Telecommuting

I THINK telecommuting is a bust as a workplace lifestyle.My sister, fed up with clients calling during dinner time and at bedtime, finally kicked her telecommuting lawyer husband out of the house, trussed like a goose in his multiple phone lines.My spouse, facing a drive to work that might soon double, won't even consider telecommuting. He believes the fire dogs need to be in the firehouse when the siren sounds.And, ending the ultimate telecommuting experiment, 200,000 people who were told to work at home during the Atlanta Olympics hopped back in their cars the Monday morning after and were glad to do it.The notion that we were all going to save the environment and smooth the conflicts between work and home by sitting at a computer terminal in a bathrobe and slippers until the kids arrived home from school is a bust as a trend.

BOSTON -- I like to think of the first TV ad as a sales pitch against personal hygiene. It stars a woman at home, dressed for success in bathrobe and slippers, professionally outfitted with phone, laptop and modem, bragging that she puts in a whole day of work before taking a shower.The second ad is more of a pitch against working-mother guilt. This features a woman getting ready to abandon her neglected kids to a sitter when -- Eureka! -- she decides to take them to the beach and do business in a swimsuit with a cell phone.

Axent Technologies Inc. of Rockville said yesterday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AssureNet Pathways Inc., a privately held computer security firm.Axent said it will issue up to 1.55 million shares of its stock to pay for Mountain View, Calif.-based AssureNet, which makes systems that identify remote users of corporate computer systems and let corporations verify that their networks are not being attacked.After Axent shares rose $1.25 to $17.25 yesterday, the value of the deal was estimated at $26.7 million.

Good morning. Or is it?If you work, your mornings are probably full of little challenges: picking out the right clothes, scarfing down breakfast, taking kids to day care, and that best-loved of all a.m. rituals, commuting.There are people who don't have to worry about such things, and, no, they're not lottery winners or Trappist monks. They're telecommuters, gainfully employed and socially adjusted men and women who just happen to spend their workdays at home, plying their trade via computer, telephone and fax machine.

In a move that could dramatically increase the number of workers who "commute" by phone, Bell Atlantic Corp. has announced a 66 percent cut in the per-minute charge for an increasingly popular form of high-speed line called ISDN.The regional phone company said that as of tomorrow the basic rate for using an ISDN line will fall from 5 cents to 2 cents a minute throughout the mid-Atlantic region.ISDN, which stands for Integrated Services Digital Network, lets users transfer data across phone lines at a rate of 128 kilobits per second -- more than four times the rate of today's fastest commercially available modems.

William Washecka is a high-tech road warrior. His weapons: a frumpy black shoulder case, an overstuffed briefcase and his Lincoln Town Car.Mr. Washecka of Ernst & Young accountants is among a growing number of business people who conduct a large slice of their work from behind the steering wheels of their cars.This new breed of mobile worker zips from home to appointments to lunch meetings packing virtual offices -- laptop computers, cellular phones and facsimile machines -- with hardly a pit stop at their home offices.

Have job will travel. That's the reality for a growing number of professionals who are finding their work is more portable than ever before.While many corporate managers still wrestle with the concept of telecommuting, worrying over whether a worker will be productive if he works out of his nearby home once a week, others are permitting employees to keep their jobs while moving thousands of miles away.Detailed figures are almost impossible to find. But anecdotal evidence and experts' impressions suggest that the ranks of portable professionals are swelling.

In the half-century since World War II, the suburbanization of America has made us automobile addicts. Computers can't break that habit. But they can ease the dependence, along with the pain automobiles inflict on society.From polluted air, to time wasted in traffic jams, to the tax money needed to build and maintain vast highway systems, the mobility cars offer to Americans comes at an increasingly high price.Several trends are now combining to present some handy, high-tech solutions. One of these solutions -- telecommuting -- will be the subject of a Thursday session at the Maryland Information Technology Expo and Conference at the Baltimore Convention Center this week.

Although the percentage of American households with a family member working full time from home has grown to 27 percent from 20 percent in less than a decade, it still isn't everyone's cup of tea.I was recently a guest on a television talk show and during the commercial break chatted with another guest who was about to give tips on running a home business effectively. I asked him how long he'd worked from his house."Well, actually, I stopped running a business from home last year and took a regular office job," he admitted sheepishly.

