Monthly Archives: September 2016

Is Telecommuting Right for You?

telecommuteWe can build a better remote workforce. We have the technology. Seriously, we have Skype and Go to Meeting and online productivity tools. Telecommuting is gaining popularity with both employees and employers, as it can offer benefits to both. It is not just about getting rid of the terrible commute for employees or reducing office space for employers (although those are both legitimate benefits), it can also:

  • Increase productivity. Although there can be a mindset among employers that if they can’t see you, you’re not working, a study at the University of Texas, Austin showed that telecommuters actually work 5-7 more hours a week than in-office workers. They are also more likely to return to their desk after a doctor’s appointment instead of taking the rest of the day off. Not to mention that eating lunch at your desk isn’t that onerous when you work at home. Continue reading

Moving Back to the City

For baby boomers, moving to the suburbs when they got married and had children was part and parcel of the American Dream. It seemed to be the natural order of things that you would leave behind the strife and stress of the city for a greener, safer place where you could raise your children.

Recently, though, I stood at the kitchen window watching an industrious gopher unearth a truly gopheramazing amount of dirt into the middle of my back yard. As the excavation of his ever-expanding underground empire began to pile up, I began to think. That back yard is little used now, (except by the gopher), and the swing set is long abandoned by children who have gone off to make lives and families of their own.

I began to remember the care-free days of apartment living. No weeds to pull, no lawns to mow, no roof tiles to replace. Is it time to move back to the city?

The fact of the matter is, according to U.S. census data, large city centers are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time in more than 90 years. As we discussed in a previous post, both baby boomers and the adult children they raised are looking for “urban villages”, where they are not tied to their automobiles as tightly and can walk and bike to the places they need to go. Continue reading