ANTenna Blog -- Mobile

Even as telecommuting and teleworking gather steam in companies large and small, a growing backlash contends it's not always such a great idea, for companies or workers.

In fact, early this year I wrote a post -- The Dark Side of Telecommuting -- about a survey saying that telecommuting was resented by those left in the office.

Security is another issue. Last week, Naomi Grossman posted the results of a recent CDW telecommuting study warning that many telecommuters are completely unaware of their own company's telecommuting security policies!

But more and more people are making it clear that while they want flexibility, they don't want to telecommute all the time. A recent New York Times article (free registration required) argues that the resilience of New York City and Silicon Valley housing prices indicates that the ongoing value of living and working where the action is, not from some idyllic rural paradise, no matter how well connected.

Similarly, in the book Who's Your City? Richard Florida contends "that the place we choose to live is the single most important decision we can make."

I don't know about that, but I am of two minds about telecommuting. bMighty's editors are spread out across the country, and that's enabled us to get great folks we might not have access to otherwise. But it also poses a continual challenge to keep everyone connected, energized and on same page, so to speak. And while it's often convenient to work from home occassionally, I find that my projects and my career benefit from spending plenty of time in the office working directly with other folks.