasonable BYOD policies or confiscate unauthorized devices as a way of protecting and securing the company's assets.

References

Forbes.com

Lembach & Lane, 2013

www.virtualvocations.com