Go Home!

When InsuranceJournal.com posted a story giving the Insurance industry’s take on workplace flexibility following Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer’s announcement in February to bring telecommuters back into the office the story proved popular – particularly on LinkedIn.com.

A number of people shared the story on the social networking site – posters on the site more often seem focused on networking or career issues than posting pictures of their lunch or bragging about their latest gym experience. To capitalize on the buzz I posed the work-from-home question on LinkedIn.

“I work from home one day a week and I love it,” wrote Jennifer Burcell in reply to the post. “It is great for me because it gives me the flexibility I need to take care of my daughter on that day. Not having to commute into the City and deal with BART on that day is wonderful as well.”

In her post Burcell also tackled the issue of trust.

“I know this isn’t for everyone and some employers can be concerned about their employees actually working,” she wrote. “I think if you don’t trust your employee to work then that is an issue that has nothing to do with where they are working.”

Dan Marby wrote: “A lot of customers and carriers insist on a FT retail location, but producers and CSRs can expand the agency, and reduce office space needs, by working from home full time or part-time. I work from home early in the AM to deal with east coast carriers and in the evening to service clients who are too busy from 9-5 to have a quiet thoughtful conversation. Laptop computers, cloud software, VOIP, smartphones, Websites, and video conferencing is reducing the need for full-time office attendance. imo.”

Well in my opinion working from home rules. That not-so-eloquent revelation is my version of a disclaimer: This reporter works at home.

Poster Judi Weronicki says not only can the right technology enable seamless communication with field staff and real time communication with pretty much anyone, but it enables working away from a workplace even if it happens to be your home.

“Throw in hotspots and other devices supporting mobile broadband, it works,” Weronicki wrote. “Use state of the art technology that works without hitches for your software and the best providers for your communication needs.”

Jan Jones works from home whenever possible, where she’s a lot more productive.

“No distractions and seem to be more focused on getting things accomplished,” she posted. “If my company would allow it, I would work from home every day. I would think that more corporations would see the cost benefit of having their agents/brokers work out of their home rather than paying the expense for office space and everything else that goes along with it.”