As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, many of us take the time to give thanks to everyone and everything in our lives for which we are most grateful. In writing this blog, of course some of you know what I am thankful for…my daughter, my husband, my family, my friends, my pugs, and fittingly so, the opportunity to work from the privacy and comfort of my own home.

I was browsing CNN this weekend, bracing myself for feeling depressed (the news is always so dismal!), and I happened to notice an article on telecommuting. Written a couple years ago, the article was re-published to appeal to the masses who are sick and tired of spending a bulk of their paycheck on gas just to get to work! This was my husband a year and a half ago - he had to drive 100+ miles a day to commute to his job - it was insanity. So much of our money was going to Mobil, Sunoco, Shell - every gas station we could find that was even just one to two cents cheaper than its competitor. Thankfully, in August of 2006, my husband landed a new job. He would become the new Logistics Manager for a South American company - and because all the U.S. employees for this company are home-based, he too would get to work from home. (And have the company furnish his entire office, pay for phone, Internet, mileage) Not a bad deal!

Including myself and my husband, according to this CNN article, around 10 percent of today’s workforce works from home. And around two million American businesses support some kind of telecommuting program for their employees. The majority of those who telecommute report that their lives are happier and less stressful thanks to the increased satisfaction with their job and more time with their families. Not to mention, who wouldn’t enjoy saving all that money on gas you’d otherwise spend working out of your home? Based on a survey by the Information Technology Association of America, 36 percent of respondents would choose telecommuting over a pay raise. Would you?

Not only do the employees themselves benefit from telecommuting, but so do their employers and the environment as well. Employers benefit from reduced real estate costs, increased productivity, morale, and employer turnover costs, just to name a few. The environment benefits from reduced fossil fuel consumption and traffic congestion, resulting in cleaner air and safer neighborhoods. Says the Environmental Protection Agency, if even just an additional 10 percent of the nation’s workforce would telecommute even just ONE day a week, it could save Americans from driving up to 24.4 million miles; help them breathe cleaner air with 13,000 tons LESS of air pollution; and make their wallets a little fatter by conserving more than 1.2 million gallons of fuel each week. Crazy, isn’t it?

For more information on how to land that perfect telecommuting gig, be sure to check out “The Complete I’ve Tried That Guide to Telecommuting” today!

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