Many employees and managers believe working from home is the ideal work environment, yet the practice has many problematic aspects to it, according to an article released today by the Gannett News Service.  Based on 40 years of research, comprimising 259 studies and almost 220,000 workers, the biggest problem cited with telecomuting centers on the social aspect.  Removing individual employees from the direct interaction of other company employees  adversely affected job satisfactions levels, increased burnout and exhaustion, and increased the likelihood of employee turnover.

Other problems due to remote working environment include boredom, distractions, or comulsive work habits leading to over 60-hour work weeks.

Organizations that do utilize telecomuting workforces must work harder at maintaining constant communication with its spread out workforce, and find ways to bring its teams together for face-to-face interactions.  Managers must also keep them continually challenged while monitoring progress to ensure a balanced work-life environment. 

Telecomuting does offer organizations advatanges--as long as the pitfalls are understood, and care is taken to manage those issues.