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I have the luxury of working from home and it definitely has its perks. Here’s some of my favorite aspects:

1. Pants not required. Your pets don’t really care whether or not you maintain a professional appearance. One of my favorite things about working from home is slipping on a pair of shorts and sandals every morning and shunning my belt. Elastic waistband pants? Bring ‘em on! After I began working from home, I achieved a 37-day streak of not wearing pants, but a stupid business trip ruined my record. If you enjoy working pants-free like me, just be wary of web cams and an increasing level of comfort at Wal-Mart.
2. You can bring your pets to work. I remember interviewing at a local ad agency several years ago and seeing dogs scurrying around everywhere. How great! You don’t have to worry about your pets being lonely during the day and they are there to help relieve your stress after a bad conference call. Every afternoon, Ollie cries at the foot of my chair until I put a quilt in my lap. Then, he jumps up and immediately starts to purr and knead. You just have to keep your eye on them and make sure they don’t walk across your keyboard and send an IM to your VP reading “kkkkkkotttttttttttnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiii.”
3. Saving your lunch money. My last job was in downtown Dallas and it was part of the work culture to go out and have a sit-down lunch every day. I loved discovering new restaurants and getting out of the office for an hour or hour and a half every day. However, it got quite expensive. It was difficult to keep my daily average under $10-$15 for lunch. Lunch wasn’t as big of a part of the company culture at Ciena, due in part to the lack of restaurant choices in Linthicum, MD. However, I still rarely brought my lunch and would hit Chipotle or the “gasateria” every day, easily spending $5-$10. Sure, I still run and pick something up once or twice a week now. But usually, I scrounge around the kitchen to see what I can find. Cost of groceries aside, I’m easily saving $75 a month.
4. No need to take PTO to wait for repairmen or deliveries. I always hated burning a precious day of paid-time-off to sit around the house and wait for a plumber or an appliance delivery man to show up. That 12-hour arrival window isn’t quite as frustrating when all you have to do is get up from your desk and let them in when you hear the doorbell.
5. Very short commute. On a bad day, my commute takes me about 30 seconds to get from our bedroom to my office. Sure, I occasionally get slowed down to feed the cats or pet The Poop Machine, but at least I’m not staring at tail lights for an hour every morning. When we lived in McKinney and worked in downtown, I was putting in more than one workday per week behind the wheel. That completely wasted time can now be spent going to the gym, sleeping a little later or simply unwinding with the family. Plus, I only fill up my tank about once every three weeks. With gas flirting with $4/gallon, the savings add up.

As noted by a friend on Twitter, the ability to telecommute will likely become a major component of the total compensation companies can offer during the recruiting process. Talk to your boss about it. Depending on your job, you might be able to do it yourself, even if only one or two days a week.

Tags: telecommuting, top 5, working from home