Tele-Commute, It's for the Environment

Okay, this was an answer to a comment, but it got so long that I decided to post it.

The conversation started by Cop Car writing, "It would be great if you could tele-commute most of the time. It would save you time and driving (and help the environment a little). "

I wrote back: "Unfortunately, I do very little work that I could actually do at home (or at least I would have to drive to work to pick it up before it could be done at home anyway). I get 20-30 work orders a day that have to be forwarded to the next person by the end of the day."

Cop Car's reply: " Fax machines are the answer, my dear. Yeah, I know. No one wants to take the time to attend to the faxing chores at the office (and oddly sized, or flimsy copy make life difficult for the fax machine.)"

Work has only 1 fax machine, they would have to buy another just to handle all the paperwork they would have to fax me (not to mention buy one for me too). They would also have to hire another person just for that job. Seriously, each work order has anywhere from 20-70 pages. I have to see each page. Minimum sheets that would have to be faxed (and printed on my end) - 400 per day (and up to 2100) - just for this specific duty. 

Then there are the things that have to be sent on to Customers. Those have to be legible in order for them to approve shipments. They also have to be signed by 2 different people (I can be one of those people). After being faxed (another 15-20 pages each), then PDF'ed (so work would have to buy me a scanner that could PDF the stuff so that I could email to the customer - a customer requirement). they wouldn't be legible, especially the balloon drawings which sometimes are PDFs, of PDFs, of PDFs. Let's say I get another 3 of those a day - thats a minimum of 45 pages being faxed, just for that duty.

Then, sometimes I need to reference other work orders (another 20-70 pages), so someone would have to be at my beck and call to find those and fax them to me.

So, the analysis is, that in paper alone, I would kill one small tree a day (okay, I exaggerate, but only a little), I cost the company the price of 3 machines and another person's salary (plus benefits) per year (oh - and they have to drive to work, so that gas isn't being saved).

So, after accounting for the paper, the gas that the new person would expend and the natural resources devoured by the 3 addtional machines, it seems the environment is worse off than before I started working from home.

Unless or until the company comes up with a way to be paperless (or at least close), tele-commuting is't really feasible, or even desirable for me. And believe me, since I've been there, they have put several different people on the paperless project (I was one at one time), but no one is willing to really do it. Kind of like the ERP system (which still isn't being used - and it was in the works before I got there 2.5 years ago) - they like the idea, but they don't want to implement any of the changes it would require.

So, excuse me while I sit here and chuckle about the suggestion for a while - it gave me a good start to the day anyway!

Comments

[Jay]

I was thinking that as I read this; you'd need them to make serious moves in the direction of paperlessness. Everything to be faxed being sent as PDF instead, fax to or from electronic formats, that sort of thing, which is always easier said than done.