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Gas Gouged? Try Working From Home

Rising gas prices may make a winning case for telecommuting.

Featured Author:

Brittany E. Hudson

Brittany Hudson is a seasoned business professional living on the South Shore of Massachusetts with her husband, Greg and 18 month-old daughter, Carli. Brittany has become an advocate for working families in America and is working to create a strategic resource for working families to find balance in family and career life as well as political action for the rights of parents in the workplace. Brittany writes a weekly column about being a working mom.

Check out her blog, Career Parent.

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More articles from this author:

• Smile! Put Your Best You Forward
• Hubby's Getting a Raise; Should I Quit My Job?
• Facing the New Boss Whose Job I Wanted

I was greeted this morning at my cube by two members of my customer service team who asked me if I’d seen the news. I have to admit that I don’t like starting my day out with the news – it is usually only bad news and I’d rather it seep in throughout the day. In any case, the look on their faces told me that bad news was about to be shared and I’d better take notice.

Gas prices, they stammered, are projected to double or triple by the end of the summer. I didn’t have time for math, so my customer service manager did it for me. $8-$12 a gallon. O.K., is that pesos? Lira? No, that’s in good, old U.S. dollars. With those prices, I can’t afford to drive to work.

My husband and I already spend more for gas than we do on food. In fact, I pay one and a half months groceries in gas every month. Wondering why your food bill is higher lately? Thank our oil friends. Barely made it through last season’s oil bill? Start saving now.

With gas prices off the charts and a job to get to, what’s a working mom to do? For some, an office job does allow them to work from home or at least remotely for one or two days a week. If ever there was a time to negotiate your flexible and/or work-from-home schedule, now would be a great time to have a sit-down with the boss.

There is a strategy for this. The art of negotiation comes into play here. You can ask for what you want without making it seem like a demand or an ultimatum to the head honcho. In negotiations, both sides compromise in order to reach an agreed upon settlement. That means you will have to be willing to give up something in order to reach a settlement.

The most important thing to stress to the boss is that you both want the same thing. What do you both want? You want the job done successfully. That means on time, on budget and at the same performance level and quality they are convinced they would get if you were in the office. You need to be able to convey this message first.

“Bob, I want to do as great a job for you as I have always done. I understand how valuable I am to your team and I have enjoyed your confidence in me as an employee.” This says: “I do a great job, you know I do a great job, I understand that my value may cause you to hesitate on granting my request, but you are confident in me and I value maintaining your confidence in me.”