WASHINGTON -- Proclaiming the birth of a new industry called "personal conferencing," Intel Corp., the dominant semiconductor company, unveiled a program yesterday that allows a group of people to hold a video phone call on their personal computers while working together on the same document.Priced as low as $1,199, the ProShare VideoSystem 200 program is regarded as a potential breakthrough product. As the technology is refined and made less expensive, it could promote the spread of telecommuting -- a trend with implications for the economy and the environment.

One superhighway is jammed and expensive. The other is open and cheap. So, next time, take the route to work with no choking emissions, no raised middle fingers and no $4 gas. Sit at your computer and drive straight ahead. Now that Maryland has built one of the world's best broadband networks, let's use it to grease the economy and cut costs ranging from filling the tank to pollution to road construction to high blood pressure. Oil at $140 and what's called "telework" were made for each other like migraines and aspirin.

What are recent college graduates looking for most in a job? A flexible schedule? Opportunities for creativity and personal growth? High salary? None of the above. Instead, these 20-something workers are most interested in advancement opportunities and job security, at least according to research by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The group surveyed 19,000 people from 370 schools nationwide. It asked them to rate 15 job attributes in terms of importance and then asked them to rank one attribute against another.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, one of the largest federal commands moving to Maryland as part of a national military realignment, announced yesterday it has opened a telecommuting center at Fort Meade - the first step toward moving its 4,300 workers to the Army post. The agency is the first to establish a foothold in Maryland among those transferring here as part of the base realignment and closure process known as BRAC, which is expected to bring tens of thousands of defense jobs to Maryland over the next five years.

As much as we want flexibility in our jobs, we seem to be burdened by our doubts. Would I appear less committed? How would it affect my career? What would my colleagues think? Such ambiguity continues to exist even though many companies allow employees to work flexible hours, telecommute and take an extended break to raise children or take care of other personal business. This perk is considered one way to attract and retain the best people. A new survey shows the dilemma many workers face.

WASHINGTON -- "Road rage" is now an official disease - intermittent explosive disorder, the shrinks call it. According to a study funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, about 16 million Americans suffer from IED. Inadequate production of the brain chemical serotonin leaves victims unable to regulate their moods properly - and thus, their behavior on the nation's crowded highways. But is IED really a malady? Or just the natural expression of a heavily overtaxed fight-or-flight mechanism that has been intrinsic to human nature since time immemorial?

Paula Brantner's job as a program director for a nonprofit group is centered in San Francisco. But she works from her home in Silver Spring. Brantner is a long-distance telecommuter - and has been for more than four years. She makes up just a sliver of the work force that is employed in a home office that is far from the company's main headquarters. Yet a number of businesses have gone to geographic extremes by allowing workers to telecommute full time - even if they live halfway around the world.

On most workdays, account executive Jean Gunning's highly orchestrated commuting routine begins at 7:30 a.m. when she leaves her Towson home and arrives about two hours later at her office in Washington. She follows a similar path home, getting in on most nights after dark. "On the days I commute, I can't do anything other than work, eat, and sleep," she says. But once a week, Gunning avoids the commuter shuffle by telecommuting from her home office. "It's great to actually be home in Baltimore at 6 p.m. and make a real dinner that doesn't come out of a box," Gunning says.

Is work a tough place to, well, work? People looking for a new job say telecommuting is a top priority among job perks, according to a survey of more than 200 people. The survey also found that 80 percent believe telecommuting would make them more productive in their current jobs. Of the more than 200 respondents, 47 percent said they telecommute now, with 41 percent of those working from home at least 20 hours per week. The popularity relates to flexible work hours, the benefit noted by 43 percent.

Telecommuting workshop planned Sept. 27 at HCC The Howard County Chamber of Commerce, the Howard County Economic Development Authority and other agencies will sponsor a free seminar, "Telework: Putting the Pieces Together." The workshop will take place from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sept. 27 at the Howard Community College Business Training Center, 6751 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia. Registration and a continental breakfast will be at 8:30 a.m. The seminar will present the advantages of telecommuting as a business strategy that can benefit companies, employees and the environment.

In one of several efforts to counter an increase in aggressive driving, police officers from Maryland, Virginia and Washington will carry out simultaneous crackdowns on aggressive drivers for four weeks during the summer. Police say such efforts have limited effects. From 1997 to last year, citations for tailgating and ignoring traffic signs have tripled in the region, police said. The trend is likely to continue, with traffic on Maryland roads expected to grow by 60 percent over the next 20 years.