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CTA
members tell their stories: Part 10
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The Office
of the Future for me is the Office of Now. I am a
Privacy Architect with a privacy consulting firm located in the
GTA. Each member of our team works from their home office. Why
do I need to go to office to spend time on the phone, when I do
it from the comfort of my own office. The real bonus of being at
home is when you realize that the tomatoes need watering, take a
10 minute garden break and go water them. If I am not on the
phone, I am onsite with the customer training. When a team
meeting or a face to face meeting is required, we simply set an
appointment and meet at different meeting spots throughout the
GTA, usually quiet in restaurants, or sometimes our customers
let use their boardrooms. We look forward to the meetings and I
find them much more productive as well as being thoroughly
enjoyable. Sometimes we need to collaborate and make
changes, so we simply log onto "GoToMyPC.com" and get the job
done. I just can't say enough about how much less stressful it
these days working from the home office and not having to spend
all those unproductive hours sitting in my car on the 401 or the
QEW. Carl Ruzycki -
YourPrivacy, Markham, Ontario |
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TecAccess
is a “virtual” company, for all of its employees telecommute.
Almost 90% of its employees have special needs and are not able
to commute to or work in a conventional office setting.
Consequently, TecAccess offers them high-tech, home-based
telecommuting opportunities. They telecommute with one another,
working as a team to get jobs done. Debra Ruh, Founder of
TecAccess, discovered that employees with disabilities were
actually better suited for the type of work for which she needed
them. However, she also found that there were certain barriers
that accompanied the rich intellect and creative thinking these
employees could offer. “By offering a telecommuting workplace to
my associates,” explains Mrs. Ruh, “TecAccess has widened the
employee pool from which we can choose our employees and
eliminate these barriers.” Employees are located in different
parts of the state, country, and even the world. She could not
hire better individuals than those who are already familiar with
the difficulties that accompany accessing the very technology
they are trying to make more accessible. In addition, persons
with disabilities who otherwise could not work in traditional
settings can now do so from the safety of their home.
“Individuals with disabilities,
through the use of computers and the Internet, can now fulfill
their dreams of a career,” according to Richard Belyea,
TecAccess CEO. “Technology has reached a point where time and
space have become less important in the workplace. The
traditional challenges of commuting and working eight-hour
shifts no longer apply. Now a disabled worker can schedule his
work to fit his unique lifestyle requirements, not the other way
around." Debra Ruh Visit
the TecAccess website |
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Toronto
executive improves productivity and eldercare capabilities with
telework. Having the capability to telework in my
past employment, allowed for continuing projects while attending
to sick parents at home. It is an ideal situation whereby the
work continues to get done at an express rate because the time
devoted is available without having the pressure of worrying
about problems at home. With the advancement and sophistication
of software, hardware and internet connections, file transfers,
connections to corporate main systems and data integration has
been very simplified. All corporations should allow for some
telework where it benefits both the employer and employee.
Esther Longmore-Crann,
Business & Operations Manager, Uneek Sales & Services |
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Travel time
losses in the Netherlands are likely to get worse in the years
ahead if capacity is not added to cope with the demand.
This particularly creates problems for business travel, which is
characterized by a high “value of time”. In the Netherlands,
policy makers have a long-standing interest in telework as a
means to reduce mobility and consequently the need to expand
physical infrastructure. However, currently the knowledge about
the influence of teleworking on working activities and physical
travelling is limited. A framework is developed to identify
these relationships in-depth resulting in an approach for
measuring business travel. Contact
Lim, Hock H. Delft
University of Technology, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Visit
website here
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Winter
storms no problem for this Prince Edward Islander The
best part of teleworking other than my geographic area isn't
restricted is the fact that when we have winter storms...I can
still respond to clients without any problem....not worrying
about how to get to the office.
Tracey Allen of
T. Allen &
Associates, Inc. |
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Prince Edward
Islander has plenty of experience with
telework I telework three times a week and have been
doing this for over 10 years.
Charlotte Jenkins,
Quality Services Officer, Veterans Affairs Canada,
Charlottetown |
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Gatineau consultant sees clean-air role
for telework I am currently between contracts (I am a
software consultant) and I take this opportunity to share my
views on the current "commuting to work" situation. I have long been a believer of
teleworking. I have had the chance in my twenty-years long
career to do some contracting jobs from home and it was the most
productive and enjoyable time of my life. However, most of the
time, I have to go on location to work on specific contracts,
especially those for the Canadian government. I have lately
realized the insanity, the added cost for both employers and
employees, the waste of time and finally the impact on the
environment that commuting to work every day creates. On top of that, the traffic
situation in Ottawa is getting worse by the day, it seems… The last speech from the throne
(February 2, 2004) states that "We want a Canada that is a
world leader in developing and applying the pathbreaking
technologies of the 21st century - biotechnology, environmental
technology, information and communications technologies, health
technologies and nanotechnology." Later in the speech: "The
objective - the challenge - is to reduce emissions by 1000
kilograms per person, per year. Because environmental
stewardship must be everybody's responsability." I feel that with the current
technology and all the desktop videoconferencing and
document-sharing solutions already available (some of them free,
like MSN Messenger), there is no reason that we should commute
to work everyday, especially for those who work with a computer
all day. I believe so strongly in this
that I would like to spend the rest of my career championing
this concept and contribute actively in changing the mindset of
our government and private companies. I truly believe that, with
the latest speech from the throne, our government is ready to
listen and start implementing real solutions to permit
telecommuting at a grander scale. I would really appreciate if you
could give me some points of contact where I could investigate
possibilities to use my expertise and dedication full-time to
push this idea and make it a reality.
Gilbert-C. Rémillard,
ing., Software Consultant, Gatineau, Quebec |
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See dozens of other telework
stories in our telework
story archives
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