How Do I Sell Telecommuting to My Employer?

EyeBhatingThisCommute asks: "I work in an area with extremely high housing rates. I make an OK salary but even so finding a residence worth the money and that meets my family's needs has been tough. I recently found a home in a great neighborhood about 2 hours from my current job. It is perfect for our needs and is a great value. I know some people may make this commute without a thought but I drove this for 5 months when I first started working in my present area and it made me miserable. How can I best convince my employer to allow me to telecommute for the majority of my work week?" We've done previous articles about telecommuting: here, here and here. It's clear that workers would prefer to telecommute, so why aren't businesses allowing them to do so? When property prices in the city seem to be on a climb without end, how is one supposed to find the perfect marriage of job and location without an endless search?

"I could look for a new job closer to where I want to move but I do like the work that I am doing and I like the direction that the company is going. My work mainly consists of communicating using email and the phone and using a computer for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. My job does require a good amount of interaction with my peers for meetings, troubleshooting and just answering questions so I am willing to spend a day or two each week in the office. Every other part of my job can be done just as effectively at home."

"Has anyone had a similar experience? What are some good arguments for my employer about why I should be allowed to telecommute? The biggest argument for me is my happiness but of course that is usually not the company's #1 concern.

This trend is becomming increasingly true of people who work in even a moderately technological work-places. Are these the signs that the traditional workplace of the 20th century is finally becomming obsolete? If so, how will employees and employers be affected by this change?

Comments

Relevant Article

[thrig]

A recent Washington Post article talks about government's efforts and issues with telecomuting.

I like the idea of telecommuting, and as a sysadmin do a fair amount of work from home; however, there are security concerns with extending trust out to Joe Average's machine at home that need to be dealt with before rolling out telecommuting for everyone.

telecommuting and productivity

[jahjeremy]

I have been telecommuting for about a week now, and I love it. I was working in New York, and when I decided to leave and live with the parents for a while in Illinois to save money and escape from general East Coast craziness, my employer asked if I would like to stay on. They sent me home with two, slightly older Pentiums and have said they will pay for my cable modem access to boot.

Given that I no longer talk with the boss and warm the chair, I am feeling more pressure to produce now that I am located a thousand or more miles away. Think about it; one can often give the impression of doing work simply by being an active presence in the office. With telecommuting, the only way to show productivity is with e-mails, phone calls and actual files sent back and forth. I am anticipating that I will be called on to do more work in order to maintain my position.

Setting up the home network, however, has been a pain in the @ss! We need to rewire the coax, so I can have an office in the non-flood-prone area of the house, plus I am still in need of a router. I miss the LAN, especially the two fast laser printers, my file shares and three machines of my own in different locations.

Sell them on the bottom line

[mcj]

I work at a large company (50K+ employees) where telecommuting is pretty common. Their policy on this is pretty much their policy on everything lately: does it help our bottom line?

On the books, 1 cube costs the department you work for US$1500/month. This includes maintainance, phone, network, etc etc. It may include other things like a per-head share of security personnel and cafeteria subsidies, but I'm not sure.

On the other hand, you can get a posh home office set up for about $1000 initial cost (desk, chair, files, phone installs, bandwidth installs (DSL, cable, whatever), etc) and $200-$300/month for recurring expenses (phone, long distance, ISP). Obviously, the bean-counters are going to jump at the latter amount.

Of course, we're kind of strange in that bosses and employees aren't always in the same geographical location anyway (my boss is in another country...I've met him in person once), so the supervision question isn't as important.

Productivity Increase

[macsox]

Point your employer to this Berkeley study, showing increased productivity from telecommuters.

Depends on the job, and the individual

[cowboy junkie]

It's hard to construct an argument when we don't know who this guy is or what his job entails. It's much easier to talk to your boss about telecommuting when you've established that you are dependable and hard-working, because there's less 'grey-area' that they have to worry about.

It also depends largely on how 'social' your job is. Do you have to attend meetings on a daily basis? Are you working as a member of a team or largely on your own?

I've been telecommuting for about two and a half years, and I have to tell you that it's a mixed bag. On the one hand, it provides a more relaxed and flexible work environment because I don't have to commute and don't have to worry so much about appearances and distractions - I just have to focus on results. On the other hand, you really do miss the clear separation of home and work time (it's harder to feel 'off'), and your employer can take advantage of that as well.

Lastly, I'm lucky because I'm single, but I can tell you from other folks I know that you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to get a lot of work done if you have small kids around. Telecommuting does not equal free daycare.

Re:Depends on the job, and the individual

[jesup]

In fact, having small children at home can be a serious minus for telecommuting, especially from the employer's view. If they feel you're going to spend your time reading stories, changing diapers, playing games, etc, they'll be far less willing to allow it. If you have (small) children, I'd make sure you agree to have someone else take care of them while you're working.

My cousin worked for DEC/Compaq, and she worked from home 3 days a week - but on those days she had a sitter/nanny/whatever to take care of her two kids while she was working. It worked out great.

Beware

[kvigor]

The large mega-corp I work recently laid off a big chunk of its workforce.

Within the area of the company I know about, every fulltime telecommuter was laid off, without exception.

Given the current state of the economy and the likelihood of layoffs wherever you work, you may wish to consider this.

Telecommuting is not for everyone and ever job!

[Anonymous Coward]

I telecommute on a daily basis, visiting the office an average of once a month. My office is 90 miles form my home, and travel time is 1.5 to 3 hours each way. Of course, it does help that the word "remote" is in my job description, but anyone with determination can do it.

Before I describe how I made this happen, let me talk about the drawbacks of telecommuting. It can get lonely. Beleive it or no, you may actually start to miss co-workers. If you have the type of personality that needs constant companionship, forget it.

The other drawback is maintaing visibility at work. Managers tend to walk out their door and give assignments to the first person they see. If you're never seen, you may not get the good assignemnts. This can be overcome, but it's up to the telecommuter to maintain communication with thos in the office.

One final drawback about working from home: it is hard to stop at 5:00. I find myself working MORE hours because it's convenient and the work needs to be done. I don't mind this, and consider it a trade off for the flexibility I have. I have found that it takes a real effort to stop working sometimes.

Now that I've given all the negatives, let me say that I will never go back to an office. The flexibility I have with my time is great.

Now you probabvly want to know how it happened. It's simple really, I asked. I asked when I interviewd for the job, I asked when I started, and I asked every manager I have had. I started working in the office 5 days a week, and let my manager know I wanted to telecommute. I starte working form home 1 day a week then 2 , then 3.... The point is I was consistent and determined. When I sat with a manager during reviews, I explained that I wanted to telecommute, and why. When I met wiht a director, I discussed it. Every chance I got, I mentioned it to someone. It took about 2 years to get to working form home full time. Even now, when I get a new manager, or sit in a review, I explain why it is so important to me. I constantly advertise how happy telecommtuing makes me, and how coming to the office would be bad.

I don't go so far as to give ultimatumns, but all of my latest managers understand that if telecommuting went away, so would I. THis is important if you're an asset to your company. If your just an ass, well then I can't help you :)

Since I've staretd telecommuting, 2 others in my group have moved away form the office to more affordable housing. Ther is strength in numbers, if it's important enought to you, start talking about it. Don't expect it to happen overnight, but be persistent and determined.

This is slashdot, so I won't go into the technological part of telecommuting. If you can't figure that out, you should be somewhere else :)

blah, blah, blah. Hope this helps someone. (obviously I don't get paid to write)