Tele what?

Working in pajamas with a cup of tea, while watching morning TV, not worrying about office politics, what tie to wear, the morning commute and standing in the rain waiting for the bus. Not being concerned about when the IKEA delivery man arrives, always being there when your kids come home and folding underpants while on a conference call. It's that nether world of working from home, it's that perceptually challenging opinion from your office work mates thinking you are slacking off at the beach and it's the fastest growing segment of today's workforce. A work force segment gaining popularity with service industries, call centres and companies not wanting to lose intelligence and competence built up over many years.

Working from home or telecommuting as the consultants call it, comes with pros and cons, some of which centre around perception and motivation required to work in a fully unsupervised environment, with what many consider more distractions than the office water cooler. In Australia, telecommuting employees not coming into the office, are closing in on 10% of the available workforce. Of course home is not the only environment to replace the office, cars, cafes and planes have all taken their toll on the missing faces in the lunch room.

Surveys taken, indicate people would sacrifice things such as daily showers, social media, chocolate, salary increase, holidays and even their spouse to be able to work from a home environment and avoid the daily commute. Who knew divorce was about avoiding the office and a comfortable couch to do your monthly reports? Any way you look at it, telecommuting has become an emotional subject for HR and the ones left behind to suffer the unnerving stare of the boss.

As desirable as the home office has become there are tangible issues impacting employees wanting to cut that office umbilical. The first being, you still have to work and accomplish objectives and results and as such are as responsible as if you were office bound. The boss may not see you but it will become patently obvious if you produce no work because Ellen had a three hour special on Justin Timberlake and you missed your deadlines. Work also has a habit of invading more of your time if the office is just down the hall because the ease of looking at the emails while the spaghetti is cooking will quickly become an unbreakable habit.

While you may avoid the boss and the office politics that drove you home, it has been shown career advancement is precarious unless you have adequate relationships with your superiors on a day to day basis. Also important relationships with co workers and clients are harder to build and nurture from your back room. So while you can communicate effectively via all the technology available today, it is still inappropriate to take your meetings with clients over the kitchen table, unless you are the local Avon Lady. Aside from your jealous office bound co workers, you will find confusion amongst your friends who see your car at home and want to drop by for a coffee or a chat on the phone. Will they consider you rude when you don't take the calls or put the do not disturb sign on the front door? After all, what can a little coffee hurt?

So if you can navigate the above and are a highly motivated, self disciplined individual willing to sacrifice formal office engagement, telecommuting could be for you. There are always compromises with such a set up, I don't think chocolate needs to be one of them but if fluffy slippers suit your work outlook, then it's time to ask the boss for that home broad band connection.