More students are learning at home
In the oil shortage chronicled by the players of World Without Oil, the resistance to telecommuting quickly went by the wayside, so to speak. Employers were eager to relieve their workers of the commute burden – infinitely preferable, in their eyes, to helping them with their fuel bills.
And now, here in the real world, an article in the New York Times relates how gas prices have driven students, so to speak, to taking classes online. The article reports online enrollment is up 50% to 100% in some schools, and “the greatest surges have been registered at two-year community colleges, where most students are commuters, many support families and few can absorb large new expenditures for fuel.”
Can employee telecommuting and virtual business travel be far behind? Thanks to loyal reader Laurel for the tip. Photo by wrumsby via Flickr.
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July 13, 2008 at 7:05 am
Tom
I recently heard that a local law firm here in Portland, Oregon has been contemplating going to a four-day week to reduce commuting costs.
July 13, 2008 at 8:20 am
PeakProphet
My company is already letting certain people with long commutes work 1 day a week at home. When I started with the company as Director of Technology back in January of 2007, one of the first things I wanted to do was make a “virtual office” whereby everyone could work remotely for as long as needed. Back then, they didn’t really understand why I felt so strongly about it, but now they do.
Interestingly, business is booming for us. We’ve grown by 70% a year for the last 3 years. This was another thing I anticipated, as marketing becomes communication between businesses and their local customers and not “mass communication.”
Non-local business models are all going to fail under energy scarcity.