Brent Toderash writes about the temptation to lie or misrepresent yourself to your customers/clients when working from home. Because of the fear of being looked down upon because of one’s workplace (ie: home), people will refer to their one-person operations as “we” instead of “I”, will not be up front with people that they are not working in a “real” office, and will even go so far as to play a soundtrack in the background playing fake office sounds so as to give the person on the other line the impression that they are working in a “real” office.

I agree with Brent on this one - lying to one’s customers, coworkers or clients is never acceptable. However, I would qualify that as long as working from a home office does not affect your work in a negative way, there is no reason to bring this up with someone right away. As long as it will not be a distraction (ie: no crying babies in the background), treat your home office as if it were a “real” office. There is no need for misrepresentation or fake soundtracks - and there is also no need to be openly defensive about your choice of workplace. Act professionally towards those with whom you work and treat your workplace as you would any other - no one can ask any more from you.

Ann All of IT Business Edge recently reported on how small and medium size businesses (SMB’s) are less likely to have employees telecommute than are larger companies. According to a recent survey by Citrix Online, 40 percent of SMB’s allow employees to work from home, compared to 76% of larger companies. It seems that the main barrier in the way to doing this is technological: while employing remote workers can lead to higher productivity and job satisfaction, it also requires the expenditure of initial investment in the proper technology to support these workers. Without being able to fully and securely integrate into the office remotely, telecommuting is often not worthwhile. Correspondingly, according to the survey cited above, 43% of SMB’s have the technology framework in place to support remote workers, compared with 76% of larger businesses.  As the different technologies needed for telework become cheaper and easier to implement, the percentage of small businesses supporting telecommuting should rise.

In the meantime, if you work for a small or medium-size business and want to pursue telecommuting, consider the following options:

• Build up the trust - Small businesses that are not used to employees working from outside of the office will tend to be more reluctant to let you out of their sphere of influence than would be a larger corporation that has internal policy and technology built to do just that. Although the company can theoretically gain in productivity from employees working where they are most comfortable, they also risk more by giving up on direct oversight. To overcome this, give them good reason to be able to trust you in the scenario where you would be working from outside of the office. Only with this trust in place will they feel more comfortable investing in the technology needed to make it work.
• Do your own research - Though a small business may be more open to change and innovation than a corporate behemoth that has dozens of people employed to set corporate policies, and thus a small business may be the ideal candidate to make the move towards supporting telecommuting, small businesses are also less likely to have extra man hours available to set up and support telecommuting policy and technology. If you feel that it is appropriate, take the initiative yourself. Research the pros and cons of telecommuting for your company and for your position. Look into the different technology requirements (you would be surprised how many free or relatively inexpensive solutions are out there that can help make the technology work for you). Present your findings to your managers. This saves them the work, shows them that it may be a very worthwhile proposition for them financially, and is an indicator that you are taking it seriously.
• Start Small - There is no need to go all-in from the start. Suggest that you start telecommuting one day a week. Keep a log of how your work is going, how it affects your productivity, commute and overall job satisfaction. One day every week or two is much more palatable as it does not require that every last piece of technology be in place and allows management to see first-hand how it is affecting you.

USA Today reports on how more companies in the US are trying to help employees with transportation costs, or through other methods (ie: more telecommuting) in response to higher gas prices:

Employers are taking action as average national gas prices persist above $3 a gallon. Nearly 90% of employees drive to work, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Thirteen percent of companies offer transit subsidies, and 7% subsidize carpooling, according to a 2006 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Twenty-six percent allow telecommuting on a part-time basis.

The article also details workplace initiatives like providing a shared vehicle for limited employee use, flexible work schedules to help employees avoid peak rush-hour traffic and reimbursements for employees who carpool. Look to see these types of commute-friendly policy changes become more standard as commutes get longer and gas gets more expensive. Read More…

Jill Hart writes about five different ways to find a telecommuting job: newspapers, online (Job sites, Craigslist, watch out for scams - remember, you should never have to pay someone to get a job), post your resume online, cold-call local businesses, start a work-at-home business

Personally, I do not see much of a difference between lists like this, and guides on how to get any type of job. Although you may have luck searching for, finding and getting a telecommuting job, I think that your chances would be much better if by searching for a job that you like. While evaluating companies, be sure to think about whether this is the type of company that might allow or encourage telecommuting (ie: in technology, other employees telecommuting, seem to be following recent technology trends) or not (still using mainframe computers, old-fashioned). When interviewing, ask whether they are open to telecommuting, and make it clear that this is something that you would be interested in. However, be sure that you like the job and the company. If you go for a job where the only redeeming quality is working from home, and you don’t actually like the work, then you will probably not find telecommuting to be as good as you thought, and you will probably be looking for a new job sooner rather than later.

Stephanie writes about her top 9 reasons for working at home:

1. Save on Gas
2. No Commute
3. More Flexible Schedule (watch out that this doesn’t become a crutch for you - you still have to be disciplined about your work schedule and habits in order to be successful)
4. No Boss Staring Down Your Shoulder (as Stephanie notes, this is only a good thing if you can be productive without the presence of your boss)
5. More Family Time
6. Simpler Wardrobe (I think that this depends on what industry you are in and what you would have worn had you gone into the office. Personally, I wear the same thing at home as I would in the office, and I think that it is important not to work in your pajamas, in order to get into the right mindset)
7. The ability to follow your dreams (if you are running a business from home…though if you are, then I guess you aren’t really telecommuting, are you?)
8. Save on Lunch (if you would eat out often at work and don’t order take out at home, this can be a big hidden savings)
9. Flexibility on office setup (this can also be a negative, as the office might have someone in charge of making sure that office supplies are stocked, light bulbs are in, etc - at home it’s all up to you)

InsideRecuiting has published an article giving lots of insight into how companies are relating to telecommuting:

Workers are affected negatively by long commutes

• New survey by the Urban Land Institute: 69% of the larger companies (those with 100-plus employees) believe a long commute time increases employee stress, but 55% reported a lack of affordable housing near their location
• 76% of workers between 18 and 34 would be at least somewhat likely to make a lateral employment move in exchange for a shorter commute (Harris Interactive)

Telecommuting trends

• 45% of the larger companies offer flextime to reduce commuting time, but just 21% offer telecommuting
• 29% of companies say they plan to use a telecommuting program and will allow workers to telecommute every day, and 16% will allow workers to telecommute one or two days a week. Another 17% said they would consider it, if enough employees requested the option (EE)
• Korn/Ferry survey of 1,320 executives indicated that 61% believe telecommuters are less likely to be promoted, compared to their on-site colleagues. Still, 48% said they would consider a telecommuting arrangement

Impact on Environment, Finance

• IBM (25% of 300,000 workers telecommute) estimates that they save $700 million annually because of telecommuting
• Cisco has cut travel by 20% a year due to videoconferencing (two million miles of travel saved, CO₂ emissions lowered by approximately 10%)
• Sun has flexible policies regarding telework, offers local “drop-in centers” which save employees 90 minutes of commuting time ($63 million and 29,000 tons of CO₂ emissions saved annually)

Read more: Honk If Your Company Loves Telecommuting