U.S. warming to telecommuting

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=84bb0878e8862035

Rapidly escalating gasoline prices may speed the United States' transformation into a telecommuting nation, analysts say.

The price of gasoline Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a rough proxy for its wholesale cost, topped $2.25 per gallon.

The average worker commutes 16 miles each way to work every day, said John Gray of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. "That adds up to more than 8,000 miles per year going to and from work.

Companies will be forced to help ease the financial burden of higher gas prices or risk losing their workers to companies located closer to their homes or companies that offer primarily telecommuting.

A 2005 survey by Connecticut-based Business & Legal Reports asked employers what they were doing to help employees deal with high gas prices. Only 1 percent of the 499 respondents said their companies were allowing more telecommuting. And 6 percent encouraged workers to carpool or use public transportation.

more...

The future may see Americans working from home... and people really need to get together and car pool that could really reduce your costs...

[ananda]

1. 2.25pg?????

I paid $2.86.9 today.

Luckily, I'm only eleven miles from my job.

Sue

[ktlyon]

2. my wife just stared telecommuting one day week 3weeks ago

she thinks it will work out well for her most weeks.
She likes the extra cat time.

I paid 2.99 thursday up 30 cents.

[Robb]

3. My boss is hilarious about this

I'll telecommute a few afternoons each week. He can see on the server I'm getting work done, but regardless, every time he calls he asks how Oprah was. :D

[pokercat999]

10. I would tape Oprah and turn the volume up real loud

when he calls. Next day I would tape the moan'n and groan'n sound from an XXX movie and play that real loud asking him to call back as I was kinda busy right now. It may end the calls........ or the telecommute.

[Sinti]

4. Telecommuting is fantastic.

Been doing it since 1995 and I love it. $0 money to get to work, 0 hours spent getting there. I used to go once a week to pick up tapes, etc., now with broadband everything is online. If you work with a computer, telecommuting is an excellent answer. If your boss really has a bone in his nose and needs to see you, hook up a web cam ;) Yes, boss, imaworkin, boss.

[KAZ]

19. It really is fantastic.

I just started full-time TCing this week. VPN connection to the office, my phone extension is forwarded to my home, and I don't have to get into the shower until noon. All I can say is that I'm not going back, if I can help it. I now start earlier, work later, and am 3 times happier. Only problem is saying goodbye to my wife each morning, as she begins her 1.5 hour commute.

[Ecumenist]

23. Are you a transcriptionist?

My mother worked at home..

[genieroze]

5. Well it 's to bad the US Government doesn't do it. My husband works

at Fort Monmouth and 90% of the things he does could be done by telecommuting. He would have to go in for meetings and tests etc... but that's like once or twice a week.

[cantstandbush]

6. The Fed government has been doing it since Clinton admin. where it

all started. I am retired now, but back in 1997 i supervised a unit that had telecommuting. There are several centers all around the DC metro area.

[genieroze]

24. It depends on the area then. Being most people who work at Fort

Monmouth don't live in the area because of it's high cost. Many people are from other counties.

[2Design]

7. telecommunting jobs will move to india and china because they

can - won't need gas because you will be unemployed

[pdurod1]

9. I Agree

All is going according the plan....

[cornermouse]

14. I think that's the plan.

:grr:

[VegasWolf]

16. Exactly!!! Once you are just an IP address on the net, physical location

is immaterial!!!

[AndyTiedye]

8. Telecommuting Rocks

I do almost all of my work at home.
I'm far more productive at home than in the office anyway.

The group I work for is spread out over 4, soon to be 5 states,
because people often continue to work for us after they move.
What we lose in face-to-face contact, we gain in continuity
and the ability to retain good people.

[skids]

11. Kinkos or such should get into renting "cubes."

Some people actually like not having their workplace impinge on their home. What would be nice is if the commute was just drastically shorter. Like say to a kinkos-like place that rents cubes out -- walk in, plug in your laptop and attached telephony, turn on the kinkos-supplied teleconferencing equipment, fire up the VPN connection, and work. If you want to work a day while visiting granma in East Armpit, make a reservation to go to a cube in East Armpit instead.

[Critters2]

13. Sounds like an enterpreneurial opportunity!

Someone will start this, for sure!

[Critters2]

12. I live across the alley from my workplace

Takes me 15 seconds to get to work, 30 when traffic's bad. No gas, either. But there are subdivisions going up all around me with fools driving from an hour to 2 to get to work. At 2.90 a gallon. I just smile knowingly. :)

[cornermouse]

15. Sirens all night long.

Muggers in the shadows. Drive-by shootings. Pushers down on the corner threatening anyone who objects to their activities. Used needles littering the streets and sidewalks. I'm smiling knowingly too.

[Critters2]

18. Most of those moving here are coming from other suburbs

they're just moving further out than where they were in their last suburb. They move here from Naperville or Aurora. They moved there from Hinsdale or Oak Park. Not many actually coming from the city. People from the city move out to the 'burbs, and these jerks don't want to live around "those people" so they pull up stakes and move again. Based on the size and price of the houses they're building, they didn't come from the neighborhood you're describing. They just can't leave any open land unpaved.

[Marthe48]

17. I've never met my boss

I've been working from home since 2000. I'm full-time, and while I don't get benefits, I get a good wage.
My only complaint is that they do know where you are all the time and unless I leave the house, I can be called in to work when I'm supposed to be off.

[shenmue]

20. I wish I could

I'd love to save money. Until I move back to a place that has trains, I'll think about it.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. I want to telecommute very much....any non-technical websites?

[sweetheart]

22. ya ever notice when you get really good at something...

... then they ask you to train 3 other employees,
or somebody elsewhere on the internet.
nobody started, nobody ended, no self ahoy,
there used to be living creatures on this planet.

When we're all digitized in green and white,
stolen away for cheap in a secret military database,
all the cogs replaceable as a dust mite,
slavery reinforced by their loss of face.

Telecommute and be sold off to the lowest bidder,
invisible resold value observed by bush hitler,
enslaved observed rat-citizen in the militarist base,
grinding under the boot on the face.

As much as the bits claim to enclose,
sovereign endorsement, vapourous digitial repose.