In praise of telecommuting

Within the last couple of months my employer decided to try Alternative Work Schedule/Telecommuting again. They had experimented with Alternative Work Schedules about 10 years ago when the rest of the Federal government tried it, too, but the experiment was cut short with no explanation...possibly it was because the unions representing our blue collar employees felt it unfair that their members weren't able to take part. Now there's a movement government-wide to encourage people to spend fewer days at work (either working 9 days of longer hours so one can have a 10th day off every two weeks or working from home one day every week) ostensibly for environmental reasons.



Whatever the justification, i love it! My carpool buddy and i both elected to telecommute every Friday. That means that i can wake up two hours later than usual, have a leisurely breakfast, and wander into the home office by 8 a.m. It's a 55-mile drive to work, which this week has been taking 1.5 to 2 hours every morning and at least 1.5 hours every evening. Traffic on Friday evenings is usually horrendous. But now...on Friday i can work a full day, then stop working...and i'm home! When gas was close to $4 a gallon it was costing me over $16 a day just in gasoline to go to work. And that doesn't factor in the wear and tear on Trucklette or myself.



Here's another perk of telecommuting...a purr symphony while i'm typing!