THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210393
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Betts Werbiskis woke up Tuesday, took a shower, put on a sundress and her Birkenstock sandals, and ``went to work'' for one of the world's largest corporations.
Instead of commuting 20 minutes from her Kempsville home to her Greenbrier office, Werbiskis stayed home and started her daily tasks from her ``virtual office.''
AT&T declared Tuesday telecommuting day for its nearly 200,000 employees in the United States. Werbiskis was more than willing to stay home, dress casually, avoid office interruptions and get more work than usual done.
``It's much quieter here than it is in my office,'' said Werbiskis, who sells long-distance services to the Army. ``I often find that I've gotten everything I needed to get done for the day in the morning, because of the lack of distractions.''
AT&T encouraged its managers and other salaried employees to stay home Tuesday as part of its on-going experiment with telecommuting. The company says that providing its employees with the chance to work at home can help attract a more diverse work force by giving parents flexible working hours. It also benefits Mother Earth by reducing car trips to and from work, hastening compliance with the Clean Air Act.
AT&T encourages telecommuting for some employees year-round.
Every day, thousands of its workers don't show up at the office but still work, company spokeswoman Margo Lockard said. Telecommuting only takes a few pieces of equipment: a computer or laptop computer; two phone lines, one for the computer to dial into the company's system and one for telephone calls, and a printer.
Werbiskis' ``virtual office'' is much like any other office: she has a stapler, scissors, paper clips and whatever else she needs. She has tried working on her laptop computer in the living room of her house, but discovered that she needs to be in her home office to give her discipline.
``I think it takes people who are self-motivated to say, `OK, I'm at home, but this is work, now get going,' '' Werbiskis said.
Those who have tried telecommuting caution that it's not the best work setup for everybody. Isaac Cruz, program manager for AT&T Technical services in Virginia Beach, laughed when asked why he wasn't participating in the company's program.
``I only live a mile and a quarter from work, so it doesn't make much sense for me to do it,'' he said. ``Of course, the longer the commute you have, the more effective telecommuting is.''
Part of the reason some companies encourage working at home is that weaving through heavy traffic in the morning makes some people so uptight that it's bad for their health. ``If you have to drive on (highway) 44 every morning,'' Cruz said, ``you know how much the stress level goes up.''
But some people just can't get used to abandoning their traditional office work space.
Lynn Oldham, an account executive in the same office as Werbiskis, works from home occasionally, but prefers the office. He doesn't like his customers to have to speak to his voice mail.
Oldham says the only time he prefers to work from home is when somebody has to be there during the day to let in, say, a plumber or TV repairman.
After telecommuting for some time, Werbiskis has developed guidelines that give her both the interaction she needs at the office and the structure she needs to work at home.
``I like doing this in the middle of the week - not on a Monday or Friday - because if it's a Friday I have a tendency to say, `OK, it's three o'clock, I'm done,' '' she said.
And she knows she can't work at home and spend meaningful time with her family, though in the summer she does get to see her daughter more.
``I wouldn't say I use it as a baby-sitting service,'' Werbiskis said of telecommuting. ``I have a 12-year-old daughter, and when she comes home, she says `Hi' and she's off again.'' ILLUSTRATION: ADVANTAGES
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by CNB