After you have laid the groundwork and made it easier to say yes, show your boss that a remote engineer program can be good for your company. Make a simple rational argument that allowing remote engineers is good for your company. The decision may not be up to your boss alone, but they are your first advocate with the higher levels of management in your company.
Let’s start with the bottom line: teleworkers save money. It is all about the bills your company pays to provide you with an office to work in, supply you with a desk and chair, and all the other expenses involved with running a large building. It costs about $10,000 per year just to keep you in a cubicle.
Your company can save a lot of real estate and facilities costs by having more engineers work remotely. IBM, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, and Compaq are all saving tens of millions of dollars every year with remote worker programs. When your boss worries about starting a remote worker program, remind them of the money they can save.
Saving money is good, but making money is even better. Working remotely lets you be more productive. You have more time to work. If you commute just 40 minutes each way every day you are losing eight working weeks a year.
You don’t just save time with less driving. Offices are full of people. That lets you have meetings and share ideas, but it also lets you waste time. Getting away from your coworkers gives you more time to work.
Working from home also makes it much easier to work beyond the nine to five. Have dinner with your family and get some work done after the kids go to bed if you want to. You have the added flexibility that lets you to find more time to work.
Supporting remote workers helps your company do well by saving money and having a more productive workforce. It also helps them do good by saving the environment. Many states offer renewable energy credits or other benefits to companies with environmentally friendly policies. A remote worker program can help your company qualify for those benefits by wasting less resources on buildings and substantially cutting down the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with daily commuting.
Once you convince your boss and the rest of your company’s management that a remote work program is a good idea in general, you still need to convince them that it is a good idea for you.