How ROWE Can Save You Money
July 9th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
As gas hits $4/gallon in parts of the country, government officials, pundits and bloggers are talking about how to solve the problem of the increasingly expensive daily commute. So far we’ve seen:
Symbolic gestures
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s decides to start biking to work
Robbing Peter to pay Paul
U.S Representative Steven LaTourette proposes bill to reimburse commuters
Taking it to the, er, street
How to talk to your boss about changing company policy to offset commuting costs
The last item sort of makes sense, provided people don’t fall into the same trap they fall into when talking about traditional flexible work arrangements.
When people change to four ten-hour days for family reasons, they feel anxious about their career, judged by their coworkers, and distrusted by their boss. As long as work is a place you go, rather than something you do, then even if a four-day week saves on commuting costs, it doesn’t solve the foundational problem.
What we’d rather see is people having the power to decide (versus having it be mandated or guidelined to death) when and where they work, as long as the work gets done. In a Results-Only Work Environment, the culture respects that you have a life outside of work that has an impact on your ability (or your desire) to be physically present. Some people might not want to come into the office every day because they’d rather spend time with their kids. Some people might decide not to come into the office every day because it’s freakin’ expensive.
As long as the work gets done, who are we to judge?
Final note: check out this nifty calculator that lets you figure out whether or not you should move closer to work in order to save money on commuting costs. You’re supposed to fiddle with the cost-of-the-new-house variable and the distance variable, but we played with the number of commuting days a week. Moving closer to work can make a difference…but only driving to an official physical office space two or three days a week saves you BIG.
I work from home one day a week. It helps with expenses and life margin. I have an 80 mile commute by life choice. Would I like to work in a ROWE? Yes!
The 80 Mile Commute: http://thelowerbarn.com/wp/?p=560
Cali/Jody -
Thanks for the article and wonderful calculator. Sure enough, even though I commute 60 miles round-trip to work each day, if I were to move within 5 miles of my office my yearly costs would go up almost $5,000! Some savings, huh?
A small group of us are trying (trying, trying, trying) to get our company to open up to telecommuting 1 day a week or a 4-day workweek. I have high hopes, but nothing is ever set in stone until it is done. We have a long road ahead of us. However, some of us realize that there are other opportunities out there so we always keep that in the back of our minds.