Telecommuting for Newbies
Having hammered a lot on telecommuting during the infancy of this blog, and then left it alone, to focus on loftier issues absolutely unrelated to freelancers and freelancing, I'm feeling the urge to re-visit the advantages of working from home.
What you get - No commuting hassles, gas bill savings, more time at home, freedom and independence. What you lose - Face time with the boss and colleagues ( invaluable for career growth ), lack of awareness of workplace changes and problems, loss of discipline ( debatable ). That just about sums it up.
Notice one factor. The pluses are all tangible and immediate, meaning you're getting the benefits today. The minuses, on the other hand all refer to problems which might crop up sometime in the future. Put another way, a telecommuter gets his cake, eats it, and might face the scary proposition of starving tomorrow. The office-goer, on the other hand, just gets to look at his cake, and appreciate that the chef is working on the cake and it's going to be bigger and better tomorrow.
The best way, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between. You get to telecommute whenever possible, and report to the office whenever necessary. But this is easier said than done. There are 45 million Americans telecommuting today, and federal and state governments are scrambling to come up with legislation and rules for taking care of the arising issues. Connecticut was one of the early states to jump onboard, and remains today the trailblazer for facilitating telecommuting with it's statewide initiative Telecommutect.
In the end, though, it's going to upto your boss and you to hash out the deal. For example, you could be allowed to telecommute on Fridays and Mondays, leading to an extended weekend at home, with the office work to be done on the remaining days. There's no law which can govern such arrangements, and the undesired side-effects arising from such arrangements.
Also to be noted is whether both your boss and you trust you to have the discipline to get the work done. Second, are you so invaluable to your company, that you can afford to sit at home and be secure that no young whipper-snapper who virtually lives in the office is angling for your job, back at the office? If you can answer both questions in the affirmative, then do the right thing and help your country, save the gas bill and enjoy working at home.
What you get - No commuting hassles, gas bill savings, more time at home, freedom and independence. What you lose - Face time with the boss and colleagues ( invaluable for career growth ), lack of awareness of workplace changes and problems, loss of discipline ( debatable ). That just about sums it up.
Notice one factor. The pluses are all tangible and immediate, meaning you're getting the benefits today. The minuses, on the other hand all refer to problems which might crop up sometime in the future. Put another way, a telecommuter gets his cake, eats it, and might face the scary proposition of starving tomorrow. The office-goer, on the other hand, just gets to look at his cake, and appreciate that the chef is working on the cake and it's going to be bigger and better tomorrow.
The best way, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between. You get to telecommute whenever possible, and report to the office whenever necessary. But this is easier said than done. There are 45 million Americans telecommuting today, and federal and state governments are scrambling to come up with legislation and rules for taking care of the arising issues. Connecticut was one of the early states to jump onboard, and remains today the trailblazer for facilitating telecommuting with it's statewide initiative Telecommutect.
In the end, though, it's going to upto your boss and you to hash out the deal. For example, you could be allowed to telecommute on Fridays and Mondays, leading to an extended weekend at home, with the office work to be done on the remaining days. There's no law which can govern such arrangements, and the undesired side-effects arising from such arrangements.
Also to be noted is whether both your boss and you trust you to have the discipline to get the work done. Second, are you so invaluable to your company, that you can afford to sit at home and be secure that no young whipper-snapper who virtually lives in the office is angling for your job, back at the office? If you can answer both questions in the affirmative, then do the right thing and help your country, save the gas bill and enjoy working at home.
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