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You are exactly right.

I have worked from home now for 2 1/2 years (and 1 1/2 years a while before), mostly on contract work, and I have never been as productive as when I work from the house. I won’t take a position now unless I can do it remotely.

I get on-line before most people make it into the office, and get off after most have already gone for the day. I don’t necessarily work more hours, but I have more presence on the corporate network than most others, and am available faster when needed. I don’t have to drive anywhere, so I can get “there” earlier, and leave later.

In today’s out-sourced business environment, it really doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you have a network connection and a phone. I regularly have team conference calls/meetings with people globally (U.S. over all time zones; Western Europe; South America; India; etc.) as all the teams I have worked on in the last 12 or so years are not local to one location. It is highly inaccurate to say that you need to be in an office environment to develop a team. That is corporate-policy-speak, HR drivel; purely a micromangement thing. It is just another way to try and control all employees, without regard to whether or not it is appropriate or needed.

The people that screw off at home are the same people that spend 2-3 hours a day at the coffee machine/water cooler, or gossiping in someone else’s cube, and are always behind on their assignments. An inability to discipline oneself works the same at the office and at home. (Unfortunately, most of the people that I have seen that cannot work unsupervised at work or at home are of the “younger” generation of employees... coincidently, most are also liberals of the entitlement mindset...)

That is a most excellent “back to ground” post.

Sums up the life of a telecommuter perfectly. We’re the ghosts in the machine, always present, but virtually. We’re in before the rest, and we leave after the rest of them. Drives the poor guys who have to drive the one hour commute daily (each way) nutz. But we have to be firm at home. People we know think we’re just hanging around the house doing nothing because whenever they call, we’re “home.” Well, we’re not. We’re on the clock and producing.

I am fortunate because my parents always worked from the house. They know. I learned.

I am a research technician. Seems to require my presence in the lab, measuring stuff. But I found ways to automate the process, and now I can run the operation from my bed. (Turned out pretty handy when I was having a couple of hip replacements. That stung a bit.)

That’s why it ticks me off to have these “manage-by-walking-around” punks drop in and tell me all about how they’d “fire my butt” for being the kind of productive person I am. They don’t know dick about what kind of person I am. They are forever locked into a very limited world.