5 Ways Telework Will Enhance the Longevity of your Company

If you are like me, you are a mother, daughter, church member, spouse, team mom, uber, entrepreneur, employee, member of organizations, and friend to many. If you are a government employee, you are always faced with a supervisor who gives you assignments that are all a priority.  With all of your titles, how do you manage to be everything to everybody? What’s really left for you? When was the last time you penned yourself in on your calendar to just breathe?

In a society where life is operated by technology and the deadline is always yesterday, how do you balance work and life while remaining sane as a person? Prior to my detail at work, I was literally going crazy. Over eight hours at the office, trying to manage my family’s life with bills, appointments and school issues, and always needing to drink caffeine before I could really do any work.

Does anyone out there know why everything you need to do in life is open during the same time you are at work, requiring you to take life to work to complete within a one-hour lunchtime, or 30 minutes if you work for the Veterans Affairs Department? How do you balance it all?

Some government agencies, companies and businesses have adopted telework. Telework provides employees the ability to work from the comfort of their home. In other words, busy women like myself now have the opportunity to save on babysitting, avoid using a lot of work leave, and escape commuter headaches. Telework has become the answer to many families’ prayers. Even though they are still glued to work, they are able to manage a lot more while clocked in. Just think: waking up, starting laundry, doing the dishes, getting the spouse and kids ready for work and out the door and being able to clock in while still in your pajamas. Everything is done and you are sitting with a sense of productivity. By the time you clock out, home and work are done, and you can get to sleep at a reasonable time, reducing your need for caffeine.

I used to get off of work, drive home and spend another eight hours at home filling my other roles. By the time my head hit my pillow, I was in dreamland. My house could burn down and I would never know. Is this kind of wear and tear on the body healthy?

So I am challenging every employer that reads this article to consider a telework program at your office to make life easier for your employees. As we approach 2019, if you are still an in-office style of company, here are some professional benefits of telework. Remember, your customers will only get excellent customer service if your employees are getting excellent customer service from you. How are you showing up for your employees?

5 Ways Telework Will Enhance The Longevity of your Company

• Improve productivity
• Better for one’s health and the environment
• Keeps older generations in the workforce
• Decreases company’s overall operating costs
• Reduce employee turnover & increase morale

As someone who wears tons of hats, having the ability to telework has made life easier to bear. I challenge you to start the conversation or enhance the conversation. Your longevity in business with a great team will depend on it.

Charron Hopson-Swift is part of the GovLoop Featured Contributor program, where we feature articles by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Contributor posts, click here.