Telecommuting in IT.

Vancity.rigel

I am just curious how many of you telecommute either full time or part time?

I am most interested in Networking IT jobs but a general consensus would be good as well.

mikedisd2

Is it possible for a sys admin to telecommute? I would love to spend some days working from home, although mgt might not agree. If a (another) disaster occurred with the servers, UPS, blade centre, etc I'd be screwed.
I once had HR tell me that they provided an office so they want the employees to use it. Huh? Some companies can still be quite old fashioned.

dynamik

I work for a managed services company, and the only time I have to go to a client site is if something is physically down. I can take care of anything else remotely. They only want me at the office to offer guidance to lower-level employees; I could do everything else from home.

shodown

yeah I work from home all the time. At least once a week. Its great being able to do everything from home.

sdyess

I work completely from home. The main office is in Michigan and I am in Dallas, Tx. It has it good side and it's bad side.

UnixGeek

I work from home, and only head out to customer sites a couple times a month on average. Most of my customers are over an hour's drive away, so that's a big part of the reason. Most of my work can be done via SSH, RDP or telnet.

CompuTron99

sdyess wrote: »

I work completely from home. The main office is in Michigan and I am in Dallas, Tx. It has it good side and it's bad side.

The Good Side: No long commute to MI from TX
The Bad Side: No Water-Cooler Gossip

sdyess

Oh, we can IM for the water cooler gossip. I am with you on the commute to MI. LOL, it would be too long.

rsutton

My full time job is always on site (Network Admin) I also do part time consulting (net admin also) which is %99 remote.

Paul Boz

For a while I thought it could be cool to commute but I just can't get the same amount of work done at home that I can in an office. It helps that I work in a very laid back environment and spend at least two weeks a month on the road visiting clients. I actually find myself looking forward to getting back in the office.

shednik

I usually can whenever I need to...ie sick, no babysitter, dr appts, etc...

msteinhilber

I used to twice a week, but I've since just started coming in every day. Working from home for me provides too many distractions and we have fun at the office anyways so I prefer being in the office rather than working from home.

Turgon

Vancity.rigel wrote: »

I am just curious how many of you telecommute either full time or part time?

I am most interested in Networking IT jobs but a general consensus would be good as well.

My previous gig was set up for homeworking with everything provided by the company. I don't think my last boss was keen on homeworkers although the previous ones were fine about it. In my present gig I commute.

Generally in the UK it is very difficult to get homeworking arrangements, a situation I find rather backwards quiet frankly. There are problems with homeworking, it doesn't suit some people and some people take advantage but the overall benefits far outweigh the disadvantages which let's face it are a problem for management to deal with. When I commute I see all these cars choking the roads. Im sure we could get that down by upto 20% if more companies lightened up on homeworkers. Better carbon footprint too. But UK companies just want you in that office. Perhaps it's a control thing. I got lots of useful stuff done for my employer when I worked from home. You got problems at 5pm to solve? Call me, Im here and can get on a call immediately until it's fixed, unlike other folks stuck in a jam or dashing to catch a train.

The government could do much more to encourage it, but they love roads and more cars on roads. A lot of people blowing money on petrol each day just to get to work. Lots of tax revenue.

stlsmoore

At my new Networking gig pretty much everybody can choose if they want to work at home or not.

Neeko

Turgon wrote: »

My previous gig was set up for homeworking with everything provided by the company. I don't think my last boss was keen on homeworkers although the previous ones were fine about it. In my present gig I commute.

Generally in the UK it is very difficult to get homeworking arrangements, a situation I find rather backwards quiet frankly. There are problems with homeworking, it doesn't suit some people and some people take advantage but the overall benefits far outweigh the disadvantages which let's face it are a problem for management to deal with. When I commute I see all these cars choking the roads. Im sure we could get that down by upto 20% if more companies lightened up on homeworkers. Better carbon footprint too. But UK companies just want you in that office. Perhaps it's a control thing. I got lots of useful stuff done for my employer when I worked from home. You got problems at 5pm to solve? Call me, Im here and can get on a call immediately until it's fixed, unlike other folks stuck in a jam or dashing to catch a train.

The government could do much more to encourage it, but they love roads and more cars on roads. A lot of people blowing money on petrol each day just to get to work. Lots of tax revenue.

It's understandable why some managers are reluctant to encourage it. There are enough people who sit on facebook all day in the office, I doubt they'd bother to even get up if they worked from home. These are the idiots who force management to get militant about web access and no doubt homeworking.

The company I work for provides telecommuting solutions and the general trend is the higher level workers get to work from home. People with more responsibility etc aren't likely to sit twiddling their thumbs all day. Certainly an argument for tech guys to be able to do it but I think sometimes others will ruin it for everyone.

Turgon

Neeko wrote: »

It's understandable why some managers are reluctant to encourage it. There are enough people who sit on facebook all day in the office, I doubt they'd bother to even get up if they worked from home. These are the idiots who force management to get militant about web access and no doubt homeworking.

The company I work for provides telecommuting solutions and the general trend is the higher level workers get to work from home. People with more responsibility etc aren't likely to sit twiddling their thumbs all day. Certainly an argument for tech guys to be able to do it but I think sometimes others will ruin it for everyone.

I agree it is understandable, but sorting out those problems really is just another task for management. Hiring responsibly, treating people like adults and providing education to employees on effective use of homeworking will all help assuage those issues. The benefits far outweigh the problems caused by a few people. It's 2009, homeworking should be encouraged where it is practical and in many situations it is.

undomiel

Currently working from home on my new gig, which is quite the novel concept to me. If I'm not on site with a customer then I work from home, except for when huddle-ups in the office are required. I think consultant type positions really lend themselves to this type of work.

rsutton

Not driving to work every day is good for the environment too. I understand the arguments for why people would not be allowed - time wasting etc. However this problem falls on the management in my opinion. If you can't trust your employees to do the job without wasting too much time online, you are not hiring the right people (not always forseeable).

Sepiraph

I have the ability to work from home but choose not to, I rather come in the office since my drive is not that long. I found that when some (if not most) of my colleagues work from home, they hardly work! At least in the office they'd have to put up a face of working.