Does Working from Home make us safer from terrorism?

by Audreena Cole

I remember it like it was yesterday, watching the second plane crash into the World Trade Towers on television from my living while the sickening reality came over our entire nation that the first airplane could no longer be an accident, but a horrible, horrible terror attack.  I was grateful that I was able to work from home because it allowed me to watch, in horror, history unfold.

Even before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, millions of us yearned to work at home. Some of us were already successful while others of us were still searching for the right work from home opportunity.

People who work from home enjoy a wonderful, balanced lifestyle of work, family, and self. We still work, obviously, but somehow, pouring over spreadsheets with man's best friend at our feet is alot less stressful than pouring over the same spreadsheets surrounded by the political games, fluorescent lighting, constant interruptions, incessant supervision, and that terrible commute to and from work every day.

The events of 911 and the health threats carried by U.S. Mail afterward also showed us for the first time that when you work at home, you are probably safer and far more secure. Companies, too, benefit from allowing their employees to work at home. Studies have shown that home-based labor is over 20% more productive than office bound workers. Spreading a company's workforce across a large geographical area also ensures that a local interruption, or even a local disaster, can not wipe out the whole company as we saw happen in New York. Spreading out a company’s workforce can protect the company from massive productivity and communication losses that may otherwise be devastating from such sources as blackouts and rolling blackouts, flooding, hurricanes, and other weather disasters, temporary internet, cable, DSL and/or phone outages, and terrorism threats and attacks. Even when such disasters occur, employees that work at home in other areas can remain unaffected.

Just when we thought we knew all the many wonderful benefits of working from home, even more modern realities taught us even more.