BootsnAll Travel Community

So, I'm at work today, working my little tushy off on Systems Engineering Things. From a little campground in Glen Rose TX. Looking over the Brazos river. Early this morning, I took a run and saw cranes. Red tail hawks. A HUGE king snake. At lunch, I went for a swim. Now, I'm waiting for the fire to die back to make dinner while watching the fireflies. Best thing? This place has high speed internet and *no cel phone service*. Zero bars. So, I can work, but no one can call and bother me. (Please, no one tell my collegues about skype!) If you have to have a corporate job, this is the way to do it.

Anyone else a full time tele?

La

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Anyone else a full time tele?

What took you so long, dear?

Woooooo! A full-blown gloating thread in Corporate Wasteland!!! (Now, just bag that full-time crap.)

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Originally posted by Not the first Travis:

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Anyone else a full time tele?

What took you so long, dear?

Woooooo! A full-blown gloating thread in Corporate Wasteland!!!

LOL! Full blown? I dunno...maybe three quarters blown, whatever that is.

I AM curious, though...I work for a big staid guvmint contractor, and they let me do this - is working from the location of your choice an option for anybody else?

La

I can work inside the office or on wifi outside. It's not exactly telecommuting, but it does alleviate that whole chained to a desk type'o feeling.

Being an IT manager requires a lot of facetime, schmoozing and politics...ya know all those little things that are key motivating factors to save, plan and save for my RTW.

1000 days, give or take, and counting

I am sitting in an apartment in Tokyo telecommuting back to the old USA as we speak

I telecommute full time.

It's great, but I don't think I could just roam around. I have set hours, and have to use VoIP phone software to take calls all day. Overall, its been much better than being in a cube all day. And, I just moved to NY for the summer. LOVE the flexibility.

Not that I "heart" being chained to a desk all day, but doesn't telecommuting get lonely? Still chained to a desk, but in your pj's?

If not, then tell me how I can land a gig like that! :-)

Well, since we are gloating a bit about our telecommuting jobs, I have to add my 5cents to it.

I love telecommuting! I had the opportunity to telecommute for a full year in 2006 and got so much work done for my client. There is so much freedom to unlocking yourself from the office politics and the cubicle, avoiding parking fees, having to get dressed up each day, getting up early to avoid traffic, etc. I would wake up around 8:30, reach over to my bedside table, boot up and work in bed for the first 3 hours, then at lunch time, get on my bike for a 1/2 hour ride, and move over to my desk for the afternoon. I was very sad when my contract ended.

Now, I'm in an even better situation. I am a salaried employee for an IT consulting company and I'm waiting for my next contract. It's cheaper for them to provide me with a laptop and send me home than to fill a desk at the office. The beauty of it is that I get paid each day to 'study' while I wait. Also, I'm leaving on a 2+ year RTW in September so I applied and received a 1 year sabbatical so the odds of them finding me a contract in the summer for less than 3 months are minimal so I have the whole summer off. I just need to be logged in to my email and check in 3-4 times a day to make sure I don't miss anything that might come in. The only downside is that I spend most of my hours reading and researching for my trip and I'm starting to get information overload!

Sorry to gloat but I can't believe my luck!

yeah i overall love it too.

My gig is not nearly as good as Julie's but i'm still lucky. I guess you could say it gets lonely, but we have chat programs that we send messages on all day. In the office, I was right next to someone but barely talked to them cuz i'm on the phone allllll day. The only difference is not eating lunch with coworkers, which was soooo fun.

Over the past year tho, brian has been in school, so he would come home and we'd have lunch together... OR he would work from home (also telecommuted for the company he's working for now). In NY, things have changed as he's working lonnnnng hours at the office, so that has been kind of lonely, but still I prefer being at home. I've save sooo much money not having to drive, buy lunch, buy work clothes. ANd the TIME is awesome. I have way more ME time that would normally be spent getting ready for the office, or getting there.

I had to go and work in the office for a day a few months ago and I was like "man I am SO glad I work from home". That place is dark and scary, and I felt so confined - at home i get up stretch, walk around on break, or do as i please on breaks... so nice.

I just got lucky with this one, but IT fields are a good way to work from home, if you're not working to fix stuff onsite.

Thanks for the responses, all, you guys. I'm glad to know some other folks are doing this, too. I want it to catch on allllll over.

ggg, I don't find telecommunting lonely, probably for a lot of reaons. For one thing, I'm kind of an introvert and a little bit of other people goes a long way. I also hang out with people who live or work in my neighborhood, with my sweetie (who works for himself) and I too keep a chat window running with my co workers.

