The author states ” In upstate New York, a growing accpetance of teleworking could eventually spur a population migration toward rural towns throught of as nice places to live, but far from where the majority of jobs are located.”  Wouldn’t that be wonderful? The problem is getting more acceptance of telecommuting, which often (and maybe rightly so) requires proving yourself to your employer first as a full-time in-the-office worker and branching out to telecommuting gradually.

With the option of telecommuting, at least part of the time, my husband can now work from his hometown in Maine -allowing us to take that extra day of travel and avoid some of the heavy weekend traffic when we visit. And with ancillary devices, such as smart phones, one can even create their own mobile hot spot for accessing the Internet.   

If a father took a part-time job at home he would likely be referred to as first an employee of XYZ company and second as the primary care giver of his children.

I’d prefer the term “flexible work arrangement” which would mean that the job allows you to work around caring for your children. Why should ads touting jobs for stay-at-home moms not continue? Because those ads lessen the work of motherhood. Being a full time caregiver IS a job. When we expect women to both care for children and hold down paid work we are expecting too much and setting up moms to feel like failures.

For example, ever heard of a results-only work environment? I haven’t, but it exists.  “Under this arrangement, employees can work where and whenever they wish, as long as projects are completed on time.”

I’m not sure how that works for the employee but for some employers the situation can be less than beneficial. Forbes recently wrote an article about a company in Maryland who has one telecommuter living/working in New Jersey. New Jersey legislature has stated that one employee in the state of Maryland is sufficient to claim that the company does business there. Now New Jersey is requiring the Maryland firm to file corporate taxes with the state.

It’s quite a disappointment. That law will only hurt efforts to increase telecommuting in the future.

So where are all of you telecommuters? Get in touch. I could use some camaraderie in the area.

And if these pricey but planet friendly items don’t appeal to you I think everyone will get a kick out of the electric piano dining table. It’s a space saver that is pretty cool!

I need to squeeze in at least one hour of work to check emails and send out a few critical pieces of correspondence but PBS Kids isn’t cutting it. He’s wandering around looking for something to do. That means pulling all the tape from the tape dispenser, removing every star shaped sticky note from the pad, and dumping paper clips across my work table.  Actions like this used to bother me a lot but what am I going to do? Getting upset about it won’t change the situation. He needs my attention and I have responsibilities to both him and work.

Now that I’ve caught up on my emails he is helping me write this post by pushing the enter button every few spaces. In a few years both of my kids might  actually be helpful around the office. I can assign little chores or they can do their homework at my work table while I type away at the desk. For now, however, on the days when they are home thanks to a snow day or illness I’ll do my best to enjoy their busy little hands getting into everything and creating paper clip works of art around my office.

The lousy thing about telecommuting is that because I work from home it just naturally falls into my lap that I “stay home” with the kids on the snow day. Should I work in an out-of-the home office I suspect we would flip a coin to see who calls in for the day.

You may be able to check a few emails here and there but a day’s work will not get done (at least get done well) with small children running afoot.

Most days I am happy to walk down to my office and savor the quiet. The kids are at preschool, husband is at the office, and not a sound can be heard apart from a soft hum from my fireplace. Most days this is just fine with me. I like myself. I like being by myself. But then loneliness peeks his pesky head around the door and starts putting bothersome thoughts in my head.

When is the last time you ate lunch with someone?

Don’t you miss actually talking to people during the week??

Aren’t you worried you’ll lose your ability to communicate and have to resort to grunts and signs???

Do you know anything at all that is going on outside your little.. insular.. office.. BUBBLE????

AAHHH! I am lonely. Working from home can take its toll. How much can one person stand being alone? I don’t even have conference calls this week.

Time to get out in the real world and make some telecommuting friends–maybe we could meet for lunch once a week, in person, that is.

I watched the video and while I can certainly see the benefit I have to admit I thought it was a little creepy. It got me to thinking about privacy issues as well. It’s easy to hear the footsteps of someone walking up behind you, however this robot is a bit like Elaine’s sidler. It’s hard to tell how much noise the robot puts out on the video but maybe a few jangly bells around its “neck” are in order.

The benefits, once you get past the silliness of talking to a robot as if it is a physical human, could be quite valuable. Despite conference calls and web sharing, it is important to have face time with colleagues. It is easy to forget or to pay little attention to someone who isn’t in front of you on a day-to-day basis. I never bought that absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder line. I think absence makes you forget, simple.

But the cost of a robot? There are no figures available for this robot, however using Skype a couple times a week for meetings might be a better bet. And a little less creepy.