# In your current job, could you telecommute if it were allowed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550 "2012-07-07T21:24:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/1 "2012-07-07T21:24:44Z")
I’m wondering how many people have jobs from which they could legitimately work from home 100% of the time, i.e., everything you work on, receive, submit, etc., is done digitally or electronically. If the only thing you’d need to come to work for would be meetings but they aren’t really job-critical, go ahead and answer yes. If the meetings _are_ job-critical, then no. To answer for myself: I’m a freelance indexer so I don’t even have an office. Everything I do is from home (or the coffee shop). ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/2 "2012-07-07T21:31:19Z")
Yes, in theory. I would need a handheld radio and access to the computer network. Easy enough, in theory, to telecommute. 0% chance in practice. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/3 "2012-07-07T21:40:15Z")
Hope I’m not skewing the results, I voted yes, because I can and I do. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/4 "2012-07-07T21:41:42Z")
I have no interest in associating my small apartment with my job. I have enough issues getting out and about and I would be far too distracted at home. Besides, I’ve long had this standard that says if you are calling me at home, you’d damned well better speak to me as if you were actually standing here. Ie, when you’re in someone’s house or call them at home, you treat them with a modicum of civility and respect. While on this job I don’t get too many angry calls and the one’s I’ve had have been very low level anger (as opposed to the last job), I have no interest in tolerating people being pissy with me when I’m at home, and working from home would blur that line far too much. So it basically comes down to: I need to go somewhere else to put myself in the ‘work’ mindset and keep it separate from my home life. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/5 "2012-07-07T21:43:19Z")
I could do my research assistant work and law school stuff from home. But for the reasons Chimera outlines above, I wouldn’t wanna. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/6 "2012-07-07T21:53:31Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > So it basically comes down to: I need to go somewhere else to put myself in the ‘work’ mindset and keep it separate from my home life. While I don’t want to squelch any sort of discussion (like your post, for example) that arises from this topic, my main source of curiosity was in how many jobs these days are 100% digital. It’s not really about whether people would like to telecommute or whatever, just, is the nature of your job such that you hypothetically _could_. > [@TriPolar](#): > > Hope I’m not skewing the results, I voted yes, because I can and I do. Not skewing the results. If you can and do, your answer should definitely be yes. ---
**Author:** ![kmshrader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@kmshrader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmshrader)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/7 "2012-07-07T22:10:31Z")
I wouldn’t want to, but all of my work is done either on the phone or the computer. If we could somehow connect the office line to a phone at my house (which I think is doable in theory, but not allowed), all I’d miss out on is office banter. As it is, we’ve got a couple of employees who telecommute and do everything except the phones. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/8 "2012-07-07T22:13:02Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > is the nature of your job such that you hypothetically _could_. I technically could and have special hardware to do so, but I could not _mentally_. Let’s put it that way. So I probably should have answered yes, but eh… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/9 "2012-07-07T22:24:12Z")
I can’t currently, even though they’ve just installed virtual-desktop software in my office, so we can work from our home computer as if we’re seeing our terminal at work. They’re going to upgrade our PC-SAS software soon so that it’ll be VDI-compatible, and then I could do 95% of my job as presently defined from home, and I suspect that by the end of the year, that last 5% is going to either go away or get reassigned. So I expect to have the ability to do my job from home in 2013. Before I did, I’d want to rebuild my workspace at home. I currently have dual monitors at work, and have gotten to the point where I’d feel crippled without the second monitor when I’m working on anything fairly complicated. And even with two monitors on my desk, I have plenty of desk space to spread out over. But at home, I don’t even have room for a second monitor, period. So like I said, I’d really need to rebuild my home workspace. I’d probably want to do it even teleworking one or two days a week. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/10 "2012-07-07T22:26:16Z")
Yeah, the question of whether you’d _want_ to is definitely a separate thing. I don’t have a home office, and as a result I often go out to my favorite coffee shop because it helps me to have that mental separation between “home” and “work.” ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/11 "2012-07-07T22:57:13Z")
> [@](#): > > If the only thing you’d need to come to work for would be meetings but they aren’t really job-critical, go ahead and answer yes. If the meetings are job-critical, then no. it is job critical, but I could do it remotely with adequate technology. Stuff that exists, but neither me or my company have it. All computer crap that doesn’t “require” a physical presence, but I do a lot of explaining system architecture stuff for my development team, for the business side, and for upper management. So I spend a lot of time white-boarding for understanding. Without that some 5 minute explanations would take hours and hours. As easy as it is to put a simple scratchpad functionality into web conferencing software, we just don’t have one that works worth a crap at my company yet. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/12 "2012-07-07T23:41:04Z")
My office phone is forwarded to one of my home lines, which makes my usual schedule of working from home more often than in office easier. Any day now, I half expect to be offered full time telecommuting. It’s gotten to the point that I dislike working at the office as there are so many annoying ring tones on people’s personal phones that I want to go around smashing all the phones with their Old Spice whistles, R2D2 noises, and unintelligible 2-second blasts of whatever music. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/13 "2012-07-08T00:42:32Z")
No. I am a receptionist for a vet. It would be very hard to cash out clients, make appointments, and sell medication from the comfort of my own home. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/14 "2012-07-08T00:48:19Z")
Everything I receive, submit etc. can and usually is done electronically. It sort of has to be, because the people I supervise work in five different locations and I can’t be in all of them at once. My supervisor and two of his other direct reports are 150 miles from me, so “meetings” with them generally consist of conference calls. I could work from home for a week or maybe even two, but that’s it. Inside of two weeks, something will happen at one of those five locations that will require my presence. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/15 "2012-07-08T00:56:55Z")
Other, I couldn’t do my job from home, but I also can’t do it from the office. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/16 "2012-07-08T01:13:06Z")
I’m a transactional lawyer in a large law firm. In theory I could telecommute because I already interact with most people I interact with by phone or email. But in practice it’s good to knock on people’s doors, do phone calls with clients from one person’s office, go to lunch with people, etc. etc. Plus law firms aren’t known for their innovation in workplace type stuff. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/17 "2012-07-08T01:13:49Z")
I’ve been working from home telecommuting exclusively for 15 years. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/18 "2012-07-08T01:23:22Z")
Voted yes, I could do 98%+ of my job from home if it were allowed (stupidly it isn’t). ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/19 "2012-07-08T01:26:36Z")
It would be slower at times, and I’d need a few pieces of hardware. I’d need my power supply and an oscilloscope. And the team currently gets prototypes shipped from another location - they’d have to ship some to my house. But yeah. I could do my job from here. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550/20 "2012-07-08T02:11:36Z")
Yes, and I do, with occasional meetings elsewhere. I’m pretty reliant on Fed Ex and the US mail, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-current-job-could-you-telecommute-if-it-were-allowed/627550.md?page=2)