The Green Office

I just got back from making a deposit in the bank. This gave me the opportunity to look at the mileage on my car. My car turns 9 in a couple of days but only has 39,000 miles on it. That is still a relatively brand-new car. At the time I opted for something practical that could comfortably seat 5. Now I wish I had gotten the Ferrari. With a Ferrari I could probably sell it for about the same price I paid for it.

The reason my car has so few miles is because I don't go anywhere. Most people drive to and from work every day and that has a tendency to rack up the miles. Instead I work from home. I am a third-generation telecommuter. My Grandfather who still practices law works from home. My Dad who runs and advertising agency also works from home. This has me wondering why more people don't work from home.

Right now it is stylish to be "green." What is more green: a guy who owns a Toyota Prius but drives to work 20 miles round trip every day, or a guy who works out of his basement? Even a 5th grader would answer that someone working from home is "greener."

I don't believe offices will ever disappear completely but I do think they need to be updated. When I used to work at Oracle, they would send out surveys to their employees asking how they were being "green." This was an attempt to get people to carpool or utilize mass transit. It also had the effect of getting managers to allow employees to work from home several days a week. If you are not in the office every day, then you don't need a permanent office or a cubicle. Fewer offices save the company a huge amount of money.

With the Internet it is easy to have all your calls forwarded to your home office. With services like Skype, you can even do inexpensive home video conferencing. Technology really has the potential to help makes our lives easier.

One valid criticism of working from home is that there are the potential for more distractions while working from home. This is especially true if you have a family with small children. I used to work in an office and so when I started working at home, I discovered the importance of a door. You know that big flat thing found near the entrance to your study or office. When the door is closed, Daddy is at work. When it is open, Daddy is at home. It takes about 5 minutes to train even the most stubborn child. Amazingly I found that I get more work done at home than I ever did in the office thanks to the use of a door.

Every year I wonder when corporations will figure out that they can save huge amounts of money by not having large offices. Unfortunately I keep waiting.