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April 26, 2006

Gas Prices

I have been listening to and reading about all the bitches people have about the price of gasoline. President Bush wants to give tax breaks to people who buy hybrid cars. That's nice, but I think it a tax break to employers for encouraging employees to telecommute would be a much more effective tool for decreasing the use of oil.

Of course, the rotten managers of the world would flip out over this possibility because they tend to be control freaks. I had one manager at Sprint who would call me or page me every 30 minutes on the rare occassions I worked at home - he wanted to make sure I was there - and he would send me emails to make sure I was on line. He was a major reason I left Sprint!

I am much more productive when I work from home. I don't have the distractions that I have at work. I did have to provide my own broadband connection, printer/copier/fax machine and phone - my company no longer provides those things to telecommuters, and I had to sign an agreement with them that I did not expect reimbursement for materials, etc. So I drive down to the office from time to time and get the notebooks, pens, pencils and paper I need.

The sad thing about the company I work for is that it has nearly stopped supporting telecommuting - there have been some changes to the HR department, and the current VP of HR is a bit of a control freak. We used to have hundreds of people telecommuting - now we have fewer and fewer because management doesn't trust us like they should.

If there was a tax incentive to telecommute, I believe that the company I work for, as well as many others, would take advantage of that tax break and in doing so can be good corporate citizens by reducing pollution, traffic, road rage, and gasoline usage.

Posted by Beth at April 26, 2006 5:36 AM