Maybe the data shows that career advancement has more to do with creating a personal relationship with your boss than with being productive. We all know the folks that couldn't compete with the rest of the team, but they spent their time 'pleasing' the boss, and the next thing you know they are promoted. I could retire if I had $5 for every time my boss told me that the company couldn't afford not having me in my current position because I was so productive. Career advancement is all about getting in to the decision maker cliques; productivity has nothing to do with it.

I work for a privately held telecom, FreedomVOICE Systems. From a marketer's perspective, it's relatively easy to sell an open-minded employer on the benefits of letting employees work from remote. Once you knock out the handful of misconceptions and management fears with some admin tools & reports, employers are usually eager to at least, "give it a try," and hook up something like a VOIP Hosted PBX.

From experience, many of these employers see telecommuting as an opportunity to enhance their employee benefits package. In other words, it's an easy way to recruit employees that are willing to do the same or better work as an office employee for less money.

Why? For all the reasons you joked about at the beginning of the post -- too many executives are still stuck a decade or so behind, viewing telecommuters as unkempt, pajama-wearing slackers. It's not until they really commit to a telework program, not until they see that their teleworkers are performing at a higher degree, with higher job satisfaction (and thus lower turnover), that they will even begin to realize just how valuable telecommuting is to optimizing their workforce.

Everything you said about telecommuters putting in "face time" is spot on. As much as executives need extra administrative tools to monitor productivity, telecommuters also need extra communication tools to keep in regular contact with executives. Without the luxury of proximity, telecommuters have to utilize IMing, email, teleconferencing, and whatever else they can get their hands on to make sure that employers don't forget who they are and what they do.

The small amount of instability in telecommuting right now is being blown out of proportion and scaring everyone off. There ~are~ a handful of dishonest, lazy telecommuters that give everyone else a bad name. There ~are~ a few unscrupulous executives who underappreciate honest telecommuters. It takes the right technology, the right level of communication, and the right amount of mutual respect between employers and employees in order for a telework program to get off the ground. But isn't that true for office employees as well? And when the pieces come together to make for a strong telework program (and it's not as hards as it sounds), productivity can grow by leaps and bounds beyond a traditional office. It may be some time, unfortunately, before this symbiotic equilibrium becomes commonplace.

If you're in the market for the "right technology" part of the puzzle, be sure to check out FreedomIQ VOIP Hosted PBX.

I wonder how in today's difficult times organizations and managers can afford to ignore benefits of Telecommuting. Some of these benefits i can think of are ( I do agree that people who opt for telecommute should be disciplined and need to follow certain guidelines so that overall experience for all stakeholders is win win !!)

- Save on real estate cost

- Save on other support costs (Utilities, office networks etc)

- Improvement in Employee Productivity

- Enhanced Employee Motivation

- Reduced Cost

- Better Work-Life Balance

- Better Employee Health (Daily hours of negotiation with smoke, traffic and chaos does it's take its toll on all of us !!)

I see more and more companies adapting home based working or telecommuting. In fact organizations like Dell , IBM etc are already doing it in big way and there experience has been extremely successful !!

I wonder how in today's difficult times organizations and managers can afford to ignore benefits of Telecommuting. Some of these benefits i can think of are ( I do agree that people who opt for telecommute should be disciplined and need to follow certain guidelines so that overall experience for all stakeholders is win win !!)

- Save on real estate cost

- Save on other support costs (Utilities, office networks etc)

- Improvement in Employee Productivity

- Enhanced Employee Motivation

- Reduced Cost

- Better Work-Life Balance

- Better Employee Health (Daily hours of negotiation with smoke, traffic and chaos does it's take its toll on all of us !!)

I see more and more companies adapting home based working or telecommuting. In fact organizations like Dell , IBM etc are already doing it in big way and there experience has been extremely successful !!

Well, I am in sales... and have been working from a home office(virtual office) for 13 years. My metrics may differ from general "IT People," because I am paid on what I produce... monthly, quarterly, and annually. I guess since I am responding to this during normal business hours means I am goofing off? I have worked harder and longer from home than I ever have from an office (for 20 years), and am much more productive from home... but wait... is it because I start each day at 6:00am and end "sometimes" at 9:00pm? It gets lonely at home sometimes without the "shuck'n and jive'n" of the office. Is it a case of the grass is greener? Mine is because I can take some time on those "off" days to spread fertilizer. Ha!