Burning More Calories is Good, but Burning More Fuel is Not! [Infographic]

The 24% and Growing Telecommuting Trend Could Help Both!
Feb 29, 2012 2:00 PM ET
Campaign: AT&T: Planet

Networking Exchange Blog

by Monica Liming-Hu

Brrrr! On a cold winter morning, do you really want to go outside, get into a freezing car, warm it up and then drive into work! In colder months your body needs to use more energy and so burns more calories while your car fuel economy declines for several reasons.  Cars’ greater usage of fuel in colder months, can increase the travel related carbon footprint, as each gallon of gasoline you burn creates 20 pounds of CO2.

Just think about the carbon emissions burned in traffic jams alone. Not only for environmental benefits, but also to support cost reduction efforts, companies are starting to look at alternative work environments, even designing offices for telecommuting. Several companies have allowed telecommuting for a number of years and we’re seeing an even greater increase, as according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 24 percent of workers did some or all of their work at home in 2010. A recent survey indicates that at least two-thirds of government workers telecommute.

Newbies to telecommuting may have concerns about being invisible while working from home. They may even worry about being productive, so there are several helpful tips available to help you eliminate the productivity fears, as well as guidelines on how to work from home.

In a previous blog, I had already mentioned the health benefits of telecommuting. Continued articles support how it reduces stress, which in turn can improve your health.

Some IT departments still have improvements to make to support this new trend, even while new technology has helped to further enable the mobile teleworker.

At AT&T a number of our employees take advantage of Telecommuting. We have seen substantial benefits from reduced absentee rate, lower turnover rate and cost reductions. Of course and very importantly, we are seeing beneficial environment improvements as well. Take a look at what we here at AT&T see as benefits of telecommuting in our (Infographic).

Does your company support telecommuting? If so what are the biggest advantages of telecommuting for you and/or your company? Have you found any surprising benefits of telecommuting?