From the longest commute to the shortest

March 24, 2009 | By Marc Lefton |

capture90

I was told last week that my company was going to enjoy some substantial cost savings by reducing the amount of office space it pays for. Everyone in the company was really happy with the move because, not that we’re struggling, but anything we can do to be leaner and meaner in this economy, the better.

Of course, as I started thinking about giving up the area where I’ve made my home for the past two years, I started to do some mental math and realized “Hmm, there just doesn’t seem to be a spot for me.” Everyone realizes that as the creative director I need a semi-private space at least some of the time so I can think and maybe not be interrupted by someone who thinks something is more urgent than the urgent thing I’m working on. Other people like our CFO who must have privacy for sensitive issues also needed a few of the precious offices with doors.

So last week I started to realize that I might be asked to work from home, a growing trend in the workforce. I met this with mixed emotions, as has my employer when they approached me about the situation today. As cool as working from home is, (it would also save me a cool 5K a year in transportation costs), I did not look forward to being detached from coworkers and perhaps marginalized.

We as a company have had our difficulties with other employees in a similar situation without going into details. So I can see the apprehension from both sides. My proposal was to make sure that appropriate ground rules were laid out in advance. We had a problem where someone worked from home and did not let us know they were sick on a day they could not be reached. I said we should make sure that a “call in sick” policy should exist for telecommuters too.

I also said that either side could cancel the work from home deal at any time. If it’s not working for me, they’ll find me somewhere to sit in the office. If it’s not working from them, I’ll come back. By laying this out in advance it can be viewed more of as an experiment and less as a right or a permanent solution.

I promised I would try to average one day a week in the office and go no more than two weeks without coming in. This way i can still maintain good working relationships with my coworkers, make sure we’re on the same page on critical projects and more importantly, gives me a reason to go and have some fun in the city.

The positives are great. I’m saving over 4 hours a day that I would have been almost useless. I can work more, work on personal projects, garden, learn something new, and otherwise find infinite uses for this time. I will also be saving considerable money on not eating in the city and going out less often.

Moving to Eastern Long Island certainly improved a lot of quality of life issues that I had with living in the city, but having less time gives me not as much of an opportunity to enjoy it. It looks like if all goes well I will be able to further enjoy the best of both worlds.

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