Pros and Cons of Telecommuting

Pros and Cons of Telecommuting

Drew Montag

9 April 2015

So, I telecommuted (teleworked) yesterday, and here are my reactions.

Pros:

1.       Shorter commute.
2.       More comfortable dress code.
3.       Full service kitchen.
4.       Better bathroom facilities.
5.       Better lighting.
6.       More comfortable reading areas, using my work iPad.
7.       Less audio and visual distractions = MUCH better for “heads down” work.
8.       I didn’t disturb/infect anyone with my coughing and sneezing.
9.       Can listen to music without headphones.

Cons:

1.       No accidental collaboration.
2.       Can’t just walk around to find people in person.
3.       Temptations of a full service kitchen.
4.       Missing about 10 URLs in various tabs/browsers.
5.       Missing about 5 aliases in PuTTY windows.
6.       Only one screen at home.
7.       Work MacBook Pro is bigger/faster than my home Windows 7 box.
8.       I prefer the Mac version of Outlook to the Windows version.
9.       Better printing facilities at work.

Note that some of the Cons (4, 5, 7, and 8) could be fixed if I brought my MacBook Pro home with me.