v-Fluence Blog

Holiday Thoughts (and Advice) about Telecommuting

When I was home for the holidays, several of my old friends or former colleagues asked me where I've been working lately. I told them that I recently started a great job with a national public relations firm. "Where's it located?" they would ask.

To which I replied, "Well, we've got virtual offices in four major cities, and I'm telecommuting from my home office just outside of Boston.

The reactions I get range from stunned to nonchalant, from concerned to curious, and from sympathetic to envious. While telecommuting (or in simpler terms, 'working from home.') has become an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in the white collar workforce, no consensus seems to exist (at least among my friends) about its costs and benefits.

To be sure, there are both costs and benefits, from both an economic and a human resources perspective, associated with telecommuting. During the recent holiday season, I had some time to reflect on my new job, and some of the challenges and rewards of telecommuting.

By way of a caveat, these are simply my own informal observations. My course in "Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management" at the Wharton School didn't touch the subject. If you'd prefer a more authoritative account, the United States Department of Transportation released a study quite a while back that addressed environmental and transportation issues surrounding telecommuting, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics has this interesting article (PDF) on the topic. For a quicker read, here are a few observations, along with some advice for my fellow telecommuters.

Benefit: Flexibility. Telecommuting lets me transcend space and time… in a sense. During the holiday season, I was able to essentially move my home office to anywhere there happens to be wireless Internet. This includes my old bedroom at my folks' house on the beach or the Starbucks in downtown Boston. If I'm feeling sluggish from too many of my cousin's seven-layer brownies (and if I'm not under deadline), I'm able to hit the gym on my lunch break, and make up the work later in the day.

Benefit: A window office. Given the choice between the home office and the infamous cubicle, who among us would choose the latter? Caution: When one's work and personal lives get close spatially, try to separate them psychologically. If you are able to, carve out a separate space in your apartment that you can dedicate only to working hours. Also, find a way to "mentally commute" to and from work - this could be a cup of coffee and ten minutes with the newspaper, or checking your personal email account at the end of a long day.

Cost: Social Interaction. While social interaction is not necessarily a casualty of telecommuting, you might find that it takes more of an effort to keep your business relationships personal. Join a professional organization or give a call to your colleague sometime when a simple e-mail will do. Make sure you're meeting with clients or colleagues outside the home.

Benefit: Fewer costs. The costs of commuting add up to several thousand dollars per year annually. To see how much you could save by working from home, click here. Costs aside, I'm just glad I won't have to be rushing to shovel out my car this winter.