I recently ran across an article talking about the “honest truths of the telecommuting profession.” The article went on to explain that individuals who telecommute need to be self-motivated, have excellent prioritization skills and exceptional communication skills.
The reason that I’m not sharing this article with you is because telecommuting is not a profession. We don’t say, “I want to be a telecommuter when I grow up.” We don’t run job openings for “telecommuters”. A profession is defined as a paid occupation that usually involves some sort of training, education, or qualification. Telecommuting is working from home. It’s a means to get work done.
It reminds me of freelancing. A freelancer works for several different companies rather than being employed by one organization. Freelancing isn’t a profession. What a person does as a freelancer is a profession. For example, I’m a freelance writer – so, writing is my profession. Freelancing is how I accomplish my work.
Now some people might say the distinction is minor. But I’m not sure that it is. The second part of this article talked about the skills that teleworkers need to have. No arguments there. I agree that teleworkers need to be self-motivated, have excellent prioritization skills and exceptional communication skills. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say every employee, whether they telecommute or not, needs to have those skills.
That’s why I think understanding a profession is important. A profession is an occupation. It has specific skills and educational requirements. If we want to help people be successful in their jobs, we need to know what jobs are. Versus methods to get jobs done. We can’t design good jobs if we don’t know what jobs are.
Right now, the business community is talking about creating jobs that will attract top talent. They are making a direct connection between work and employee engagement. And they’re saying that employees stay with companies because they understand the impact their work has on the bottom-line. None of that will happen if the people who design work don’t know the difference between work methods and the work itself. In addition, we won’t be able to improve our work methods if we don’t recognize them as such.
One of the wonderful things about working today is the variety of methods we have to accomplish our work. I’d like to suggest we don’t mess that up by misinterpreting them for jobs. Because the adoption rate for methods (like telecommuting) is directly related to it’s success. And it will not be successful if we don’t define and manage it appropriately.
Image courtesy of HR Bartender
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Kristy M. Lopez says
I agree with you completely. Telecommuting is NOT the job, but is simply a means of getting the job done. I telecommute for my job (I’m extremely lucky!), but my job title is District Manager, I work for a marketing company, and I manage teams across the nation. I believe that telecommuting is one perk that many companies should begin looking at (of course where and when it makes sense). There are so many companies out there (including some of my former companies) who do not believe in telecommuting. Period. They want to see warm bodies in seats because they believe that this is the ONLY way for work to get done. However, I beg to disagree. With the right managers, most any work (notice I said most) can be completed remotely. The company just has to 1. find the right managers, 2. find the right employees, 3. trust those managers and employees, and 4. provide the right training. There are obviously lots of other steps in between, but I think you get where I’m going with that. Thanks for this post. I hope others don’t really think that telecommuting is a profession….
Ewa Lewandowska says
This is a very interesting observation, I am surprised to learn that anyone could consider telecommuting a profession. Most of professionals telecommute to some extend: we are constantly connected through our mobiles and tablets – most employees will check email and make calls outside of the office – they will work remotely, just like telecommuters. You are right, it’s just a way of getting the work done, and it’s absolutely the future – providing that the team is provided with the right tools .
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the comments!
@Kristy – I agree that telecommuting can be a viable option for many positions. Not all – some jobs require customer contact, but that’s usually understood upfront. You’re spot on about training. IMHO, the real hold back for telework is training managers to work with a team they don’t see every day.
@Ewa – Totally agree – being somewhat connected is the way of the future. As workers, we have to learn how to incorporate that “staying connected” into our worklife without letting it take over. Another good example of it being a method and not a job.