When developing the digital interfaces for our products I need access to Spectrum Analyzers, Logic Analyzers, Oscilloscopes, Regulated Power Supplies, and Soldering Stations. All of this would not be cost affective for my company to have at my home as we often share these items in the lab. So telecommuting has been denined me and I can understand why.
WRB

It’s always worse with recruiters, as opposed to the actual engineering managers. Recruiters just see “no telecommuters” on their checklist and don’t give it another thought. I once had a recruiter practically laugh at me on the phone as if I had suggested something absurd, like hiring a trained monkey to pound on the keyboard. If you can make it to the manager, you at least have a _chance_ that they will change their mind.

There are challenges to working at home, certainly, but rather than trying to overcome those challenges, companies usually just prefer to find someone less-qualified who is willing to come into the office.

@M., my suggestion to you would be to move to Prague! : )

In my case, I have a complicated home situation. My elderly and practically helpless father-in-law lives with us, my wife has chronic health problems that somedays leave her unable to function, and I still have twin 10th grade girls at home who are very socially active and serious soccer players on their high school team. So, with that long-winded setup, I use telecommuting as a way to balance my home life with work life and was very surprised when I got blind-sided at a performance review for “working from home too much”. It felt very hypocritical and unenlightened especially since I work on a team where one member is hundreds of miles away and another that lives in Prague. I was told I should be working from home no more than two days per month. When I asked what the difference was between someone working in Prague or someone working at home 17 miles away, I pretty much got the “just because” answer, followed up with “this is not and probably never will be a virtual office environment”.

Anyway, pretty frustrating. You would think that a job that lends itself so well to outsourcing would certainly lend itself to telecommuting.

M.

I found significant frustration in my last job search as many embedded companies weren’t willing to even consider anyone who wanted to do some work as a telecommuter. My home location is at least 45 minutes away from the nearest major employment centers, so working from home one or more days a week is a major question I always ask new potential employers. Unfortunately, I lost a job that I was perfect for simply for asking if there was any possibility of telecommuting. They decided that no I couldn’t do any telecommuting, and that my even asking about it meant that the 40 minute drive was too far for me.