For some – working from home is a requirement not a benefit

For many employees working from home is a perk. Their employer allows them to work from home 1-3 days a week reducing their commuting costs and removing the hassle of going into the office five days a week. In return the employer is said to receive higher productivity from the employee, reduced real estate and utility costs.

It is much too early to determine what the recession has done to telecommuting but the conventional wisdom is that it has greatly increased telecommuting. In 2009 27.5% of US employees were able to work remotely 1-3 days a week. This number is far from the majority but has grown from 25% the previous year.

Some employers are still resistant to allowing their employees to work from remote offices – far from the eyes of management. For many managers the concept of telecommuting conjures images of employees in their pajamas doing dishes and laundry and only periodically checking email so they appear to be working. For companies with managers who have this point of view, remote working will never become a reality.

While telecommuting may be a bonus benefit for some employees, there are some professions where working from home isn’t a benefit or even a privilege but a requirement above the normal 40 hour work week. Doctors, attorneys and other professionals who put work a full week in the office often have to take work home with them in order to keep up with flow of work. Doctors do paper work at home so they can see more patients during the day and lawyers are judged on how many billable hours the work so they often work even when at home.

Just like organizations that allow employees to work from home as a perk, healthcare facilities and law offices must provide doctors and lawyers with a secure connection to the office. For the occasional telecommuter a VPN connection is sufficient. However a simple VPN connection may not be enough o connect and secure a doctor’s or lawyer’s home. Actually, one could argue that it is even more important for these professions to have secure connections due to the sensitive and private information they work with. As educated and intelligent as most doctors and lawyers are, many of them do not have the technical expertise or the time needed to set up and then manage a Unified Threat Management device at their home. They simply aren’t security experts, nor should they have to be.

This is where products like Astaro RED come in. South Carolina Law Firm Turner Padget Graham & Laney was able to overcome the challenge of having lawyers connect from remote locations to the main office by using Astaro RED. You can read more about this here.

To learn more about Astaro RED and other product from Astaro (like Astaro Mail Archiving, Astaro Wireless Security and Astaro Security Gateway) visit booth #629 at Interop.

You Can Learn More About the Astaro Internet Security Product Line By Going to www.FirewallShop.com/Astaro.

The original article/video can be found at For some – working from home is a requirement not a benefit

For some – working from home is a requirement not a benefit

For some – working from home is a requirement not a benefit

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