FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA (09/01/2000) - The Internet is getting a bad rap lately. The charges are serious and ominous: It is used to erode people's privacy and violate copyright law. It is fueling the spread of viruses. Con artists trick people online. Sexual predators use it to prey on children. Racists set up Web sites to spread their message.
Those problems are real and need to be addressed. But today I want to ask everybody to relax a little while I praise the Internet. Specifically, I want to thank the Internet for allowing me to work from home.
Yes, I will forever be grateful to U.S. Vice President Al Gore, whose enthusiasm in promoting his role in developing the Internet has led to him infamously being accused of taking credit for creating it. But I thank him anyway, along with everyone else who claims to have had a hand in creating the Internet, because I love to telecommute. The reasons are many. Let me mention a few: No need to brave rush hour traffic. More time at home to spend with my family, or exercising, sleeping, watching television, reading or pondering the meaning of life. Big savings on gasoline, and less wear and tear on the car. No need to buy lunch or so many work clothes.
As far as I'm concerned, telecommuting is the greatest thing the Internet has enabled. The number of U.S. residents using a computer to telecommute from home increased from 4 million in 1990 to 11 million in 1997. Some, like me, telecommute all the time. Some do it part of the week. But it's definitely a growing trend.
Whenever I drive to Miami to cover an event or interview someone, I remember that dark period when I had a daily two-hour round-trip commute. This was when I lived in the Boston area, where traffic is horrible. But for the past three years, my commute has been a short walk from my bed to my home office. Zero aggravation. The only vehicles I find along the way are my baby's toy trucks. If I had to drive to and from Fort Lauderdale or Miami every day, as so many of my neighbors do, I'd be very bitter, look much older and have less hair.
Yet, there are people like a friend of mine who was told about two months ago that he could work from home. But this morning he got up at 6:30 a.m. and drove to work. He did the same thing yesterday. And will do the same thing tomorrow. My friend could telecommute, but he doesn't want to. He says he likes going to the office. Never mind that he has plenty of space for a desk at home and that the office is an hour's drive away.
Sure, I can understand some of the arguments against telecommuting. Some people don't have enough space at home to set up an office. It's harder to keep up with the office gossip. It gets lonely every now and then. If your phones go dead, you're in big trouble. The neighbors may think you're a lazy bum who either inherited a large sum of money or deals drugs for a living. And with the office a few steps away from the living room, it's hard to resist getting some more work done after hours.
But as I look at the clock -- 5:45 p.m. -- I can't help but think about my friend, now probably getting into his car ready to drive into a monster, hour-long traffic jam in order to get home. Me? I'll just turn off the computer and be thankful to Al Gore. But not too much. He might plant a big wet kiss on my mouth, just like the one he gave to his wife before his speech at the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago. That smacker, coming as it did before he accepted his party's nomination for president, gave the event a surreal soft porn twist and jacked up the cringe factor to dangerously high levels across the U.S. And that's where I draw the line. No amount of telecommuting would justify me having to endure that.