Telecommuting Would Lead Americans to Make Sacrifices

What would you be willing to give up in order to telecommute, or work from home or other locations?

TeamViewer® has announced the findings of its survey of over 2,500 American adults aged 18 and older, conducted online by Harris Interactive in January.  The survey found that most Americans believe that more people want the option to telecommute (62%) with an overwhelming percentage (83%) believing that telecommuting is on the rise.  Specifically, the survey found that Americans believe:

• Smartphones and tablets are increasing the use of telecommuting – 53%
• Access to telecommuting is increasing – 49%
• Telecommuting is getting easier – 49%
• The use of telecommuting is increasing in small businesses – 30%

When asked about what Americans believe their own behavior would be as a telecommuter versus working in an office every day, more than half (54%) said they would be at least somewhat more productive and almost a third (32%) said they would even be more or much more productive.

As more Americans discover the ability to telecommute, a surprising number of them admit they would be willing to make sacrifices in order to get the option to do so.  Top items Americans say they would be willing to give up include:

• Social media – 34%
• Texting – 30%
• Chocolate – 29%
• Smartphone – 25%
• Shopping – 20%
• A salary increase – 17%
• Half of vacation days – 15%

Some even admitted to be willing to forgo daily showers (12%).  Interestingly, women were more willing give up their daily shower than men (14% vs. 10%, respectively).  A brave few said they would even be willing to give up their spouse (5%) – a percentage that was fairly consistent across age groups and genders, however not across regions: people in the West were significantly more like to say they would give up their spouse (7%) in order to telecommute than people in the Midwest (2%).

“While the results of this survey may seem amusing, these findings show that telecommuting will be a force to be reckoned with in the future,” said Holger Felgner, General Manager at TeamViewer. “TeamViewer gives people the freedom to work from anywhere at any time and on any device.”