Family crisis reveals advantages of telecommuting

Follow us on

Telecommuting is an idea whose time has come

Date published: 3/27/2005

THIS WEEK, I thought I would try something different and talk about not commuting.

A commuting column about not commuting, you ask? That may sound a little too Zen for some of you, but bear with me.

Not commuting is a radical idea to those of us who travel up and down the road day in and day out, month after month, year after year. But thanks to telecommuting, or flexiplace, as it is sometimes called, we can experience just a little of this now.

Telecommuting is, I have become convinced, a wonderful idea, and it's catching on. Our agency started out with a one-day-a-week trial program a few years ago and has just expanded the program from two to three days.

I've been telecommuting for a while, but this past week I learned how it can be more than just a convenience.

When her grandmother died a week ago, my wife immediately headed back home for the funeral. There were issues with the kids' schools and a new dog to take care of, so I got volunteered to stay home and telecommute.

Keep in mind that telecommuting requires several things be in place, especially when there's a herd of small humans underfoot.

The first requirement is a means of communicating with the office, which normally means phones and computers.

The telephone, for those not used to working at home, is a device that rings whenever you are working in the basement and have forgotten the phone two flights up. It rings when your boss senses you are overworked and wishes to pile more on, or when people in other states want to offer you incredible deals on useless junk.

Computers, like phones, are a necessary evil. Ours recently revolted and seized up, just as a major deadline loomed.

After I went through the 14 layers of security to log on, the computer suddenly contracted some kind of tropical disease. The screen froze and turned blue. This was, my whiz kid informed me helpfully, the infamous blue screen.

"Yes, I can see that," I said, "What does it mean?"

"It means your hard drive is corrupted," he answered.

Date published: 3/27/2005