Telecommuting

V

valkyrie

Well-Known Member
http://earthandindustry.com/2010/07/companies-save-10k-per-employee-per-year-from-telecommuting/

I'm curious as to how many of you telecommute in your jobs, even part-time. The company I work for does not allow it, though I have occasionally been given the chance on the sly by my boss. It is, unfortunately, not a regular thing. I commute about 12.5 hours every week and would love to get some of the life I spend on the freeway back. I don't see the reason why my employer needs to see me 5 days a week in a cubicle when my job can easily be done from my home office via VPN.
 
I used to 'home dispatch' myself for a while, only going back to the office to resupply and drop off completed work orders. The dispatch was using MS Scheduler and Exchange to schedule us and attach the work order to print up at home. Saved a lot of running about and wasted time. Lasted about a year.
 
The company I work for hasn't given anyone raises in 2 years and I don't see them giving anyone raises this year either. If they let me work from home part-time it would be like a small raise because my expenses would drop.
 
I'm about 20 mins from the office and 10mins from our secondary data center, so my travel time isn't much, but I am fully operational at home with VPNs to both sites and a phone at my desk.
 
Mirlyn said:
I'm about 20 mins from the office and 10mins from our secondary data center, so my travel time isn't much, but I am fully operational at home with VPNs to both sites and a phone at my desk.
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Nice. You're so close! I'm actually job hunting for something closer. I don't have much hope of that happening though. So I'm just pushing my current employer to let me work at a closer site a few days a week.

I have Cisco's IP Communicator installed on my laptop. Once I'm VPN'd in I'm able to use it as if it was the phone on my desk at work. I've had some trouble with it lately though. I'm thinking it's my service provider.
 
Professur said:
It's got a certain clarity of perspective that I appreciate.
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Yep...
You see, Doctor, God didn't kill that little girl. Fate didn't butcher her and destiny didn't feed her to those dogs. If God saw what any of us did that night he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew... God doesn't make the world this way. We do. ~Rorschach/Walter Kovacs (The Watchmen)

Can't stand the people that pray to alleviate suffering and evil in this world. Deities don't make the world a horrible place, people do. To change the suffering and evil you have to take steps, as humans, to make that happen. You have to take action.

Roughly 3.8 million human beings were slaughtered in The Holocaust by other human beings. It took another group of human beings to stop it, not prayer, not a deity.
 
There is an old joke out there that involves a religious man praying to god to win the lotto jackpot. Every day the man would go to the church and pray to god to win the lottery or at least increase his chances of winning the lottery. Eventually the guy got a bit frustrated as his lord was seemingly ignoring his prayers. The religious follower finally lost his temper one day and called out the lord above demanding answers. Well to his surprise God answered back and told the guy "Hey give me a break. At least you could do your part and buy a freaking ticket."
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God does help .. those who help. He doesn't do anything alone.
 
valkyrie said:
In the same way a lucky rabbit's foot helps. ;)
Maybe it's a way to find the courage in yourself to face the challenges.
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Whatever you have to tell yourself to get you through, hon. Cat's believes in God. That's a question of faith. I know. No faith involved. Belief isn't an option for me.
 
Professur said:
Whatever you have to tell yourself to get you through, hon. Cat's believes in God. That's a question of faith. I know. No faith involved. Belief isn't an option for me.
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So touchy! My response wasn't meant as a dis or to make fun of Cat. Sorry you took it that way.

Cat can believe in whatever Cat wants to believe, and you can also. :bgtup: I fully support and defend everyone's right to believe whatever they want to believe with respect to deity/deities or no deity at all.

My response, to give it a further explanation, is that often people will use prayer to find or focus the courage in themselves to do what they need to do. Alcoholics Anonymous has a Serenity Prayer that reflects just that...
"God, Give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed, Courage
to change the things which should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

Some people find that courage through prayer. Some people find that courage in a lucky talisman. Some people find that courage in themselves with no help at all.

I apologize if I wasn't clear earlier. Hope this helps with the confusion.
 
I wasn't rubbed the wrong way, Val. And I only used Cat's name as an example. You're free to believe what you like, and to say what you like. I never take offense at other people's beliefs, or lack thereof.

Religion to me is like a village in a valley far up north. The sunrise appears on the mountain side most of the day, but the sun is never visible. Some folk choose to live indoors all their lives, with their only light source coming from electric lights, or lamps or candles. Some folk go outside and see the mountainside light up ... and believe the sun is rising. Some choose to climb the mountain and see it for themselves. Me .... I've always lived on top of the mountain.
 
Thought you were upset when you said this to me ...
"Whatever you have to tell yourself to get you through, hon."

Usually people say such things like "whatever gets you through the night" or "whatever you have to tell yourself to get you through" is just a condescending way to toss an insult bomb. Sorry if I misunderstood you.

The subjects of religion, deity worship, spirituality, etc. rarely cross my mind. I live my life and let others live there's. I do what is right by my community not because I expect a reward. I believe that if you live your life by example others will also do the right thing. Doing the right thing, helping others, making this world a better place is it's own reward.

Hmmmm... what was this thread about? Ah yes... telecommuting.
 
the biggest issue bosses have with telecommuting is paying people to sit at home in their pjs watching tv, then producing 2 hrs work, and saying it took 8 hours to do. The VPN we have here at work automatically logs users out after 15 minutes of inactivity. Supposedly for security purposes ... but if you're logged out constantly during the day ... expect that someone's going to be asking why. When bosses don't have that sort of double check ability, they get nervous. That's when jobs turn output oriented. Then bosses start pushing, knowing that since you're not punching a clock, they'll actually get more work out of you. That's when people start refusing to telecommute and we all go back to square one.
 
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