A lot more work could be done from home these days, if employers were willing to give up the notion that telecommuters are somehow getting away with something instead of actually saving the company money. And there are a number of public benefits as well as the ones to companies and the telecommuters. My job requires contact with the public -- how can you engage the community if you never meet any of its members? -- but otherwise I could just as well work at home; there isn't a thing I do that can't be done across a computer network. Some companies are beginning to realize the value of from-home workers. My brother in Texas goes into the office only a couple of days a month; his employer even has full-time employees who live in other states. "Work," increasingly, doesn't have to be a place you go to. It's what you get done.
