Wired to the World, Chained to the Home: Telework in Daily Life

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Here, once again, is proof that a good academic thesis does not
necessarily make a good book.

Gurstein, a UBC professor, has lots of interesting information to share
on the nature of telework. Unfortunately, she did not take the time and
effort to repackage it for the nonacademic market. Her overly cautious,
reference-heavy style is painful to read and slows down any effort to
extract core information from the work.

The topic, in contrast, is fascinating. Is telework healthy? Are there
circumstances in which it provides benefits to the employee as well as
to the employer? Is it really possible to separate family and work life
when both take place at home? Is isolation a positive or negative? Are
there gender issues?

Gurstein rounds up all the relevant studies and research and presents
the conclusions in careful detail, complete with tables and charts to
augment the plodding prose. She explores many aspects of the telework
issue, including types of telework and home-based employment, hours of
work, salaries, benefits and disadvantages, career-impact issues, and
the impact of working from home on child care and domestic life. A
discussion of the home of the future, designed to accommodate telework,
is included, complete with floor plans.

There’s better bedtime reading to be had, but if you’re considering
a switch to telework or if you employ teleworkers, this book’s for
you.