Home Working - The Answer to Pandemic Planning?

I have seen so may reports claiming that home working is the answer to all of the issues around Pandemic planning, especially Avian Flu etc.

Many companies claim that they will have all of their employees working from home, using the Internet to connect back to the office, and using VOIP to make all of their calls.

Think again .... I firmly believe in the report from Booze Allen claiming that "Telecommunications will likely be overwhelmed early in the pandemic. Some experts speculated that the Internet could shut down within two to four days of the outbreak"
See : http://www.boozallen.com/about/article_news-ideas/2912247?lpid=66005

So be careful how you plan - a 'siege mentality' is likely to result if a pandemic hits major industrialised countries. That's where we all lock ourselves behind our front doors, and do not venture out. The same will be true for the guy who fixes issues at the local telephone exchange and for Tesco Direct drivers too - so make sure you have some food reserves!

Home Working, Telecommuting - Call it what you want....

Home working is just great - it allows me to get on without the distractions of the office, and all without leaving home.
There are a some downsides of course - but as long as you can manage those, then it's a great way to work. Just make sure that if you're a 'people' person, that you at least make time for some face-to-face contact at some point, not every day perhaps, but at least a few times a week, otherwise it can be very isolating.
And be very careful to make sure that those people you work for (management !) do know what you are doing, and that you don't get forgotten about.
I'll post more about the different aspects later - keep watching.....