Concealed in the privacy of their own homes, quiet by nature and avoiding public exposure and human contact, there lurks a new Whidbey Island species about which little is known.

It’s the telecommuter.

Telecommuters are hard to locate because there is no obvious sign they are working at their home offices. No reader board or sign marks their place of work. But they’re all around the island because of the relaxed lifestyle here. They’re especially prevalent on South Whidbey, because of its proximity to the mainland.

“If I couldn’t telecommute and live on Whidbey Island, I’d get another job,” said Mike Brennan, a Freeland resident and software developer who has telecommuted for more than five years. “I like living here enough to make some professional sacrifices.”

Those sacrifices usually do not include giving up convenience. At the beginning of their business day, telecommuters move seamlessly from the kitchen, usually armed with a hefty cup of strong coffee, to a home office just a few steps away.

Teleworkers conduct business in offices above their garages, in laundry rooms off their kitchens, alcoves in the family room, and, in Brennan’s case, a small den off the master bedroom converted into computerized office. Their only connections to the outside world are typically through the telephone or e-mail. Direct contact with other beings during their workdays is limited to their pets, or possibly their spouses and children.

“Not everyone can do it,” Brennan said. “There are two kinds of people. There are those who find too many things at home that they like to do and that creates distractions. Then there are those like me who enjoy work and have trouble turning work off.”

The telecommuter begins his or her day in the proper casual, come-as-you-are attire. Many wear their bedroom slippers and jammies most of the day, while other, more disciplined types actually get dressed — in jeans and sweatshirt. During Brennan’s work day, his two dogs often lie peacefully snoring bed in the other room, rousing only to bark at intervals, much to the consternation of their owner who is trying to concentrate. Or, children curl up with their coloring books at a small table in the corner, trying not to disturb mommy, because mommy is working.

From there, a telecommuter’s day is a lot like a normal business day for anyone else. The phone rings with clients, colleagues or co-workers checking on some aspect of work, or shooting for a tough deadline.

A large part of the day is spent in front of the computer, or at the drafting board, engrossed in solitary work. Children, dogs and guest appearances by overnight mail delivery personnel are the only things that break up the day.

One pleasant interlude awaits the telecommuter at midday. If there are no deadlines and time allows, the teleworker can lunch with his or her children and pets on the beach.

Many teleworkers work around the needs of their children. They often work late into the night meeting deadlines, to accommodate their children’s daytime needs.

This is what Carolann Churchill does. Churchill is a Freeland resident and database programmer who has worked from her home for 10 years. She keeps this schedule primarily for her 8-year-old son, Marcus, and 12-year-old daughter, Madeline.

“I work at home so that I have the flexbility in my daytime schedule to take care of my children and still make a reasonable wage,” Churchill said. “I value time with my kids when they need me.”

Even when children aren’t part of the workday equation, telecommuting makes the balance between work and home a true balance.

Jeanne Juneau has been telecommuting for three and a half years. After she and her husband Paul Goethel moved here from California, they realized that mass transit wasn’t as good as they had expected. As a Web professional living in Langley, Juneau found the five-hour-per-day mainland commute took too large a toll on her home life life.

“Keeping a ‘healthy home,’ keeping the household running, including doing laundry, cooking meals, gardening, and cultivating the family relationships are important,” Juneau said. “Those are the advantages of telecommuting, for sure.”

Wires the ties that bind

Technology has made working from home possible for telecommuters. But in some ways, it’s technology that has made working at one’s home more stressful. Churchill said the pressure is always on to keep up constant communication.

“Before pagers and cell phones, the client would be satisfied with a response the next morning,” she said. “Now people expect a response within a couple of hours.”

The well-dressed home office is outfitted with one or more cell phones, usually multiple computers and other office machines such as fax and scanners, voice, fax and DSL lines, answering machines, paper, and all necessary office supplies. The telecommuter’s world is loaded with gizmos, usually paid for out of pocket.

Even without children in the home worker’s setting, working out of one’s home presents some challenges.

“It’s a juggling act,” said Ricardo Novak, a Web design project director whose office is in his Langley home. “You may take time during the business day to cut a tree or work on your house, but you better have your cell phone with you.”

Telecommuters say they may actually work more and put in longer days than traditional office workers, because boundaries between home and work are blurred.

They convert what would be commuting time into productive time. Though there is a trade-off in the lack of defined personal time balanced with work, telecommuters like Mike Brennan say they get more done in a homebound work day.

“For me, it started out that I had a lot to get done in a short amount of time,” Brennan said. “I told my boss, either I commute and don’t get as much done, or I could work at home and get it all done, because I could put in a longer day.”

Stumping the “experts”

How many telecommuters are there on Whidbey Island, and what do they do? This is hard to pin down, since locating telecommuters to study them is nearly impossible.

The closest information that could be found was a 1995 study by Washington State University which surveyed people who surrendered out-of-state driver’s licenses. That study concluded that approximately 2,100 telecommuters moved into Washington during the 12-month study period.

Even a WSU group that has studied the teleworker since 1989 doesn’t have a conclusive answer, according to Dee Christensen, Rural Telework Project Manager with the university’s Cooperative Extension Energy Program. Also without information on this sector of the work market are the Island County Economic Development Council, the state’s Labor Market Economic Analysis, and the Office of Trade and Economic Development.

Even the Whidbey Telephone Company could not say how many of their subscribers are telecommuting for business activities.

“Telecommuting is a great thing,” said George Henny, advanced technologies manager for Whidbey Telephone Company. “And we are poised and positioned to help people work by computer and telephone. But we don’t track that information.”

Even though there are no hard statistics, nearly every islander knows, or knows of, someone who telecommutes.

And though many telecommuters work in the high tech industry, teleworkers represent a wide cross-section of professions in a number of industries. Jobs that lend themselves most successfully to home-based work are those that require minimal contact with others, even in a normal office setting, to get the work done. Common teleworking positions are editors, writers, builders of Web sites, and software development. They may also be medical transcriptionists, architects — and many other professions.

Some telecommmuters are full-time employees, while others are independent freelancers. And some are small business owners in their own right, employing other freelancers and companies.

Since teleworkers cover the gamut of individuals and professions, as well as personal and professional workstyles, the following composite is offered to illustrate what a typical day in the life of a home worker is like.

Not as easy as it looks

Though it looks easier and more appealing to those who commute long hours, telecommuting poses some definite challenges. And it takes a special kind of person to make it work. For one thing due to juggling multiple clients and associated multiple deadlines, it often requires long hours.

Making those hours longer at times are those clients and employers who abuse the knowledge of how and where to reach the teleworker, even during what would normally be personal time and space.

“The perception is that you’re on call, even when you’re taking care of your personal life in the evening,” Ricardo Novak said. “So you sometimes don’t have the privacy you need. And it takes a lot of discipline.”

For those who are employed or working with clients, there’s also the necessity to maintain an active role in the work group. Brennan needs to physically “check in” at his company’s office in Redmond regularly.

“You need to go in to the employer or client’s office for meetings at least once a week or you lose your clout,” he said. “They’ll make decisions without you.”

And just because telecommuters have chosen their working lifestyle, like in any job, not all telecommuting employees enjoy everything about their jobs.

Though working from home is more convenient for her, Jeanne Juneau said she doesn’t like the solitary aspect of working at home alone. She prefers to work in a traditional office environment.

“I’m such a people person. I enjoy the community and comeraderie, the inspiration and the energy that working directly with other people gives me,” she said.