But you can't, I very rarely get to take any time off and even when I do someone always has some crisis, I remember being sat on a beach once trying to sort out someone's account system using a local hotel's WiFi that I had managed to get into.

And then you have people in different time zones after you, etc.

You don't have to be outside civilization to have crappy internet service, plenty of people especially in Europe using DSL over dodgy copper cable, or they have 3G data cards with crappy reception. Or sat in a hotel/airport with crappy wifi.

That is really the big impediment to telecommuting, I think sat in a city with good fibreoptic connections makes you forget how crap it is in some parts of the world.

Which is why I'm so skeptical of cloud-based internet services, because I think Microsoft, Google etc. forget how crappy some internet connections are. They were really taken aback by Verizon etc. ending their unlimited data plans, because they just couldn't cope with the traffic.

I find that rarely happens for those who have a personal connection. If it does they just manually dial in via their phone or we arrange for the bridge to call them to save costs on their part, if in a meeting.

Ive never had a problem getting remote workers into a meeting if needed.

As for everyday work, stability is rarely an issue.

So you were working while on vacation? That's not the same as working from home.

By civilization I mean having a decent connection. It would be silly to remote work if a good connection is required and you didn't have one.

I've been on many conference calls and video calls at airports, hotels, and even in the car. But again, this is NOT working from home. If you are in civilization (have good connections), don't do manual labour, or are not client facing, you are able to work from home without issue other than your Luddite boss or company.

Yeah but you're in BC, I assume on Shaw's fibreoptic network and probably most of your co-workers, I get things like "I'm standing in a field with a geologist and my computer has started playing up, can you help me?"

Er no. Not on an internet connection that sketchy, if they've even got one. And often the problem is caused by the internet connection being shaky, e.g. not being able to receive e-mail or a website playing up.

When I get messages like that I just snigger at the idea that this person would be okay with having their files or whatever in "the cloud".

Had one this morning, "I'm sending e-mails but the other person says they're not getting them." This person is absolutely sure of their internet connection, eventually I figured out the internet connection was barely operational (data card) and they were all stuck in the outbox awaiting synchronization. And they were in "civilization" not standing in a field.

My point being that was an extreme example. Difficult to take time off, and even if you do people are still after you. I wasn't really talking about the internet connection in that example.

Fair enough but they don't necessarily know you aren't at home, they assume you are and you still have to work, I think was the point I was making.

I guess my term civilization is confusing. By that I mean a decent connection if needed.

Working in a field is NOT working from home.

Working from home = Working from home.

My coworkers are in various locations around the US, Europe, and Apac and connection speeds vary greatly with hardly any issues seen.

Some coworkers use 3G cards without issue.

It works for thousands of employees in the company I work for and again for our clients and partners around he world.

Working during time off is your problem, not the ability to work from home. I do agree though because I see many coworkers who use their potential commute time to work, and also doing bits later at night or weekends just because they can and can't draw a line between work and play. I have no problem with that.

But vacations are different. If I'm on holiday at the beach, I don't have my work phone, laptop, or tablet with me. If you do, then that's silly.

If I'm not on vacation and have to work, I always make sure I have a workable connection. My coworkers are the same.

It's just working smartly is all, both physically and mentally. It helps that I'm lazy and nearly always put myself before the company

Not my experience. I've even got e-mails from providers where they basically say point blank that whatever it is, the connection etc. will be unreliable under x conditions. Read the terms and conditions for their wishy washy get out clauses.

I understand what you're on about, and yes, I think in N America where fibreoptic has pretty good penetration and certainly in many Asian countries like Japan and S Korea the internet is pretty good, although you can always get shafted by a tower being blocked.

However in Europe where you've got to dig up old, narrow streets to put fibre optic in and city blocks are strange shapes that causes problems with towers and other receivers it's more of an issue.

For example the UK Govt. is talking about subsidizing Virgin Media to put in fibre optic precisely to deal with these issues. To get "super fast" connections of 80 Mbit/s. Super fast in the 80s, maybe. In Japan they have home connection speeds of 1 Gbit/s.

But that isn't really the issue, it's the reliability of the connection rather than the speed of it, I can remote in on connections as slow as 10 kbit/s.

DSL over copper, data cards and whatnot are nowhere near as good as fibreoptic.

Most people nowadays seem to take a smartphone or laptop on vacation, for personal use. I think in that instance I got a text message actually.

Who wants to sit using some crappy hotel computer?

What industry are you in, btw, I'm guessing it's not energy/natural resources/construction where you have lots of people wandering around with laptops and PDAs?

Interesting, if, slightly smug at times thread. I spent much of my working life connected some way with manufacturing and product development. So I'm with Iain, on the need to be at the facility and in the office to see, touch, taste and meet with people. A neccessary evil. Sure, there were days when one could work from home on the laptop/cell, but fundamentally you need to be there.

My current job I can do from anywhere. Home, hotel, office, anywhere with wifi and a cell signal. I work from home when it suits me, generally when there is something going on with the kids. Most of the time I work from the office because it's quieter here than home. I have three members of my team in the same building but two report to me through another manager located in the US.

I manage a global team & there is around 3 hrs out of 24 when someone isn't working. So I can be working at odd hours but I get the flexibility to manage my own time and work around my own schedule. As an example, I arrived back from a 10 day trip to Europe last Thurs and essentially took Friday off, aside from answering a few calls & flicking out a few emails. This morning I got up, fed the baby, did half an hours work & then after getting the other child up and dropping her off at daycare went to the gym before wandering into the office at 9.30am.

I think I'd find working from home all the time a little oppressive. I like going to the office in this job. But then I only have a 15 minute commute. By contrast, a colleage in London last week was describing her 2.5hr commute from the New Forest to the city of London. Now that is enough to make you want to work from home. <shudders>.

Hahaha. That thread really bothered you didn't it.

Here's how to do it...

Have you got past the Mitchell and Webb stage?