Big Surprise: People Will Accept Less Pay to Work From Home

A new study just came out based on a survey of 1500 technology workers that shows they'd be willing to accept up to a 10% cut in pay if it meant being able to telecommute and avoid the hassle of coming into the office.

The sarcasm in the title of this post wasn't intended to be too thick, I just find it funny how often we seem to forget the basic truth that more people than not would rather work from home than go into an office if they could.

But at the same time, the fact people are willing to take pay cuts in order to do so was eye-opening.

So what this is basically saying is that employers willing to aggressively pursue telecommuting programs are not only likely to attract more and better applicants, but those job seekers might be willing to take less pay.

But wait, there's more. With employees working from home, that means no more needing to pay for office space for them. Plus, no more leaving the office early to beat the traffic. In fact, one could argue that it's likely that employers will get more hours spent working out of telecommuting employees as they don't have to spend that time on the road.

And for the telecommuters, it means less money for gas, less wear and tear on the car, less risk of injury while on the road, and more time at home.

I mean, with all this staring us in the face, how can any company or governmental organization not want to embrace telecommuting immediately?

I know there are still issues to work out, different processes that need to be established, some assurances that people working from home are actually working, and so on. But none of these are insurmountable.

It seems to me like those companies willing to take the telecommuting plunge are going to have a leg up when it comes to attracting new hires and therefore they'll improve their competitive edge. And hopefully studies like this will start to open the eyes of companies of all shapes and sizes about the potential positive impact of adding telecommuting to their businesses.