I REALLY like not having to commute, not being stuck in a building where I can't see the sun, and being able to work from a range of places. I DO have to have some phone access (although I can take a few phone free days a month) and I have to keep current with email and be accessible when someone needs me. The downsides are things like having to do my own IT and clerical stuff, and not having a place close by to have meetings when I need to...don't like inviting people to my house. Still, it's overall a great deal for me, for the environment and I think for the company. They don't have to pay for officing me (which is really quite expensive), I'm sure they get more work out of me, and I'm less likely to quit. I'd have a hard time convincing myself to go back to an office!


La

I telecommute on occasion, when I don't have a compelling reason to be in the office. I did today in fact, because the power went out in our office building. It's definitely nice to be at home. I can listen to the radio, fix my own lunch, and wear whatever I want. It's also nice on the days I'm tempted to take a sick day but I'm not really sick enough to justify burning a day. Our time off is all combined so if I don't use my days for being sick, I can use it for vacation instead!

It can be great to have the freedom to work from home, but all this "workplace flexibility" has some drawbacks too. My experience has been that when a company extends the courtesy of flexibility to you, they also expect some flexibility back from you in return. From what I have seen, this transforms the office culture into one of non-stop round-the-clock work. The boundaries between work time and personal time blur. Your coworkers will think nothing of phoning you up in the evening and your manager will get huffy that you did not return her e-mails over the weekend. Regardless of whether you personally benefit from the company's flexibility, you will be expected to give of your own flexibility in return.

My company has been on the leading edge of the telecommuting and flexbility trends for several years now, in an effort to stay on Fortune's "100 Best Companies" list and keep its working mothers from jumping ship. Right now they are in the process of issuing blackberries to everyone, even the peons. Most of my coworkers are eagerly anticipating their free gadget goody, but I'm not too excited about it.

They've been spinning this as an egalitarian effort to offer even more workplace flexibility to everyone, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to turn into a way for them to further invade our personal time. I remain unconvinced of my alleged need for one of these things. I'm rarely away from my laptop during working hours, and I don't feel any need to check my e-mail during my lunch breaks, evenings, and weekends. Nothing is going to burn down if my e-mails go unanswered for a few hours or even a few days.

So far a blackberry sounds like a way for coworkers and managers to further pester me during my off time. Perhaps the idea is for me to feel free to leave the office during the day so long as my new ankle bracelet is with me, but I rather liked the feeling I already had - that of feeling free to leave the office without one and using a couple hours of my personal time off. Now in addition to my cell phone I'll have to lug around another device to ignore. I already feel enough like the office freak when I don't take my laptop on vacation and log in to work from the beach.

The flexibility that I really want from my employer is the flexibility to make evening and weekend plans with some confidence that they will not be interrupted. I want the flexibility to take a few extra vacation days when I put in 70 hour weeks for four months. I want the flexibility to log off at 5:00 pm and not think about work anymore that day. What I do not want is the flexibility to check my e-mail from the movies on a Friday night and feel grateful that my employer is "allowing" me to conduct my life while I have the privilege of being on their payroll.

</rant>

very well put ! I feel exactly the same way about these "productivity enhancers".

I WAH (work at home) sometimes and after a few days, I miss interactions with my coworkers. (I work at a really great place.) But working at home is nice--I save time by not commuting, I can play with my cat during conference calls, if I have to do some reason I'll do it in bed or on the couch, I make endless pots of chai...I like it too!

Guys I am may have to change my career after reading your posts. Working from home seems like its a blast. I am sure you save so much money on gas, and food. But at the same time, you don't have the opportunity to be as social as you would working in an office. Its a toss up.

I LOOOOOVVE working from home. It really is the best. I don't really miss social interaction enough to haul my self back to the office. Not having anyone looking over your shoulder or hearing bitter snippets from people is great. I like all of my coworkers but i wouldn't trade this for anything. My only problem is when i try to take it on the road i end up distracted but i have that problem anyway (like right now, ahahaha) In reality though, i surfed this site and other travel info when i was at work anyway just now i don't have to be sneaky about it. I actually get more done though since i will wake up around 7am and start working and last night worked until 11pm. but that makes up for the days i fluff off. If i could only make myself work vigilently for a few hours everyday i would have no problem but it's so hard when all you want to do is research a trip! I honestly don't think i can ever work in an office full time again.

I've just been trying to think of a way to bring this job on the trip w/ me but i think it's too hard w/ time changes, etc. Nowadays w/ efaxs,and email all you need is a laptop and a scanner and you can get anything to anyone.