Telecommuting (purchase, company, lawyer, work from home)

[tallrick]

After experimenting with this at home it makes me wonder why it's not more widespread? If a person makes a living pushing papers, why not do it from a home office and eliminate the time and fuel wasting commuting? People who live in cities can commute by efficient public transit, but rural and suburban residents can work from home, maybe 4 days a week or more! My eventual goal is to use this in my own business, for tech support and sales calls. Only the warehouse personnel would be needed on-site, which would be located in a rural area so employees get a good quality of life. Professional services like doctors, lawyers, accountants and computer repair can be done from home as well. I would rather go to a home office for my services than to a shopping center fighting traffic, or a downtown office building.

[rgb123]

I tellecommute about half-time. Some employers are okay with it, some not comfortable with it.

I have to be in the office for good communicaiton to take place face to face. but can do most of my work from home. I have a side job, consulting, where i do all of my work from home.

It is nice...but can be VERY boring! I think the perfect situation is to be able to work from home about part-time. Meetings and human interaction about once or twice a week (or even month) makes things go more smootlhy, and its good for you to.

My house is cleaner when I do most of my work from home.....cant concentrate with a messy house.

[christina0001]

I think for many people, working from home is less productive. I have a few relatives who work from home as well as one coworker, and they are constantly distracted by issues with kids, laundry, service repairmen, etc. It takes twice as long to get their work done. Strong self-discipline is the key I guess. Another reason against working from home is equipment. It's easier for a company to purchase one or two pieces of equipment (ex. copy machine, fax machine) for everyone to share at an office vs. individual equipment for everyone. For employees that have to work with customers, a company might prefer to have customers meet with employees at their office (which they can ensure looks professional), rather than have customers go to the employee's home (which might be messy or run down). But I do agree that some professions could be done efficiently at home.

[capricorn13]

Tallrick - some areas have restrictions on having a home based business particularly if you are a doctor or other profession.

A combination of both works for me. But mostly, I need to be in the office - when you have employees you need to be there.

[tallrick]

Oddly enough at home I get a lot more done, and don't get sick from the other people! My home office is quieter, cooler and bigger than my desk at the real office. I have a phone system, fax server, and scanners, as well as backup file server for the office. Instead of waking up at 6AM and sitting in traffic I get up at 8:00 and make breakfast, take shower , eat and am at my desk by 9AM. I work till 6 with lunch at my desk. The home office is 15 x 20 and has the restroom attatched. Perhaps it is so productive because I live alone, but saving 2-3 hours a day between commute and preparation time seems very productive. When an important client comes in I make the 2 hour trip to the office and leave for home late, arriving by 10PM. Seems like it works for some, not all.

[newt]

Works well for me too. I'm a full-time telecommuter and couldn't imagine going back to long commute times and distracting, noisy offices. Not to mention those boring office parties....

[Winston Smith]

Before the industrial revolution and mass-production, assembly-line factories, the norm was to stay at home with your family and work there.

I work for myself, and though I do accept part-time in-house contracts from time-to-time, mostly I work 100% from home. I love it! I don't miss the office, the politics, the gossip, the clicks, the surveillance, boss' suspicions, micro-managing co-workers and leads -- the commute!

Working from home according to mostly my own terms is the only sane way for me.

[zipbags]

I work in a small family distributorship with my father in NJ. Problem is that I have pretty much had it here in NJ. I am looking to move to NC. My father isn't thrilled with the idea of moving the business and himself. So one of the things I am looking at. Is moving down there and doing my job from home there. I do sales. Now we have a computer program that will allow me to log into the computers at work so that is not a problem. The problem is phones. I get a lot of phone calls here. Is their any way of having a phone system that is based in NJ at the office...And in a location in NC?

Thanks!

ps-Also, any other experiences telecommuting.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by zipbags

Is their any way of having a phone system that is based in NJ at the office...And in a location in NC?

Have you looked into Voice Over IP? Skype, Vontage, etc.

[Inthesierras]

We use tele-confrencing in our rural area all the time. The local junior college has satellite classes from a university and students here watch lectures and take their tests using this. The new hospital also has a tele-confrence room for consults at major hospitals. My child has a disability and we have been able to use the facilities to participate in trainings and other medical related services that are too far for us to attend in person. Its been a great asset to our little area. Hopefully we will see more of this in the not so distant future.