The evolution of telecommutingWorking from home is a valued benefit, but face-to-face is crucial

CARRIEMASON-DRAFFENBYcarrie.mason-draffen@newsday.com

Christine Cesarinohad a problem sixyears ago: She wasready to start a fam-ily, but wanted to

keep her job as executive assis-tant at Advantage Payroll Ser-vices in Freeport.

When she proposed to herboss, Advantage Payroll founderand president Rob Basso, thatshe telecommute part time, hewas reluctant at first, he said, buttried it out to keep a valued em-ployee.

Now both boss and workersay that Cesarino’s schedule oftelecommuting one and a halfdays a week is a win-win.

“You don’t always find a bossthat cares this much, who says, ‘Iwant to keep you,’ ” said Ce-sarino, 33, of Sayville, who nowhas two children, ages 4 monthsand 4 years.

But she admits telecommut-ing alone wouldn’t work for her.

“You don’t have the personalconnection, which iswhy I enjoygoing into the office,” she said.

Telecommuting, originallyseen by futurists as liberationfrom the tyranny of commutingto the office, has evolved intosomething different. It has be-come a broadly offered perk thateligible workers use sparingly—when emergencies or other con-tingencies get in theway ofworkfor a few hours — or as a part-timeway ofworking.

Telecommuting has particularappeal to tech-savvy millennialworkers, who feel comfortablewith reduced time in the office.Even older workers and theirbosses see it as a valuable perk.

But telecommuting hasn’t re-placed time in the office, be-cause both workers and bosses

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Christine Cesarino, here with son Dominic, telecommutes part time from her Sayville home to Advantage Payroll Services in Freeport.

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find in-person communicationand oversight too valuable toabandon.

That wasn’t how the futureof telecommuting was fore-cast. A 1983 Forbes article, forexample, talked about the“wonderful phenomenon oftelecommuting, which prom-ises to change the daily livesof millions of Americans asradically as the automobiledid beginning half a centuryor so ago.” Futurists predictedthat the personal computerwould do away with brick-and-mortar offices, clear road-ways of traffic and allow le-gions of workers to put in afull day’s work from the com-fort of their homes.

Part-time preferenceInstead, telecommuting has

become widespread — andpart-time.

TheshareofU.S.workersper-forming some or all of theirwork fromhomegrewto 24per-cent in 2015, from 19 percent in2003, according to the U.S. Bu-reau of Labor Statistics’ Ameri-can Time Use Survey releasedin June. It interviewed 10,900people during 2015.

The average time spentworking from home, on the oc-casions people did so, rose by40 minutes — to 3.2 hours, thesurvey said.

One reason telecommutingis more frequently part-timeor episodic instead of full-time is that many managersfeel more comfortable manag-ing people they can see, ex-perts said.

“Executives have a hardtime giving up control,” saidKaren Sobel Lojeski, an assis-tant professor in Stony BrookUniversity’s Department ofTechnology and Society.“They think that if people

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Telecommuting is a perk that bosses and employeessay works best when it’s not full-time

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aren’t on the premises, theyaren’t working as hard.”

But even some local work-ers who frequently telecom-mute acknowledge that, asmuch as they value it as a ben-efit, it works best when com-bined with in-office interac-tions with colleagues.

“I like going in and seeingpeople, and sometimes it isbetter to talk to someone faceto face,” said Kay Spalding, ex-ecutive director of marketingat Amalgamated Family ofCompanies in White Plains,who telecommutes part timefrom her home in Mineola.“So the two days at home andthe three days of going intothe office is kind of like theperfect situation for me.”

Telecommuting has otherdrawbacks, Sobel Lojeski said.Research shows that telecom-muters “tend to stay chainedto their computer more thanpeople who actually go into anoffice,” she said.

The flexibility factorNevertheless, telecommut-

ing has become an essentialtool for attracting and retain-ing talented people, employersand workplace experts said.

“People are more and morerequiring flexibility in theirwork life,” Sobel Lojeski said.

Telecommuting can come inhandy during a crisis. To pre-vent worsening highway traf-fic when girding for a threat-ened Long Island Rail Roadstrike in 2014, the Metropoli-tan Transportation Authoritycontacted 1,400 employersacross Long Island and NewYork City to encourage theiremployees to telecommute. Itreceived commitments for atleast 18,000 workers to workfrom home, the agency said atthe time. A contract settle-ment prevented a strike.

