That Sound You Hear is the World Passing You By

Found this interesting article about telecommuting in China while perusing my RSS feeds this morning – figured it was worth sharing with everyone.  While the piece acknowledges that there are drawbacks to working in a virtual office, there is nevertheless an unmistakable trend in favor of telecommuting in Beijing and elsewhere.  Sun Microsystems’ telecommuting program in particular is singled out as a “huge success.” Turns out that’s putting it mildly:
 
"Out of 45 employees, only one person switched back to the office after trying the program for a few weeks," said [a Sun] employee, who listed the advantages of the program as, among others, "spending a combined 160 hours a week doing something other than sitting in traffic, sparing the air 5,489 kilograms of carbon dioxide per week and saving Sun $272,000 per year in real estate costs.”
 
Hear, hear.  As in so many other areas, the Chinese will probably be way out ahead of the US in telecommuting in the not –too-distant future – even though in 2010, millions of jobs can be done from just about anywhere provided you’ve got a laptop, Internet connection and a mobile phone.
 
So without further ado (and although ACG tends to focus on specific individuals and companies when it complains, criticizes, promotes or ridicules) today’s Environmental Slacker Award goes to a somewhat faceless group: all the bosses out there who won’t let their employees work from home.  Telecommuting saves time, saves money, is good for the environment, makes for happier employees and in most cases will probably make for a better work product.  It’s not 1983 anymore, fellas, and the days of the typewriter and carbon copy are long gone. Time to join the 21st century.  You, your employees and ultimately your clients will be glad you did.