I've stopped trusting "improvements" to office life. It is obvious that all these ideas help everybody do more faster, but as we all know, the increased productivity has not had any material effect on the wages of American office workers. This article attacks the wrong side of the issue; it's not about whether telecommuting will cause problems for the individual worker. If this is really a good idea, any problems will be sorted out in due time. The real debate should be about whether the individual employee has any interest in accepting things like these.

Telecommuting has great promise, but I'm almost at the point where I'd like to say 'fuck you' to any company incorporating such aids. Giving half my wage (and rising, thanks to this!) to an executive is not my idea of earning a living.

Where they are applicable, startups use all of these techniques anyway. And the workers actually get more than superficial benefits. There's nothing to prevent small companies from going the same route...