Your place or mine? Telecommuting and the finance officer.

• Author: Grippaldi, Joseph J.

Rapid advances in technology have converged with the increasingly frenetic pace of American life to make telecommuting an increasingly common work arrangement. A recent survey revealed that at least one segment of government finance officers has positive attitudes toward telecommuting.

Balancing the demands of work with all of the other responsibilities of everyday life has become an increasingly difficult challenge for millions of American workers, government finance officers included. The traditional 40-hour workweek, already longer than that of most industrialized nations in Europe and elsewhere, continues to rise. At the same time, sprawling metropolitan areas and Americans (1) love affair with the suburbs has increased average commuting times. The bottom line is that American workers in general have less time for their families and less time for themselves than perhaps ever before. This is an important issue not only for the workers themselves, but also for their employers, many of whom are beginning to realize that their employees' personal lives affect job satisfaction and productivity.

One relatively recent and increasingly common response to the work-life conundrum is telecommuting (also known as telework or flexiplace). Telecommuting is an alternative work arrangement in which employees perform their normal job duties and responsibilities away from the regular work location (i.e., office) using computers, teleconferencing, cellular phones, voice mail, electronic mail, fax machines, and online database services. Telecommuting is normally not a full-time work arrangement; the average teleworker typically works two-and-a-quarter days per week away from the office. A 1999 study by the International Telework Association and Council found that there are now 28.8 million teleworkers in the United States, or one out of every five U.S. workers. According to the study, more than two-thirds of teleworkers express greater job satisfaction, more than three-quarters report increased productivity and work quality, and 80 percent feel a greater sense of loyalty to their organizations. Exhibit i lists som e of the positive and negative characteristics of telecommuting identified in the literature on the subject.

Telecommuting is an emerging trend in public organizations. Empirical and anecdotal evidence on public sector telecommuting seems to confirm the results of the ITAC study: telecommuting allows workers to better manage work-life responsibilities, increases job satisfaction and productivity, and reduces the costs of sick leave and property management. Although the benefits of telecommuting have been widely reported, little is known about the attitudes of government finance officers toward telecommuting. The work of government accountants and financial analysts, however, is particularly amenable to telecommuting because it does nor require human interaction beyond what can be achieved via telephone and e-mail. To the extent that telecommuting decreases the distractions of a normal office environment, it offers the potential to improve worker productivity. This article summarizes the results of a study on the attitudes of special district finance employees toward telecommuting.

Survey Methodology and Demographics

In March and April 2002, 400 self-administered telecommuting surveys were distributed to a random sample of GFOA members employed by special district governments in the United States. Of the 400 surveys that were mailed, 244 were returned for a final response rate of 61 percent. The objective of the survey was to answer three primary questions:

* What are the attitudes of special district government finance officers toward telecommuting?

* Do gender, personal, or occupational differences exist with regard to telecommuting?

* Does telecommuting have an impact on employee retention?

There are approximately 34,000 special district governments in the United States. Although GFOA's membership may not be representative of all special district governments, it does include 2,435 employees of these organizations. Some special districts may not have the resources to purchase professional association memberships for their employees, while others may not employ a dedicated accounting/finance employee. As a result, this study has limited generalizability to city, county, state, and special district governments.

Exhibit 2 is a breakdown of...