Working From Home Getting Respect From All Sides
When Chris Arnold’s two children come home from school, she’s waiting at the bus stop. Now that it’s summer, she’s there after their morning swim lessons.
In the afternoon, when they play outside, she keeps a watchful eye. Later, the whole family sits down to dinner.
But Arnold isn’t a stay-at-home mom – she’s a work-from-home mom.
A marketing manager for Armonk-based IBM Corp., Arnold hasn’t had an office at Big Blue since she returned from maternity leave in 2000.
About 40 percent of IBM’s 128,000 U.S. employees do not have a dedicated company office, up from 30 percent in 2001. One in five employees work from home. Others are on the go or assigned to a customer location.
At her home in Brewster, Arnold works full time for IBM, analyzing weekly sales data to write reports for executives.
Her manager is in Poughkeepsie, and they communicate by e-mail and instant message and talk on the phone about once a week.
Arnold said the best part of telecommuting is mixing her professional and home lives. That can be as mundane as washing up the morning dishes while listening for her e-mail chime to as rewarding as setting up her laptop near the kids.
“I can work in the backyard if I want to, and occasionally I do,” she said. “I can be outside and still be working, and they are on the swing set.”
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