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From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Working at Home
Message-ID: <11167@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 20 Jun 88 19:13:00 GMT
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In article <11144@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> you write:
> It was supposed, when computing firms starting expanding wildly,
> that computing would be a great field for women.  Ideally, one
> did not have to be in the same building as other people to be in
> the same firm and working on the same project.  This was supposed
> to mean that women could work at home.  It was supposed to mean
> that computing would be a particularly inviting field for women.
> This doesn't seem to have happened.  Has it?  If not, why not?

Because firms discovered that:
	1) telecommuting often didn't work--many jobs require
	interaction with users, sales people, etc.
	2) people still had to come in for meetings and such, so
	office space et al was still required
	3) labor laws often made it difficult to employ people
	who worked primarily at home
	4) OSHA laws often made it impossible to employ people
	who worked primarily at home

Given that having people telecommute often failed to benefit the company
and frequently was *more* difficult, many companies prefer to have the
employees on premise where they can keep better tabs on hours, working
conditions, and so on.  This sounds "Big Sibling-ish," but that isn't quite
what I mean.  There's still a real feeling that the "team" is an important
concept in business, and that having everyone at the end of an RS232 connection
doesn't build that.  Also consider how much faster things can get resolved in a
face-to-face meeting rather than electronically.

I'd love to do some telecommuting, but I don't see it happening real soon.
(I'm also waiting for my personal aircar a la 1930's science fiction.
Predictions don't always come true.)

					Evelyn C. Leeper
					201-957-2070
				UUCP:	att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com
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