I am a telecommuter. I work from home full time. I have been doing it for several years at my current job, and I have done it in the past as well. It is the way I work best.

Telecommuting is not for everyone. Friends wonder if I stare at the laundry or think about all of the things around the house that I could be doing. I don’t. We are pretty well organized at home, so I do not feel like I have things staring me in the face, but I also have a fantastic home office. It is my space and I love it.

After going to the local convenience store for coffee, I am in my office between 6 – 8 am. I put my head down and I do my work. I typically take a brief break around 11 to get something to eat. I have a bad habit. I get food and I bring it back to my desk. I then continue to work until I am done. Throughout the day I almost never have any interruptions!

On the rare occasions that I have visited the office, I am dismayed at how little I can get accomplished. There are people making noise, people stopping by to say hello, and I have to walk much further to get to the facilities. In the office, I do one thing right. I take a lunch break. (And, I do like saying hello to people I don’t usually see. I’m not a curmudgeon.)

If I were to take a guess, I would say that I am lucky if I get three hours of work done when I am in the office. In my home office, I can easily accomplish 8 hours a day and often more.

So, when I hear that companies are telling people that they must report to the office, I wonder, why? If I were to go into an office, I would be commuting when I should be on conference calls with engineering teams across the world. I would be distracted by others when I should be heads down and writing. I would be wasting time walking back and forth to use the facilities and it is certain that someone will stop me along the way!

I have been out of the cage for so long. I am happy. I am productive.

Why would anyone want to ruin that?

If you like this article, please share it. Also, you might be interested in this article about WordPress, who closed their office, because working from home is more productive.