Best Places to Telecommute

In my experience, you're probably better off trying to negotiate a telecommuting work arrangement at a place where you're already valued, entrenched, and largely indispensable. But if you are casting about for a new job and want to try to find a place where they are at least somewhat predisposed to allow folks to telecommute, you might look at one of these employers.

Fortune's annual survey of the 100 Best Places to Work includes telecommuting programs as part of their analysis. I can't seem to find what constitutes a "yes" in the telecommuting checkbox. The closest thing to a definition is this:

Telecommuting: Companies that allow employees to telecommute or work at home as a regular work arrangement (i.e., where employees telecommute or work from home at least 20% of their time).

How many people are actually working from home at least 20% of the time? Can't tell. Do telecommuters get plum assignments, promotions, and the like? Dunno. But these places are at least willing to admit that they might send you home with a laptop. This may be because they expect you to work all day, all night (Mary Ann/down by the seaside/shifting sand*).

* Weren't you a Girl Scout? I wish I could free up the part of my brain that is occupied with remembering the lyrics to songs I learned thirty years ago, but I guess I'm just not that guy.