I keep wondering when telecommuting is finally going to take off, and Work & Family offers some suggestions for making it happen:
Those obstacles aside, the Internet can jump-start any flexible-work plan. AJ Marston, a grant writer in Southern California, says, “I started out completely clueless” about how to morph from a full-time office job to the part-time telecommuting lifestyle she wanted. She found www.workingfromanywhere.org, a site run by the International Telework Association & Council, a telecom industry research and advocacy group. By clicking on “Resources-ITAC Resources,” she found statistics and workshop presentations in support of telework — a catch-all term for working from anywhere, including home. Under “Resources-Career,” she found links to other useful sites. All were helpful as she proposed and successfully negotiated for the change she wanted. “The Internet is an invaluable tool,” Ms. Marston says.The best all-around Web site is www.workoptions.com, by flexibility coach Pat Katepoo of Kaneohe, Hawaii. Ms. Katepoo covers the bases for employees on four options — part-time hours, a compressed workweek, job-sharing and telecommuting. The site lays out some excellent homework for wannabes, with checklists of things to do before approaching the boss. This includes boning up on workplace policies and precedents, such as finding out whether others have been granted schedule changes and how they worked out.