Sitting at traffic light number 5 (out of 15) this morning, I realized that I didn’t have my purse. Which meant that I didn’t have my phone or my work badge… Back to the drawing board. 25 stoplights this morning.

No, I’m not gonna write about skiing today. How about telecommuting? I cannot believe that the CEO (you know the one) of a *tech* company (you know the one) has decided to end telecommuting! Say what?

I think this is crazy! I have some experience with telecommuting and also working with colleagues who telecommute. Actually, I prefer going into the office most days. I like the separation of home and work. I like being able to overhear the LSCHP talking about video games or hygrometers or whatever esoteric topic is at hand. I like to “yell over the wall” when I have a question. But there are times when telecommuting is a good thing. Like…

— When you are not too sick to do any work but you are coughing and sneezing to beat the band. Why take your germs to work? Not to mention the noise and distraction of a person who sounds like they are hacking up a lung. Ditto if you have a child who is not very sick but too sick to go to school.

— When there is eight inches of snow in your street and the plows are nowhere to be seen and you cannot get your cute little vee-hickle out of the driveway. (Yeah, I know. Still…) A corollary to this: we have a *lot* of traffic around here and when it snows, it is a *mess* out there. If more of the people who *can* work from home *do* on snow days, the easier it is for people who *can’t* work from home [nurses, anyone?] to get to work.

— When “the cable guy” or whoever is scheduled to stop by “sometime” in the afternoon.

— When your mom is dying and you have to be with her…

Are there some downsides to working from home? Yes, there are. If I have a presentation to do, I will break my neck to get to work. I need to hook up to a projector for those and the last thing I want to do is have somebody else vanna for me. I like to drive my own presentations.

Why *is* a high-profile tech company requiring all of its workers to be at work all the time? Are there some non-productive work-at-home types working for the company this woman was hired (with great fanfare) to lead? FIRE THEM! But let those who *are* productive continue to work from home. Continue to provide the perks (free food, etc.) that supposedly keep people coming in to work (according to the internet and NPR). But recognize that not everyone cares about that crap. I am a baggy old 50-something (I think my brain still works…).

I *love* the occasional bagel breakfast or catered lunch. What do I love more? Time. Time to go home at the end of the day and create a meal out of natural ingredients. Time to spend with my family. Time to hike and ski and kayak and hang out at the Group Home and the Moominbeach (and Lopez…). Time to think… I don’t understand why some people think that being at work umpteen gazillion hours a day leads to more productivity. My “aha” moments, when I figure out what I need to do at work often occur when I am on the freeway driving home from work or walking around the neighborhood in the dark in the morning. These insights do not always happen when I am sitting in my cube… But I am “old” and I guess I don’t know much of anything…

My [tech] company believes that the ability to work from home is an asset. If people cannot get to work for whatever reason, the on-line banking world keeps going. Maybe this other tech company isn’t as essential. I dunno… … …

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2013 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.