Telecommuting jobs - where?

[The_Ogre]

Anyone here telecommuting?

I'm tired of my 9 - 5, not to mention the people I work with. I'd like to start a home office.

Where can I start looking? I'm currently a Systems Analyst with 8 years' exprerience

 

[NeonNinja]

And what do you earn?

 

[The_Ogre]

And what do you earn?

Upwards of 20 odd k. Why?

 

[The_Ogre]

No one?

 

[ambo]

I could do most of my work via telecommute but I still find that need to be in the office to work with my team and have meetings. One of our developers telecommutes from the other side of the country. It depends a lots on your daily workload.

I find that its handy to work one or 2 hours from home in the morning and then I miss all the traffic

Maybe chat to your boss and try that as a start. Remember that it requires a very special kind of person to remain motivated and productive in a home office 5 days a week.

 

[capdevilla]

I telecommute. Employer based in US. It has its ups - many actually - no rush hour traffic, lots of flexi-time as I can work whenever suits me just as long asI'm available for meetings (via Skype) when necessary, no stupid colleagues and office politics to deal with. That could also be a down side though because you're isolated. So if you like mixing with people on a daily basis, you might miss that.

Lots of employers are willing to consider a request to work from home a few days a week, so maybe you should ask yours.

 

[The_Ogre]

I telecommute. Employer based in US. It has its ups - many actually - no rush hour traffic, lots of flexi-time as I can work whenever suits me just as long asI'm available for meetings (via Skype) when necessary, no stupid colleagues and office politics to deal with. That could also be a down side though because you're isolated. So if you like mixing with people on a daily basis, you might miss that.

Lots of employers are willing to consider a request to work from home a few days a week, so maybe you should ask yours.

What are you doing, if you don't mind me asking

 

[The_Assimilator]

The major issue with telecommuting in SA is our crappy broadband. In the USA it's easy because everyone has 10+ Mbit lines and can stream video no problems, but I doubt you'll find an SA employer willing to subsidise your Internet costs of R 1,000 a month (assuming you go for 4Mbit which is barely viable).

capdevilla, also interested to know what industry you work in.

 

[Paul_S]

I think the problem with SA isn't really bandwidth - it's old school management styles.
Proper management style : I pay you X to do Y. You don't perform - I don't pay you.
Old school management style : I pay you X to look busy for Y hours.
Until these fossils are laid out to pasture I can't see telecommuting working any time soon.

With regards to bandwidth:
I'd happily take a R2000 pay cut to work from home 4 days a week. Less traveling expenses, less stress, less time wasted in traffic.
What the employer saves on office rental, coffee, milk, toilet paper, electricity (desktops/servers/aircon), etc. they can use on VPN access infrastructure.
There should be no need to subsidise an employee's Internet access because there's actually a cost saving incentive for the employee to work from home.

 

[capdevilla]

What are you doing, if you don't mind me asking

I work in the non-profit sector. Telecommuting is the trend among NGOs nowadays as it offers them the opportunity to have a presence in many countries without actually opening an office there. This includes IT staff as well. The guys in our IT dept are scattered across three cities in the US and London. Only 1 actually works in the NY head office and even he gets to work from home sometimes.

I've noticed a similar trend among SA NGOs too. I know several people who simply asked if they could work from home a few days a week and their employers agreed.

The major issue with telecommuting in SA is our crappy broadband. In the USA it's easy because everyone has 10+ Mbit lines and can stream video no problems, but I doubt you'll find an SA employer willing to subsidise your Internet costs of R 1,000 a month (assuming you go for 4Mbit which is barely viable).

capdevilla, also interested to know what industry you work in.

That could well be an issue, but that's mainly because SA employers are not quite seeing the huge benefit telecommuting offers them. What they 'lose' by paying for good internet access, they gain in reduced running costs and more productive staff.