November 21, 1995
Web posted at: 3:35 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Casey Wian
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Debra Lis used to spend two to three hours every day commuting to her job as a client rep at IBM. Now she works from home once or twice a week. She's one of the millions of Americans who've stopped going to work, but who haven't stopped working.
"Telecommuting provides me with a lot of flexibility," said Lis. "And it allows me to balance my work load with my personal life. I feel that I'm more productive definitely."
Last year, more than nine million workers telecommuted, a 20 percent increase over 1993. By 2,000, that number is expected to reach 25 million. Tom and Virginia Reynolds are already riding the wave. She works for the city of Los Angeles. He owns his own computer business.
"Telecommuting is going to be a competitive advantage against existing businesses which duck it," said Tom, who's president of ILAN Network Solutions Systems (119K AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound).
With lower-cost high-tech home office equipment available, the approach saves employers money on office space and overhead. And as Debra Lis found, it can increase worker productivity -- up to 40 percent in some cases.
Phil Quigley, chairman of Pacific Telesis, estimates telecommuting can save millions in real estate costs. And it can solve other problems as well. Many Sourthern California companies turned to telecommuting after the 1994 Northridge earthquake devastated transportation routes. Pacific Telesis says 90 percent of those customers are still telecommuting today.
Still, not every business (or employee) is a good telecommuting candidate. For instance, the city of Los Angeles employs 40,000 workers, but about 2/3 of those jobs require a physical presence. The experts say good telecommuter prospects include sales people, phone and computer workers, and, perhaps most importantly, those with some serious self-discipline.
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