Telecommuting
I posted this in 2019 – who knew it would become so relevant in 2021?
“If you can put a man on the moon how come you can’t do something about traffic?” a regional manager said in 1970.
Jack Niles, a NASA rocket scientist’s solution was telecommuting, a term he is credited with coining in 1973.
Except for in-office, in-home Trainings and classes I teach, I work from home – and have for most of my life. Do I sometimes (often) go for a run, a bike ride or dip in the ocean in the afternoon? Yes, but I make up the hours after the sun sets. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
If you get a job at Automattic (WordPress creators), you don’t have to worry about moving. Hell, you don’t even have to get out of bed.
The company, is completely distributed, meaning its 230 employees work from home. Or they can work from home. Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, notes that the company has a physical headquarters in San Francisco. “Well, you’ve got to have somewhere TO get mail,” he explains. While a handful of employees work in the San Francisco office, the rest are flung across 170 cities. “It allows you to get the best and brightest people in the world,” Mullenweg says. Automattic gives its employees a monthly stipend of $250 to get a co-working space if their home office situation isn’t great. As an Automattic employee, you also get up to $3,000 to set up your home office.
by Todd Wasserman
