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That's encouraging. I, too, live in a nice area with a perfect room for a home office. I'm out in the woods and my few wooded acres border on thousands of acres of forest which is owned by the state and will never be built on. A perfect setting.
I'm also 40 miles from where I work. I drive a VW diesel, so at 52mpg, it's not that expensive, but I'm still spending nearly 2 hours a day in the car. I know that I'd have to drive in occasionally, but I still think I could handle as much as 3 days a week at home. Rather than a set amount, I'd be perfectly happy to play it by ear. Work at home when I can, come in when I have to, and see how that would work.
I even went as far as to offer to pay for my own high speed internet and I've already purchased a better computer than the one I have at work. I needed that anyway, so if it doesn't happen, I don't consider that a loss, but still.
As I type this, I'm hearing at least 4 other people talking to customers and it's terribly distracting. Some are talking loud, some are laughing, one's all tensed out... I need those trees.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mschmidt=weathercentral -dot- tv -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mschmidt=weathercentral -dot- tv -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of John Garison
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 8:44 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Cases for telecommuting/working remotely
Interesting thread.
I'm the recent recipient of walking papers from a MegaCorp who
ostensibly has been backing telecommuting for a number of decades. I've
been telecommuting from my home office on 20 acres of pastoral beauty in
idyllic southern Vermont (better than a boat!) for the last year, and
if it hadn't been for issues with acquisitions, project delays, and all
around "stuff" that's totally beyond my control, I would be looking at a
nice future of telecommuting.
However, in the last month or so I've had to hang out my shingle as an
independent freelance software technical writer.
I gotta say that it looks like one of the best things that's ever
happened to me. Granted, it's only been a few weeks, but I've already
established good contacts at virtually all the local software shops
(thanks to Google and a few local professional groups). Nothing has come
of them yet, but they're there and they know I'm here and I've had some
talk with a few folks. I even got the chance to do a presentation for
one of the local software developers' groups and made some good contacts.
But I've also landed a great contract for a software company in the
Boston area. It's over 2 hours away, but so far I've been down there
twice in four weeks. Everything else I've done from home. And get this -
they contacted me.
Since day one, I presented myself as a no-doubt-about-it,
I'm-working-from-home guy. And they were so impressed by my credentials
(!) that they were willing to offer me a gig pretty much sight unseen
and let me work from home. On a project that has no specs. On a project
that I have to access remotely through a VPN. With a developer, QA
person, and product manager who I email, IM, and talk to on the phone as
necessary. On a project with a very tight deadline. And within 2 and a
half weeks, I turned in a darned decent (if I do say so myself) first
draft of a help system that they thought was good enough to send out to
a prospective buyer/user.
I have to put in a plug for LinkedIn here. The product manager found me
by typing in "technical writer" into his LinkedIn account and my name
came up. I then used LinkedIn to find out that I had worked with the VP
of HR there, so that pretty much sealed the deal, and when it turned out
the permanent tech writer they have on staff is an old colleague, well,
the die was cast. If you're not already on LinkedIn.com, get there. NOW.
It's sort of like MySpace for professionals, especially high tech
professionals. Send me your email and I'll send you an invitation to
join my network (especially if you know me and I know you).
It's great for both of us. I get a great gig that pays well, they get
what they want, and it's all working out great. As I told the product
manager - I can do everything from home except go lean over someone's
cubicle wall, and I can call someone there to do that for me if it comes
to it.
So - telecommuting is not just a pipe dream. If you've got some cred, if
you've got the nerve to demand it, you just might get a chance to do it!
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