OT somewhat: Do you telecommute? What do you wish the boss understood about it?

[estherschindler]

Oh! what a lovely response -- and I agree with almost all of it.

I just handed in the article, and hadn't seen your message, but you'll
be glad to know that I ended up with a whole sidebar about the costs
that a telecommuter may bear. That didn't include the travel and hotel
outlay, though it might have, since I just spent $400 on plane tickets
to Boston for next month, and I won't  be reimbursed for them until
after the trip. (The devil's advocate piece of that, however, is that
I don't pay for gas to commute to-and-from the office, either, which
never is reimbursed. One side effect of telecommuting is that I have
to put fuel in the car only once a month.)

Anyway, my sidebar focused on the more direct questions of "what does
the company cover?" Many of them don't have right or wrong answers,
but there ought to be a policy in place before either the telecommuter
or the accounting department have a fit. (If a telecommuter wears out
her office chair, who pays for it? The usual answer is "the
telecommuter" but is that really fair? If I had a cube in the office,
they'd get me a chair. Maybe a junky one, but there would be a
facilities budget to cover it.)

I think you can tell that I liked what you wrote. I'll be sure to let
you know when the article is published.

Esther