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

Re:Telecommuting

[Rufy]

All that you've said is very true. I happen to work for a company that allows me to telecommute 1 day a week. I waited until I had been working here for over a year before I started asking my superiors what they thought of the idea. I also spent that time working very hard to prove my worth to the company. Since I'm a software developer for a small company, I tend to get assigned projects that don't require a lot of group interaction, though we do have occasional meetings.

Since I've been working at home, I've found that I do tend to get distracted much easier by various activities, but it's not always what you think. I'm married with 2 kids, so my house isn't exactly a "working environment" by any means. So when I'm not thinking about loading up Half-Life, I've got my daughter wanting me to read stories to her or play her computer games with her. I still tend to get more work done at home though, since I usually don't have our support people coming to me every 5 minutes with a problem they haven't bothered to troubleshoot themselves.

One benefit beyond the whole "I'm tired of sitting in a car for 2 hours a day" idea is that working at home also allows you the feeling of greater flexibility over what time you'll be working that day. Instead of 8 to 5 or 9 to 6, it might be 12 to 8. Maybe you'll work a few hours this morning, then go hit the computer stores during lunchtime for a few hours, then come back and finish the day. This doesn't always work well when something at the office blows up and your coworkers end up talking to your answering machine, and the cellphone argument is negated by the fact that you were supposed to be home that day anyway. It all depends on how your company works. The people I work with have varying schedules, so on my home days I don't have to be at my desk at a certain time. As long as the work gets done on time everyone stays happy.

Working from home CAN work. You need self-discipline and a decent home-office setup to make things work. VNC via SSH is a beautiful thing in this case, since you won't have to have a full backup of your workstation at home. You also need to remove distractions. Tell your family members to stay out of your room during the day. Build a machine at home with no games installed and use that for your "work" machine. Hook it to a proxy that rejects everything you shouldn't be doing (like posting on Slashdot). Not like I do any of these things, but you get the idea.