Escape the Cubicle Farm: Top 10 Reasons to Work From Home | Zen Habits
Leanne Boyd Says:
March 30th, 2009, 4:15 am
What a great article! When I made the choice to continue my education and finish my BA in 1995, little did I know what would happen by 1997 and again deciding to go forward with the master’s and PhD. Both were online universities, Nova Southeastern and Capella. One of the first things you are introduced to, of course, is the ‘isolation’ factor. And it holds true with online work. It never made a lot of personal sense to me. I had one child still at home in those years, which pretty much fills any ‘empty space’ in communications. However, it was 1996 and the instigation of online school that led me into online workplace. I began to freelance online. Worldwide. And except for a brief consulting job with Sprint in Kansas City (I am a Denver native, now transplanted in Arizona), I never held an inhouse/corporate job ever again. And even the Sprint thing ended up being a 98% telecommuted position.
I feel that there is no comparison between productivity when on one’s own, compared to the cubicle mess. Need a drink? Lose 15 minutes. Bathroom trip? Lose 15 minutes. And my commute in KC was over 45 minutes each way. I can guarantee you, those bits of time when spent WORKING, are of course more productive. And being able to string the lines of thought and creativity together into a real stream of productivity… priceless.
What did my time with Sprint teach me? Or the corporate jobs prior to that, back in Denver? The primary reason that many companies will not entertain the thought of telecommuting is that it puts a dead stop to micromanagement. And since most of mid range managers are king of micromanagement, telecommuting erases those jobs. Or forces the company to put those jobs into different, more productive categories. And since corporate, like government, or education… move quite slow… none of this is easily do-able.
One very good kickback from all this economic crisis is that I see things changing in attitude toward the virtual workplace. We all have better things to spend money on, than sheer gasoline to move folks around the highway parking lot in rush hour. Eeesh. It gives me heeby jeebies just remembering that!
I LOVE working at home!
One observation, however. I have recently, since becoming a twitterer, started thinking about finding local tweeps, and starting a group of like-minds. And that could be anything. For me, designers or artists… or just FOLKS who, by way of being a Tweep, are online, and at least partially Geek. hehe. I am LeanneBoyd on Twitter.
Again, thanks for this great article. I will review this on my blog!
