Telecommuting

Most companies are resistant to employees telecommuting — working from home or some remote location that is not within corporate walls. However, life within corporate walls is not anything to get excited about. Usually you are given a cubicle office with a desktop or laptop and a few office supplies like staplers, pencils, pens, a white board, etc. Unfortunately, cubicles can be loud, non-private, small, and uninspiring. Yet, companies love cubicles because they are cheap and take up minimal space. From an economical standpoint, it makes perfect sense for a company to have a sea of employee filled cubicles.

For me, as a software developer, being in a cubicle is a mistake. Well, unless you practice some form of Agile development that is. I feel that when you are working deep in the code, the last thing you want is random people walking by and interrupting your work. It does not help that there is no door to close to prevent hearing conversations of fellow co-workers a few cubicles down. I have seen some people using earplugs or putting “do not disturb” signs on the outside of their cubicle walls but that only gets you so far.

I believe that if you can demonstrate talent, reliability, trust, performance, and quality a corporation should let you work from home or any location you desire. As long as the employee knows how to work from home properly, then why not? It is cheaper for the company and less stressful for the employee.

Think of telecommuting as a form of freelancing. It should not be a taboo. If you can not cut it then, yeah, a cubicle life it is for you. Otherwise, it is time to start being more economical. The money you save on gas can be better spent during happy hour on Fridays with friends and fellow co-workers!

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