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Carolann Kohler drives 7 miles - a week.
Kohler, 50, lives in Westchase and works at home. She occasionally rides her bike to a grocery store for lunch to get out of the house. She walks. She keeps a TV on in the background "so I know what time it is." If she has to go to the airport, her husband drives.
"I just hate getting into a car," Kohler said. "It's a very bizarre lifestyle."
A handful of happy teleworkers sent notes after my June story on the topic, lauding the joys of working from home sweet home. Kohler, who works in sales for what she described as a global computer company, says she saves money on clothes, gas, car insurance, lunch and even briefcases, which suffer little wear and tear.
And, Kohler says, her work is better than ever. She is, without question, devoted to telework.
"You must be extremely disciplined and have enough respect for yourself and your work to have it nonimpacted by ultra-relaxed dress codes, informal work space, taunts by the refrigerator and daily chores don't fold towels during the work day and daily household noises (TV, music, neighbors)," Kohler said.
Not all jobs are suited for telework, experts say, nor are all people. I fall in to the second category, as I discovered when I spent a couple of weeks working from home because of a health problem. Kohler's advice came too late for me. So here, with variations from day to day, is how it went for me:
The house was quiet. Too quiet. Perhaps some Motown would help. The music perked things up, plus I could play it a bit louder than usual since I was usually home alone.
I dress casually anyway, a benefit of covering tech, so no adjustment was necessary. I didn't miss the 11-mile drive to the office in Clearwater, and I'm used to dealing with co-workers in St. Petersburg through the company's electronic messaging system.
In my home office in the back of the house, I logged on to the company network. The Times' system is light years ahead of previous methods for distance work, which used slow dialup connections. The new system isn't perfect, but it gave me access to most of the key things I needed. One thing my home PC could use is more random access memory, since I had multiple windows open.
My workday started earlier because I had no drive, and at the end of the day there was no 25 minutes or more in the car before I got home. That was a joy. But, then, working at home presented some issues I don't normally confront in the office.
- Interruptions: One day, as I was deep in my work mode, the doorbell rang. No, I don't want the roof pressure-washed. I found it harder to return to the office immediately after these interruptions. I wandered the house, looked out the windows, avoided the refrigerator. Discipline, Dave, discipline.
- Phone home: A headset from the office didn't work with any of our home phones. My son let me try a headset for the cell phone, but, based on test calls, it sounded muffled both ways. Because the injury made it difficult for me to hold a handset and write, interviews were almost impossible to conduct. I managed a few, but they were painful. I may have solved the problem with new home phones that are headset-friendly.
The phone rang at inconvenient moments, similar to the office. Instead of ignoring it and letting it go to the recorder, I answered. Usually, that was a mistake. Sorry, we don't do surveys. Perhaps it was a subconscious thing about talking to someone. After 30-something years in a newsroom, I missed the interaction with co-workers. E-mail and electronic messages go only so far.
- Comforts of home: My workstation in Clearwater is fine. But the arm of the chair doesn't support my arm well. With my condition, that made sitting at the computer for long periods impossible. At home, the chair and keyboard tray match up better, letting me stay at the computer for longer stretches.
- Getting warmer: The Clear-water office tends to be cool, winter or summer. As the first afternoon at home wore on, the house became stuffy. Oops. I forgot to adjust the temperature that's automatically set for the air-conditioning while we're gone during the day. So I saved on gas, but Progress Energy would take care of that energy benefit.
- You've got mail: Snail mail piled up at the office, but most of it was junk. Yet, in a strange way, I missed opening it. Is that sick or what?
- The boss: The big question for telework, based on interviews for the June story, was bosses who prefer employees to be in the office where they can be seen working. That wasn't an issue, since my boss is in St. Petersburg and I'm usually in Clearwater. He probably didn't even know I was not in the office.
Now, that could be a problem.
Dave Gussow can be reached at dgussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4165. His blog is at www.sptimes.com/blogs/tech