You can, but it doesn’t feel (to me) the same as the person sitting opposite you commenting on something they’ve just seen which randomly sparks a story idea. Then again, I tend to have IM and Skype turned off unless I need them for a specific conversation as they’re so distracting.

Don’t get me wrong, mind, I love working from home and can’t see myself ever going back to a full time office-based job.

Another interesting/somewhat related article as random link-bait here: http://tinyurl.com/db6r7q

Maybe. What happens if you have IM and Skype switched off most of the time because they are too distracting? They’re not drop in replacements for random conversations with the guy opposite you which generates a feature idea or throws up an unexpected story idea.

You may be right about the child care issue. Although, with two parents, it can be split up a bit. You can do some work while you are working from home, while your wife is at work, and then do more work once she comes home. I also know some people who have childcare a few days a week so that they can get a lot of work done those days.

I never work straight through my day. I do some work, then do some person stuff, then some more work, etc.

I’m not suggesting that you would be able to work full throttle while your kids are home, but you can get some work done. A lot of this angle is all predicated on having a spouse and maybe even grandparents around.

Still, I think it’s a better situation than having to show up to the office five days a week.

I disagree that you can’t have good collaboration while telecommuting. That’s what IM and Skype are for. You can have plenty of impromptu chat and brain storming sessions.

The childcare angle is overplayed considerably – I freelance for several newsdesks working from home, and have a two and a half year old daughter. She doesn’t go to nursery on a Tuesday, but my wife works full time. The plan was that I’d be able to look after her one day a week and work.

I now treat Tuesdays as my weekend off…

Other than that, though, it’s a good idea. The biggest problem I find is that there are benefits to having a newsteam working together – it’s amazing how many leads, angles and feature ideas are generated just as part of day to day office conversations which, with the best will in the world, can’t be replicated through collaboration tools.

Dig the overall theme, though.

But one disagreement. I hear from a lot of people who telecommute that childcare is still an issue, namely that a child young enough to not be in school has attention requirements that don’t always jibe with trying to concentrate. Perhaps it means working differently. I’m not a parent, so I don’t know, but I’m fairly certain managing supervision for children is something that goes away.

Great article! Thanks for sharing how telework helps your creative workflow too. Knowledge work never seems to have a clock-in clock-out, and telework certainly accomodates that.

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