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How would you like to skip the commute a day or two a week?

A foghorn announces the ferry's arrival at Vashon Island's north pier after a 25-minute passage across Puget Sound. Vicky Oxley, who has left her city car behind at the pier in Seattle, folds up the laptop that has stolen her attention from the majestic view and braves the crush of commuters scurrying down the ramp. A bus takes her to her island car for the remainder of the 30-minute drive to her home on a bluff on the island's eastern edge. Elapsed time from AT&T Wireless's headquarters, where she is vice-president and general manager of the Washington Cluster Cellular Division: one hour, 20 minutes. It's been a good day, with no rain to snarl traffic. But tomorrow will be even better: It's Oxley's weekly telecommuting day.

Oxley's 12-hour workday will start the same as every other, with a 5:20 A.M. workout. But from there it's a welcome departure. Forget the ferry's Starbucks coffee; she's got a supply of Tazo tea. Forget the ferry's grimy-windowed view; her living-room vista is better, and her home office looks out on delicate purple flowers and an occasional deer. And forget workplace interruptions (well, most of them). Interruptions at home are confined for the most part to her black Lab.

"I don't want to say I'm more productive here," Oxley says of her serenely quiet home office, "but if I need to catch up on e-mail or report writing, this is the ideal way to do it."

Oxley would telecommute more often if her job did not require as much in-office time. That, and she might get in the way of her husband, Phil (AT&T Wireless's director of radio engineering), on one of his telecommuting days.

Not Just for techies

The Oxleys are proof that telecommuting isn't just for techies. They aren't programmers or software designers--the types of jobs usually associated with telecommuting (and still a major force in its expansion). But they do write reports, create spreadsheets and respond to endless streams of e-mail--all tasks that require only a quiet office, a computer and a phone line. They don't need a lot of expensive, high-tech equipment to make telecommuting work. And for them telecommuting isn't an all-or-nothing deal: They work at home a day or two a week, so there's plenty of time in the office to attend meetings, deal face to face with co-workers and collaborate on projects. And on the days they do telecommute--this is key--they concentrate on tasks that are best suited to working alone.

For the Oxleys and others like them--such as accountants, consultants, marketing professionals and other information-age workers--part-time telecommuting simply makes sense. And their employers are allowing them (encouraging them, even) to try it. Already, about 11 million workers telecommute regularly, and that number is on the upswing.

"People in organizations are demanding it," says George Piskurich, a designer of instructional programs and author of An Organizational Guide to Telecommuting (ASTD Press, $25.95; 800-628-2783). "And companies are recognizing that it costs them practically nothing and there are such a huge number of benefits."

Merrill Lynch started to examine the concept for one of its New York divisions about nine years ago, when federal legislation forced some large employers to reduce the number of cars their employees drove during commuting hours. Environmental concerns have also accelerated the trend in Seattle. But you can't ignore the drive of the bottom line.

"We were adding space every three to six months, and I finally said, `Time out! This is expensive!'" says Barbara Iafrate, facilities manager at ConneXt, a three-year-old software-development firm that claims four floors' worth of magnificent views in Seattle's Rainier Tower. Rather than continue to gobble up square feet, Iafrate worked to develop a telecommuting program, then transformed one floor into space for telecommuters to use on the days they come into the office. About 135 people are assigned to that floor, versus as many as 90 full-timers packed onto each of the others. The company saves more than $500,000 a year by not leasing another floor.

Can I work at home on Fridays?

How can you persuade your boss that telecommuting makes sense for you and your company? "Go in with a proposal, not a request," suggests Gil Gordon of Monmouth Junction, N.J., a telecommuting consultant since 1982. "Don't say, `I want to,' but `I want to, and here's how it's going to work.'" Your goal is to convince management that telecommuting will benefit everyone. "It's very clear why employees want tO telecommute, but they should make it equally clear how their manager's life will get better."

The key benefit for employees is flexibility. "It enables people to do the work when the work needs to be done, and lets us take care of our life business as we go along," says Scott Decker, a trainer at Washington State University's Energy Program who specializes in helping companies develop telecommuting programs.

# posted by Medical Information : 4:11 AM