Telecommuting... surely the time has finally come?!

"London ought to be a washout but it isn't. People stoically bend their heads into the howling winds. Water sluices everywhere, but people still make every effort to get into work, despite rather powerful obstacles - only one of them, the Tube strike - being put in their way." Melvyn Bragg, In Our Time blog, today.

About five years ago, during a winter of persistent snow and ice, I remember writing a blog post suggesting that finally the time had come when companies would get wise to telecommuting. Reliable VPN technology has been available for more than twenty years, but still the vast majority of office workers struggle in to work every day.

And this time we're having a winter of persistent storms, punctuated by flooding, some of it on the outskirts of London. Maybe telecommuting will receive a boost this time? Climate change will only make things worse over time... to prove the point, these pictures are not even from the UK - they're from recent floods in Australia and the US... but small-c conservatism is a strong force and I suppose a lot of employers simply like to see what they're paying for. Have a heart, folks! Let people work from home, at least until that home has dried out!