Tag Archives: telecommuting

Telecommuting Benefits

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Telecommuting benefits both the employee and the employer, it’s the perfect win-win situation if both parties do it correctly!  I decided to write about my experiences with telecommuting and the benefits there within.

I’m going to start out with employee benefits, because this the area I know the most about.  Since I telecommute a few days a week, it’s an area that I know and feel I can speak about with a high degree of accuracy.  While I only telecommute a few days a week, other bloggers work sole by telecommuting to work.  One of my favorite blogger, Kris @ Everyday Tips is a perfect example of an employee that only telecommutes to work.

Employee Benefits

  • Time savings from not commute into work.
  • Car accident avoidance from not commute into work
  • Sleep time savings from getting up later because of no need to get a shower in the morning.
  • Gas cost saving from no commute.
  • Car “wear and tear” reduction from no commute.
  • Reduction in work cloths wardrobe.
  • More satisfying degree of focus on work at hand, if done correctly.  This is because of the reduced social opportunities and the lack of friendly chit-chat walkbys from friends and peers.
  • Reduced eating cost, since food can be prepared at home vs a restaurant.
  • Able to be a mobile worker.  You can even be on vacation and work remotely, if you have a fast enough internet and cell phone connection.

Employer Benefits

  • More productive workers from reduced chit-chat
  • Reduced space requirements because of shared cubicle space.
  • Employees willing to extent their workday and work at odd hours
  • Employees feel more engaged.

Reasons Not To Totally Telecommute

Telecommuting has some great benefits, but I don’t think I would want to do it everyday.  I think the old saying “Out of site, out of mind” still applies.  It’s also easier to layoff someone if you don’t see them occasionally, not to mention subcontracting your job out, or even offshore the position.

Personally, I like to telecommute a few times a week.  To go to a total telecommuting work schedule would be hard for me, especially from a social interaction standpoint.

-MR

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Staying Home During The Ice Storms

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I live in a part of the country that gets snow during the winter season, so I’m use to living with ice and snow.  But the latest storms is something that I don’t remember seeing in a long time!  The amount of freezing rain that we received is incredible.  My entire yard looks like a block of ice!

I looked out the window this morning and my garbage can, along with all the neighbor’s trash cans, have slipped into the road.  This is new, I don’t remember this happening before!

So the question is should I go to work or stay home?

I’ve heard from those brave souls that drove into work earlier that the main highways aren’t that bad.  As I look out my window, my road has about a 3 to 4 inch layer of ice though.  The city schools where I live have all been closed.

Normally, I would just telecommute to work for the entire day, but I have some important meetings that I need to attend at the end of the workday.  Yes, I could just dial into a conference call for those meetings, but I would like to see the visuals associated with the meeting.

So what I decided to do is connect remotely for the morning, then go in later, possible after lunch.  I do this for the following reasons:

  • This give the plow and salt trucks a chance to clear the roads well.
  • the temperature is over freezing, and by staying home, I make sure the plows get my road before the water starts to freeze again.
  • This give the opportunity for other to get to work before me, just to make sure the roads are good from the perspective of someone who live where I live!
  • I get to say good morning to my kids before I leave (usually I don’t get this option).
  • Give the facilities people the chance to make sure all the walking surface to the building are well salted.
  • Gives me the chance to watch the weather channel and local news to make sure all it well and will stay well.

When you have the option to telecommute on bad winter days, sometimes it’s worth thinking through all the choices.

From a financial perspective, it’s worth considering to telecommuting on bad winter days because of the cost that could result from an accident or the dangers to your health from injury slipping on the ice, etc.

-MR

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Frugally Fight Higher Gas Prices

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High gas prices

Fight back against gas prices!

Well, the oil companies are increasing oil prices again…

What are you doing to frugally fight higher gas prices?

Should we just say “There is nothing we can do” , and just be an innocent victim to the onslaught of the oil companies on our wallets and purses?

Last night while driving home, I noticed that my local gas station’s price per gallon has risen to $2.999 (which is effectively $3.00)!  Ouch!

I talked about one option in my article called: Carpooling to Save Money and Reduce Gas Prices, and this is a great way to for the consumers to lower gas prices to a great extend, at least if we all do so in mass.  One problem may exist though… China!  China is still growing like wildfire compared to the growth rate of the developed countries.  It’s not that they want oil prices to rise too, it’s just that their economy needs that resource to support their growth rate.

Another great option to consider is Telecommuting! In case you lived in a cave for the past 10 or so years, telecommuting is where you stay at home and connect to work (or do work) by connecting to work via a computer and internet connection (called a VPN – Virtual Private Network) to your place of employment.

Now granted not everybody can take advantage of the telecommuting option because of the type of work they perform, but you can talk to your boss if there isn’t a policy that your employer is using already!  Perhaps you can start a pilot program, working 1 day a week as a test to see if it work for you and your company.  In fact, the place that I work at takes an hybrid approach, where we work onsite a few days and have the option to work offsite for a few day.  It’s a great mix!  Even better would be to walk or ride a bike if possible to work and at anytime really…

My final suggestion would be to be aware of the expense of too many car trip taken during the day/week!  Running out 20 miles to this store and then later that store during a normal day can really adds up!  Know the mileage your car can achieve and calculate how much those trips cost (including the drive back home).  For instance,  I know that it cost me $15 to drive to my parents house and back (they are almost an hour away from my house)!

What I do is consolidate my non work trips into 1 per week (when possible, which is not always the case with kid sports and activities)!  What this means is during one drive, I do multiple things within that drive.  So instead of driving out for milk, then driving out to pick up driveway salt (snow, yuck)…  I’ll just make 1 trip instead of 2!

I know that we  all think of carpooling when we go to work, but perhaps it’s not a bad idea for a neighborhood carpool too?  Maybe a stay-at-home mom could do a similar action with other neighboring SAHMs?  There could even be other beneficial gains in doing such a carpooling activity such as social, safety and backup coverage in driving kids to sports!

Can you think of any other ways to combat the rising prices of gas?

–MR

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