Why I Love Broadband On Snowy Days

Well the snow has stopped in DC leaving it a winter wonderland and reminding me of why I love broadband.

This morning my wife asked me to drive her to work and I tried to oblige only to be foiled by a short span of inclined and snow-slicked driveway that refused to let my car up it. It got me thinking about the mess that other roads and highways must be, especially in this part of the country where drivers seem to lose all sense when snow hits the ground.

After shivering at the thought of having to suffer through a white-knuckled experience like that I thanked my lucky stars for the luxury of working from home and made my way back up to my warm apartment.

Once back at my computer I began thinking about how fortunate I am to have broadband and therefore access to the rest of the world without having to brave this inclement weather. I tend to have these feelings every day given the shortness of my commute, but they become especially acute when it's ugly outside.

But then my thoughts turned to my wife trudging through the snow to work alongside the thousands of people stuck in traffic, and it made me wish we lived in a day where more people could have the option of working from home in situations like this.

Wouldn't it be great if staying home when the weather's bad were standard operating procedure?

Take my wife's job, for example. She's an office engineer working for a general contractor renovating the DC Court of Appeals. Her current responsibilities primarily consist of compiling and negotiating change orders. That means reviewing documents, contacting subcontractors, running numbers, and communicating with the owner's reps.

None of these things require face-to-face communication. But because her company doesn't have a VPN system setup that she can use to login to company databases remotely, she can't effectively work from home. Also, a lot of their drawings and plans are only available in paper copy, so again she's tied to having to go into the office.

Yet it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, I'd argue anyone who has an office job where the majority of their work is done with paper or on the computer or phone should have the freedom and flexibility to work from home, maybe not all the time but at least on days like today where everyone would be better off with fewer people on the road.

Snowy days make me appreciate how broadband enables me to work from home, but at the same time it frustrates me that more people aren't able to realize the benefits that this technology has to offer.

Hopefully some day soon we can change that, if for no other reason than my sweetie can stay home every once in a while without being sick or on vacation.