Telecommuting was thrustinto the news three years agobecause of the outcry that en-sued when Marissa Mayer,chief executive of Yahoo, an-nounced she was ending theperk, as she sought to turnaround the ailing company.Verizon agreed to buy most ofYahoo last month.

The number of businessesoffering at least limitedtelecommuting options hasgrown.

A survey of 3,490 human-re-source professionals sponsoredby the Society for Human Re-source Management, a tradegroup in Alexandria, Virginia,shows that between 1996 and2016 the percentage of organiza-tions offering some form of

telecommuting jumped three-fold to 60 percent.

Many employees enjoy theautonomy that telecommutingbrings, said Karen Ehrhart, amanagement professor at SanDiego State University whosespecialty includes work-lifebalance issues.

“The ability to make theirown decisions is motivatingthem, and they can get thingsdone on their own time andschedule,” she said.

Though the benefit has across-generational appeal, it isan especially strong lure formillennials.

“HR professionals will tellyou that millennials are partic-ularly interested in flexibilityoptions, including telecom-

muting,” said Lisa Horn, wholeads the HR society’s work-place flexibility initiatives.

Basso, the Advantage Pay-roll president, said he “had tothink about it,” when Cesarinofirst pitched telecommutingpart time. “How was I going toget the same work? I cannotask her to do something in theoffice like pick up the mail orcheck with other staff mem-bers about something.”

But he said he realized oth-ers among the company’s 50employees could handle thosejobs when she was workingfrom home.

“So it did change somework parameters, but I havenot seen any detrimental signsbecause of it,’’ he said.

Most of all, he said, hewanted to hold on to a valu-able employee. “The last thingI want is a key person who isunhappy,” he said.

Cesarino said that thetelecommuting accommoda-tion allowed her to be a “momwith a career” and solidifiedher loyalty to the companyeven more.

John Thornton, executivevice president of sales andmarketing for AmalgamatedFamily, believes telecommut-ing is a must for his workers,including Spalding. All of his14 salespeople based aroundthe country work from home,and five of the workers at itsWhite Plains office telecom-mute a day or two a week.

“It gives them the flexibilitythey may need to work effi-ciently but also to have a verygood quality of life,” he said.

Spalding said the telecom-

muting helps her to be moreproductive overall. Withoutthat option she would miss bigchunks of her workday whenshe had a doctor’s appoint-ment, for example.

“By the time you go to thedoctor and drive up to WhitePlains, you lose half a day,” shesaid.

Dave Pasternack, chief exec-utive and founder of Didit, aMineola-based digital advertis-ing company, doesn’t allowfull-time telecommuting.

“We think that creativity,productivity and communica-tion between employees isgreatly enhanced when it isface-to-face,” Pasternack said.

But he said the company of-fers telecommuting on an as-needed basis. For example, inthe aftermath of superstormSandy 80 percent to 90 per-cent of his employees workedfrom home.

“We didn’t want them driv-ing in dangerous conditions,”he said.

On a regular basis about 10 ofhis 150 employees average oneday aweek of telecommuting.

“We use it more for retain-ing employees,” he said.

Don Donaudy, 62, chief cre-ative officer of Didit, telecom-mutes long-distance. Hespends two weeks out of everyfour on Long Island and twoweeks in Boynton Beach, Flor-ida, where he has a home.

His telecommuting beganabout a year ago while he splithis time betweenworking at hisown advertising firm, Fresh-brick, which was in Holbrook,and the house in Florida.

After Didit bought his com-pany this summer, Donaudywas able to continue telecom-muting.

The advantage, he said, isthat “you are in the comfort ofyour home.”

Still need face timeBut he said face time is also

key to managing a team of cre-ative people and keepingclients happy. “They want tohave a human side to the prod-uct or service they are buy-ing,” he said.

As for the issue of trust,ThorntonofAmalgamatedFam-ily said, “You can put in checksand balances to make sure peo-ple are hitting their goals.”

That’s important, becauseexperts expect telecommutingwill continue to be an impor-tant perk.

“I think it’s almost expectednow that you will offer atelecommuting option,” Thorn-ton said.

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2003 2015

19% 24%of workerswho spentsome timeworking at

home

of workerswho spentsome timeworking at

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2.6 3.2HOURS HOURSAverage

time spentworking athome peroccasion

Averagetime spentworking athome peroccasion

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,American Time Use Survey

WORKING FROM HOME: Top, Kay Spalding works two days athome in Mineola and three days at Amalgamated Family ofCompanies in White Plains. Above: Didit employee Don Donaudyworks two weeks on Long Island and two weeks in Florida.

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