It's just not that difficult!

Tweet

I'm not that different from millions of other knowledge workers around the world: I sit at my desk every day and send out emails, make phone calls, create and edit documents (proposals, reports, etc.), and so forth. It sounds kind of boring, but I really like my job. The trouble is, I'm one of the 76 percent of all Americans who drive—alone—an average of 25 minutes to the office. And when I get there, I spend my day doing stuff I really could do from home. Like the headline shouted from a recent article in USA Today, "Want to save the planet? Stay home!"

Well last week, I had my chance. You see, we're remodeling our house. We're adding on a couple of rooms and decided that, while we were at it, we should completely redo the kitchen as well. (Whose idea was that!?! Don't get me started…) Any way, my wife was out of town and the guys were scheduled to install the countertops. Naturally, they're not going to come on an evening or a weekend, so I had to figure out a way to be home on a Wednesday afternoon. Well, I explained my predicament to my boss, asked if I could work from home the next day, and he said, "Um, well, that might be okay, I guess, but what about…"

As you can see, my boss needed a little convincing. He needed to feel confident that I could still take business calls, receive and send emails, access documents on the corporate network; in short, be as productive as I would be if I were actually in the office. But after some discussion he said, "Sure."

And you know what? It worked out great! Not just for the guys installing the countertop, but for my work day as well. In fact, I think that day was more productive for me than many at the office. I had all of the tools I needed and it was easier to concentrate on the really important tasks at hand.

With today's technology, why are bosses so reluctant to allow employees to work from home?

I the next blog I'll talk about the tools I needed in order to make this work.