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work from home two days a week, and fight traffic for a total of 3 hours
each (!) the other three days. Fortunately, my company is results-oriented
and could care less where I work. After I iron out some connectivity issues,
I hope to work from home 3 days a week.
Frankly, the benefits for telecommuting are more visible for the
telecommuter than their employer. It's hard to measure the effect of sitting
in traffic on worker burnout rate.
A couple of ideas:
* Do a private experiment to see how many days you can go without actually
having to talk to another human being face to face, relying solely on email
and network resources (such as internal documentation like tech notes,
etc.).
* Without disparaging the work habits of you or your co-workers, measure the
frequency and duration of non-work-related interruptions initiated by other
coworkers ("hey, can you help me move my desk?" "I'm divorcing that
two-timing sonuva..." "Hey, let's go grab a latte."), the type of
interruptions from which you'll be free at home.
* Argue to start with a partial telecommute, 1-2 days a week. Reassure them
that you will be present for key meetings, SME interviews, etc. Give it a
test drive.
* Get info ahead of time from the IS people about connecting from home,
slanted to show how little trouble and expense is involved.
* Offer to upgrade your home system. (You should use a work-supplied laptop
to simplify setup and breakdown, but it's nice to offer. After you get the
greenlight, I bet your IS people will turn up an extra laptop that you can
use. It helps with s/w licensing sensitivities, too.)
Good luck,
Andy
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