by: Kiran Mirchandani
I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at McGill University in Montreal. My thesis is entitled "Towards a Feminist Redefinition of Work: Telework and its Challenge to the Work-Nonwork Dichotomy". I have recently interviewed women and men who are teleworking in Ontario and Quebec. This article outlines my preliminary findings.
Most respondents gave multiple, rather than a single reason for teleworking. Women and men mentioned the same five reasons most frequently for working at home. Women tended to highlight control over work environment and balancing work and family. Men stressed the commute and higher productivity. Although these gender differences exist, it should be noted they are not extremely pronounced.
Table: Most commonly cited reasons for teleworking
Many women telework because it gives them more control over their work environment and schedule and because it relieves the stress of balancing work and family. One woman explained how she appreciates working in the relaxed atmosphere of her home. "There's something about the luxury of being in your own home and working at the same time, I think that's a real treat."
Another woman with school age children said. "... they're not latchkey kids where they can do whatever they want. You have more control over the amount of television they watch ... you can encourage them to do other things."
Many women also identified reducing their commute as an important reason for teleworking. One woman who commutes over an hour each way said, ".. my first priority was not commuting ... for me that's worth a million dollars ...".
A few women said the reason they telework is because it increases their productivity. A woman who teleworks 3 days a week said, "I would say on average I probably produce 20% more than I would in the office."
Another woman said working at home is encouraged by her company. Her company explained they could not afford to expand the size of their building and asked staff if they would be interested in working from home.
A few women mentioned they needed to telework in order to stay in the labour force because of health reasons, because they needed to provide eldercare, or because of long commutes.
With men, the most common reason mentioned was to save on the commute. One man working in Toronto but living in a neighbouring city said with telework he was able to reap the benefits of working in a large city without the stress associated with the travel. He said, "[saving travel] is the number one reason. Three hours a day minimum on the highway is a complete waste of time. It takes away from time with my family ..."
Many men also telework because it increases their productivity, and gives them a certain control over their work schedule and environment. As one man who works at home only occasionally said, "... when I do work at home .. one of the main reasons I do it is to get some work done."
Higher productivity at home was also experienced by full-time teleworkers. Another man said, "when I started to do those tasks at home, all of a sudden all the timing was wrong. I was able to do them much faster."
Several men identified telework as giving them a chance to balance their work and family and have more time for their children. One man with two school age children said, "normally if we're coming to the office to work in the morning there really isn't a lot of time for the kids."
A few men telework because the company encourages it. One man said the biggest positive for him is saving the commute. But he also states his company encourages employees who can work from another space to work from home.
Almost all respondents had voluntarily chosen to telework; some in fact had campaigned for months to be allowed to work at home. Two respondents (both men), working for different companies, said they telework because they have no real alternative. As one of them said: "the decision was very easy to make. You lose your office and then you have the option of working from the house."
While this sentiment was not widespread amongst the present sample, it is instructive of the coercive potential of mandatory telework.
CONTACT:
Kiran Mirchandani McGill University phone: (514) 843-8044e-mail: bfqp@musicb.mcgill.ca
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