Brrrr....cold shower. Glad your plumbing's fixed, Sheryl.

Yeah, it's very primitive of American business to be so stuffy about telecommuting and flex time. It's good for the environment and it's probably good for productivity and the employees' health. The happier people are, the more they're going to work for you.

I think the traffic outlook in many major metros would really change if more employers got on board with telecommuting and flex time.

I used to work at home in my old job, but mostly on migraine or bad back days when I wasn't sure I should drive.

I tried that here once or twice and was told to go away.

Based on snow and broken car days, I do have to admit that I'm nowhere near as productive at home even when feeling well as I am at the office. There's just something about being in my workspace that promotes more focus and speed.

Employers do not trust their workers to actually work when they are at home. That, I believe, is the primary reason that telecommuting is frowned upon.

Even the regional transportation planning agency, which encourages telecommuting for private employers, doesn't allow it for its own staff. ::rolls eyes::

Employers do not trust their workers to actually work when they are at home.

I think employers miss the point of salary. And underestimate how much work I can not do at the office.

You pay me to do a job. When, where, and sometimes even how are irrelevant. If I don't produce, penalise me. Otherwise, give us a break, eh?

If you can telecommute to your job, that means that someone else can also telecommute to your job. Like, from India or something.

My husband does, kinda, if the dream includes doing laundry, taking his mom to the hospital, and painting the kitchen between emails and remote logins.

The painting totally counts.

If you can telecommute to your job, that means that someone else can also telecommute to your job. Like, from India or something.

I'd like to see them telecommute one day a week.

Or, really, do the job as well as I do. I'd be pissed to lose my job to someone who does it as well as I do, but for less. But it makes sense.

The idea that doing a job a little less well for a lot less money is okay--that bothers me.

I hear people bitch about Indian outsourcing tech support for instance, and honestly if the person on the other end of the phone understands me easily, makes themselves easily understood AND SOLVES MY FUCKING PROBLEM, I'm good with that, and don't care from a consumer-pov where they're located (global and national economy is more complex, natch).

And the number of documents I have to redo from native English speakers, well, poor English is hardly just a foreign problem.

Which has nowt to do with nowt. It was just waiting to boil over.

If you send out your weekly status report at 3:00, isn't that tacit admission that nothing important's going to happen in the next two hours?

I totally forgot, we do have one employee, who handles our Intranet and some of our in-house web-based programs who moved to Ohio and now telecommutes full-time with only a handful of on-site visits a year.

ION, this is kind of bizzare: [link]

It's a listing of a bunch of sword-related crimes from the last 20 years, though the majority are from the last few years. Apparently, much like sex with robots, sword attacks are more common than people think.

ETA: So far this one is my favorite:

Rocky Mount, North Carolina. December, 2004. A neighborhood duel between two moms arms with a machete and a sword erupted at a morning bus stop after their two small children had a minor spat. The women, ages 29 and 19 were later released on bond from police custody. One woman came armed with the machete and a person standing by went and retrieved the sword to arm the other. The combatants reportedly faced off and attempted to strike each other until police arrived. A man was also arrested for encouraging and cheering on the fight (Source: Rocky Mountain Telegram).

I'm more productive at work, if only because of the threat of supervision. If they can supervise you in other ways (lots of deadlines, lots of customer feedback), perhaps it's easier. But I have so much discretion over my work day that sometimes the only way they know I'm working is to have me here.

Oh, and the part where I have to account for every tenth of an hour, but that's not necessarily foolproof.