- The Fresno Bee
Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 | 12:00 AM
- Up and down the central San Joaquin Valley, a growing number of people are taking advantage of technology that frees them from cramped cubicles, loud officemates and commuting to the office.
They are part of a slow -- but unmistakable -- nationwide trend in which more workers are doing their jobs from their homes, either as self-employed entrepreneurs or telecommuters working for companies hundreds or thousands of miles from their computers.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 14,200 people in Fresno County worked from home for their primary job in 2010. That is about 4.1% of the county's working population, and an increase of almost 3,500 since 2000.
From Merced County to Tulare and Kings counties, the number of home-based workers in the Valley in 2010 (when the last census was conducted) was estimated at more than 27,300, or slightly less than 4% of people with jobs.
Nationally, the number was 5.8 million. That's a relative drop in the bucket of the overall U.S. workforce -- about 4.3% -- but it's about 1.6 million more than in 2000, the Census Bureau reported.
The rapid pace of technological change is believed to be the primary driver in not only the growth in the number of home-based workers, but the changing blend of industries they represent, said Peter Mateyka, a Census Bureau analyst.
"As communication and information technologies advance, we are seeing that workers are increasingly able to perform work at home," Mateyka said in a Census report this month. "These changes in work patterns have both economic and social implications."
That doesn't mean, however, that telecommuting is destined to become an option for every employee or employer.
"A lot of people overassume that telecommuting is the wave of the future," said Derek Scharton, a software engineer for a Bay Area financial services company, who does his homework in a bedroom that has been converted into an office at his northwest Fresno home.
"If you're looking for a job and you approach a company, especially a startup, about telecommuting, you have a very high probability of getting discarded."
Felicia Lopez of Clovis, who works as a product specialist/analyst for a Michigan-based division of a worldwide software and information company, said she believes that all but the largest employers are unlikely to buy into telecommuting as an option for workers.
"I don't see it becoming a booming trend," said Lopez, whose husband also telecommutes for the same company. "Larger corporations may be more inclined to go with home-based workers, but my personal experience is that smaller companies may not be. They can't necessarily put the risk out there."
Not new, but changing
Working from home is nothing new. But the characteristics of the home-based worker have been changing over the past five decades, the Census Bureau reported.
For years, self-employed workers dominated the ranks of the home-based workers.
"In the 1960s, home-based workers were primarily self-employed farmers and professionals, including doctors and lawyers," according to a Census report. But the growth of larger farms over family farms and changes in market conditions caused the number of home-based workers to decline between 1960 and 1980.
Self-employed workers now make up just less than 50% of the home-based workforce, while people who work for private companies and nonprofits have grown to nearly 45%. In 2000, about 1.3 million people worked at home for companies and nonprofits. By 2010, that number ballooned to nearly 2.3 million. Those home-based workers who were self-employed also grew during the same period, but at a much slower pace -- from about 2.4 million in 2000 to about 2.8 million in 2010.
The report indicates that home-based work in occupations related to computers, engineering and science grew by 69% between 2000 and 2010. "Workers in these occupations are more likely to be able to benefit from computer technology, voice and electronic communications, and remote connectivity to complete their work," the report states. "In contrast, occupations in which work must be performed onsite are less likely to benefit from this technology."
Flexibility, discipline
Out of about 50 software engineers who work for his company, Scharton is one of only about five who telecommute. Scharton worked for his employer for seven years, commuting from home to office daily, before broaching the subject of telecommuting with his employers.
"I wanted to make sure everybody was cool with it before I even thought about moving back" to Fresno, where he grew up. He has been working from home for about five years.
Scharton still goes to Sunnyvale one day each week -- something he doesn't mind because he values the face time with his colleagues. "There's still the added benefit of physical bodies all in one room hashing out an issue," he said. But improved videoconferencing technology "is getting closer to accomplishing that for people who work remotely."
Lopez said that all of the members on the product-analysis team that she and her husband work on are home-based workers and are scattered across the country -- including their supervisors.
"From a corporate perspective, the primary goal is to find knowledgeable people wherever they are, and make them part of the team," she said. The members teleconference frequently and are able to collaborate well. "The company doesn't require people to relocate and uproot their families."
Because the Lopezes have a 2-year-old daughter, "that was one of the main draws for me," Lopez said. "When I worked in an office, I was away from her from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m."
Her daughter still goes to child care, but the hours are much shorter than before. "Now I'm not gone from her for half of the calendar day like she was before," Lopez said. "She's the reason why I do pretty much anything I do."
But it takes a special type of discipline to focus on work when the comforts of home are so close at hand.
"With a family, there can be some distractions," Scharton said. "At least for me, I have to have a true office where I can shut the door, and I have a separate phone number for work."
For a change of pace, when there is an Internet outage at his home or simply to get away from distractions, Scharton occasionally escapes to Hashtag Fresno, a Tower District enclave where work-at-home types and independent entrepreneurs can take advantage of shared office and conference facilities.
"I've also gone there in the summer for air-conditioning relief," Scharton said. "I have to cool the whole house just to make one room comfortable, I can go there and they're running their AC anyway."
Balancing work and home when working at home is also tricky for Lopez.
"It's a Catch-22 for me," she said. "I think I end up working more because work is right there. I can be cooking dinner and think, 'Oh, there's something I can add to that report,' and then I end up popping open my laptop and doing it.
"There are times you lose focus, but that can happen regardless of where you're at. I have a dedicated work area at home, so I'm not in bed in my pajamas and bunny slippers. But I find it easy to focus because I'm comfortable."
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