Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

1735. Telework Eight Months LaterDuring the first eight months <strong>of</strong> teleworking, almost all workers (96.5%) had returned to the <strong>of</strong>ficeat least once. In the majority <strong>of</strong> cases (69.8%), the re-entry was motivated by a request fromthe boss, while two workers out <strong>of</strong> ten had requested their managers for a permission to spenda work day in their old workplace, and 5% <strong>of</strong> the teleworkers went to the <strong>of</strong>fice out <strong>of</strong> personalinitiative. The teleworkers used these days in the <strong>of</strong>fice mainly for visiting administrative branches,informal meetings with bosses, having c<strong>of</strong>fee with old friends, etc. This time the teleworkers foundpositive feedback in the <strong>of</strong>fice: the ”non-teleworkers” had sharply changed their opinions towardsteleworking. Between the first and the second survey, the positive judgement on telework increasednot only among the relatives (table 2) but above all among the colleagues (table 3), who had beenvery critical in the first survey. In fact, the attitude ”against telework” decreased by 30.4 per cent,which resulted in an increase among those ”in favour”.Table 2.Relatives´ opinion on telework% Second Survey First Survey DifferenceStrongly in favour 75.7 64.7 + 11.0In favour 20.8 30.1 - 9.3Against 0.7 3.5 - 2.8Strongly against 0.7 0.0 +0.7Don’t know 2.1 1.7 + 0.4Table 3.Colleagues´opinion on telework% Second Survey First Survey DifferenceStrongly in favour 10.3 11.4 - 1.1In favour 48.6 33.1 + 15.5Against 13.7 40.6 - 26.9Strongly against 3.4 6.9 - 3.5Don’t know 24.0 7.4 + 16.6We posed some questions in both surveys for the purpose <strong>of</strong> measuring the appreciation towardssome expectations <strong>of</strong> telework. Since the only difference between the two surveys related to theexistence <strong>of</strong> telework, it was possible to create an index <strong>of</strong> work satisfaction that was affected onlyby the teleworking conditions.During the elapsed eight months, work satisfaction increased in almost all areas considered, andthe relationships with hierarchical supervisors became especially good (Table 4). The less positiveaspect was still the lack <strong>of</strong> career opportunities, which depended mainly on the organisation <strong>of</strong>Service 12.