Sure, it saves me four-plus gallons of gas in the Prius every day I don’t drive. And it’s very nice to stay in bed an extra hour or two. But really it’s because when I start work, I can work!
I don’t have to listen to someone chatterying about current events, crowded buses, previous jobs, or what Elizabeth Hasselbeck said on The View. I can sit in my office, connect via VPN, and get to work.
Quiet now. I can start writing this program.
So, hanging out here is part of the process, right?
Same here.
We’ve got a magic VPN that steps in before Windows starts and tunnels an office LAN jack to my home, so when I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to start Windows, I’m on the enterprise LAN so all of my drive mappings and automated file shadowings work.
But more importantly, I can sleep an hour and a half later, and I don’t have to put up with the HAW! HAW! HAW! braying of someone with an overactive sense of humor from three aisles over or the pervasive snukkkk…snkkkkkkx…snukkkk of someone with incessant sinus problems.
Not having to play BART Roulette is nice as well - no wondering if I’ll be able to get onto a train heading home without having to squeeze 250 pounds of me into a space only large enough for a 95 pound child, or wondering if the train’s air conditioning is on, or if I’m in for a 55-minute sauna.
One definite plus is that I get to crank the tunes at home, and/or listen to things that would frighten the more delicate sensibilities of office inhabitants.
Oddly, my dog seems indifferent to it. Right now, she’s in another room, sleeping.
I often get my toes licked while I’m working in my home office.
And I can take a nap break if I need one and the schedule permits.
The nap break is great for me. But I do find that sometimes I need *some *human contact.
Oh, me too . . . but it’s great to be able to choose which humans I interact with, instead of being forced to interact with blathering yahoos just because we share an employer.
I get to telecommute one day a week. I’m hoping that number goes up. I love it. Dog in lap, dog at feet. Rotate dogs. TV on in the other room. Load of laundry. No droning conversations. No pantyhose. Sleep a little later, be there when the mail arrives. It’s heaven.
Yeah, working from home is so much more efficient. When I have to go into the office for a meeting, I generally consider the rest of the day a complete write off. What with people chatting and asking for stuff.
Another cool thing about telecommuting is wearing jammies or sweats all day. I know it’s stereotypical to say so, but I love it. I have not, however, worked naked or in my undies.
Or how about going to the fridge for a snack – and everything in there is mine!
Not to mention the fact that you can put something in the fridge and be (reasonably) sure that it won’t have grown legs and walked away before you look again.
I have worked naked. I’ve spoken to clients on the phone while I was naked. (Usually because I just got out of the tub and the phone rang for a call I needed to take.)
Hey, speaking of the tub, I’ve worked while IN the tub. (Copyediting a novel that’s part of a series, gotta read the previous book(s) to be aware of continuity issues. Bubble bath plus bon-bons plus romance novel = PROFIT!)
That.
Also, being able to have the washer running while the computer chugs along on something, or to go for a walk when I get stuck on something (walking at military-charge speed helps me think) without having to give explanations. Being able to eat when I want to eat without having to wait for my teammates. Being able to eat what I want to eat without explaining again that I do like cooking but I hate cooking for one.
And I have “MS-like symptoms.” That translates to having a lot of the symptoms of MS but, since the brainscan says my brain is all pretty and undamaged, I don’t officially have MS. I just get the symptoms. OK, whatever. Thing is, the first “tier” of symptoms includes vertigo (my brain thinks the world’s moving, although I know perfectly well it’s not), the second one visual problems (including being even worse than my usual self at calculating distances), the third “tier” includes trembling extremities (starting with the left leg, which is absolutely necessary on a manual transmission), and I get the symptoms more often at the end of the day. So, not having to drive back home is a definite plus!
My #1 thing I like about telecommuting is not having to deal with cow-orkers.
A few years ago I had a real employee-like job where for the first year, I was essentially the only person in the office. That was OK (but not as good as telecommuting). Then they started hiring people, and things went downhill fast. You get one yammerer in the office, and suddenly productivity drops waaaay down. Even the non-yammerers tend to get social at times. Everyone who works in an office has seen the social stuff that goes on. How many days do you NOT stand around the common area/kitchen/someone’s office and yammer for an hour?
That drives me batty. I do not want to socialize while working. I want to work, so I can get it done, so I can go off and do my own stuff. I don’t want to know what you did last night, or look at your vacation photos, or whatever.
After that, my love of telecommuting is:
the aforementioned pajamas. I don’t even own any “business casual” clothing anymore. If I have to go to business meetings, I have to go buy new clothes.
Doggies.
Being able to set up my own office the way I like it. I cannot work in a cubicle anymore, I would chew my arm off to get away. I need a nice office, a window that looks out onto nature, and a comfy chair.
Setting my own hours. Mostly I work 8-5 or so, but it’s nice to have the option to take a couple hours in the middle of the day and go kayak/bike/sit on the deck if it’s nice out.
being able to eat when & what I want. I gained ten pounds the last time I had an office job. I lost that same ten pounds without trying when I started telecommuting again.
no assholes that I have to deal with in person. I’m actually in that Work Zen state now where I honestly don’t work with ANY assholes, even remotely. I actually even LIKE the people I work with. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.