Pay Differences Between Telecommute & In-Office One persistent belief about work-at-home, or telecommute, jobs is that they almost always pay far less than in-office jobs. But is this really true?While it may have been the case many years ago when telecommuting was just starting to take shape as a movement, today’s at-home jobs pay salaries comparable to in-office jobs. Additionally, there are substantial cost savings that come with working from home, such as a reduction in commute costs, wardrobe and dry cleaning bills, eating out, and childcare costs to cover time spent commuting. I... view article details

Q: I was awarded 25,000 options at my last job. Recently, the company laid off 100 employees, including me. I was not vested at this time and the company took away all of my shares. Is this standard practice? A: Yes. It is customary for a company to take back unvested options when an employee leaves the company for any reason. In fact, this is probably included in the stock option agreement you received when you were granted the options. Sometimes, however, companies have a severance policy that provides special benefits (e.g., accelerated option vesting) for situations like layoffs. Be sure... view article details

Start with Confidence  Doing research on how to buy a home is itself an investment - in time. On the one hand are the shelves of books on the subject - helpful, yet sometimes tedious in their detail. On the other hand are specialty Web sites with short, sharp home-buying tips that sacrifice depth and introduce pop-up invitations to apply for mortgages, credit reports, or real estate listings. Even the most hardened researcher can have a tough time telling the forest from the trees. If you are gearing up to buy a house, you may need at least one self-help guide, if only as an anti-jargon dictio... view article details

Careers That Don't Require You to Commute Farther Than Your Living Room Yahoo! Makes Waves by Banning Work-from-Home Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, caused quite a stir this week when she told her employees they would no longer be allowed to work at home. And in doing so, both sides of the always contentious debate have sprung into action either supporting Mayer's decision or lambasting it. Mayer and Yahoo! have said their policy is not a referendum on the wisdom of working at home, but simply what's best for the company. They feel nothing truly replaces face-time and person-to-person interac... view article details

When Your Work Is Done, Get Out of There Pamela Selle wants you to go the heck (we softened up her original language) home. Seriously. If it is 6 p.m. or if you are done with your projects for the day or your brain is just burned out from the last eight hours of staring at a monitor, Selle says, just get out of the office. It's tough to be the first one to leave the office for fear it makes you look bad, but going home when your work is done does have benefits. It's better for your productivity, it's better for your employer, and it is most assuredly better for you. In February, Phila... view article details

 Finding the house of your dreams is a cinch if you have the money. You can buy where you want, the size and style you want, you can even tear it all down and remodel how you want. 'I've taken out pristine, custom-built $100,000 kitchens to replace them with pristine, custom-built $150,000 kitchens that looked a little different,' said John C., a building contractor from Marina del Rey, California. 'Not that they seemed like the kind of people who spent much time in a kitchen anyway.' Staying within your means For the rest of us, buying a home is a knotty process of checks and balances. Ironic... view article details

Ask anyone who's ever sold a home, and they'll tell you how seriously they took the process of selecting a real estate agent to represent them. It's likely they also took a proactive role in ensuring that the agent worked hard to market their home. When it comes to home buyers however, the number of people who end up with a real estate agent by accident is amazing. The person who helps you find and buy your house is integral to the success of the process, which is why buyers ought to put the same effort into finding an agent as home sellers would.Who's who in real estate agentsTo find the righ... view article details

This summer, Americans were paying, on average, $4.09 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline to fuel the vehicles they rely on to get to and from work everyday. This represents an increase of $1.14 over the same time last year.Salary.com™ set out to calculate just how much the escalating cost of commuting to work is eating into the average worker's take home pay. To accomplish this, we established some reasonable criteria.The average worker travels, round-trip, 29 miles each day. Vehicle fuel economy varies, but we will assume an average fuel efficiency rate of 18.8 miles per gallon. We will... view article details

Start With Confidence  Dealing with Realtors  House, Job, and Income  Finding the HouseWhen Renting is Better  Making the OfferWhen Buying is Better  Closing TimeIncome and Mortgage Size         Making the Offer Good real estate agents are invaluable when it comes time to make an offer on a house. Invariably the agent will provide you with a preprinted form of a purchase contract, which together you rework to fit your needs. The contract begins by identifying the focal points, buyer, seller, property location, brokers, etc., then quickly moves to the crux of the matter: the purchase price offe... view article details

Achoo!Dear Annette,Our manager keeps coming into the office when he is obviously sick, such as when he has an awful cold. We don't want to get what he has. How can we get him to stay home?Sick of ItDear Sick of It,Ah, the miracles of droplet infection. Just one tiny sneeze gone awry, or a revolting tissue placed for nary a second on a common surface, and all of you will be singing the same song, complete with a chorus of choking gasps, honks, and other noises. It is never fabulous to contaminate others, particularly if the company is planning to institute a 360-degree review process soon.Your ... view article details