By Jim Elsener
As gas prices have soared beyond $4 per gallon we are all rethinking common business practices like, “is it necessary to come into the office each day?”
At The Business Ledger the people who are on the road the most are our sales professionals. Besides visiting their clients and prospects, it just so happens that not one of our sales staff lives closer to the office than 25 miles. That’s 50 miles a day roundtrip times an average work year of 240 business days (not counting weekends, vacation, holidays, sick days and so on) which totals 12,000 miles a year just to get back and forth to work.
If the average car gets 20 miles to each $4 gallon of gas that comes to about $2,400 per year. That’s a lot of moola, depending on your point of view. But, then again, is it? If one accepts a necessary cost of doing business at $2 per gallon then the additional cost is $1,200 a year.
Our sales pros all have laptop computers and cell phones and they certainly can set up shop at home or at Panera Bread, but the question is whether they be as efficient there as they can be working from the office.
Since most sales people are paid on commission one has to determine if being at the office more is an advantage or a disadvantage. In our business a certain amount of call-in business is directed to whoever happens to be at his desk at that moment. A commission check can be the result of one of those call-ins.
I have seen where a salesperson has gotten a piece of business that way and it exceeds the cost of gasoline for a year. It has been said more than once that “a certain amount of success in sales comes from just showing up.”
Working from a home office is nothing new. I’ve been in management about 30 years now, and even before the term “telecommuting” was common, I had employees who claimed they could be more effective if they were working at home and not being bothered by all those pesky customers who called you at the office and expected you to respond to them.
Because technology has gotten more cost-efficient and we have all gotten better at utilizing the technology in our businesses, perhaps the traditional office setting isn’t as important as in the past.
I will admit that I have changed my mind several times on this issue. Usually, it is changed by a good employee who is able to work well anywhere, or by a bad employee for whom the opposite is true.
The only time I have experienced a home office setting for any period of time was the three months I took in 1992 to start my own business. I was relatively efficient, using the mornings to work on my business plan and to set afternoon appointments. I will admit that my self-discipline did lag occasionally and I found myself starting each day by playing 15 minutes of computer solitaire.
But I did get the job done and eventually had an office with real people to go to. I truly enjoy that more than being alone in my house. I need the inspiration I get by being around other people.
I don’t think one can underestimate the value of camaraderie and the understanding of a corporate culture that can be difficult to grasp when you are not with your co-workers. That is a definite downside.
But, I recognize that everyone doesn’t need that. And I suspect that as the years go by people will be more accustomed than ever to working from home.
In my family, my wife has her own tax and accounting business as well as working for The Business Ledger, which she does quite effectively out of a home office. My son is a salesman for an international corporation, which wants him to work out of his home office. He says he is very productive there.
As I have questioned my family members and many other home office workers they all admit to taking a few liberties such as walking the dog, doing the laundry or running errands that are easier to do during weekdays.
But they also don’t spend two hours in the car commuting each day. Typically it seems they are at work much earlier than normal office hours, often dressed in their pajamas, and they work later in the day when others are stuck in the evening rush hour.
Each job and company requires different levels of productivity. The end result is all that matters and for most managers that is easy to determine.
