PacBell Wants You to Do Your Home Work Today

If you’re reading this at the office, then you’ve missed out on California’s first official Work at Home Day.

May 7 was proclaimed Work at Home Day by Pacific Bell to promote its new home-office services and has been endorsed by Gov. Pete Wilson, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and a host of other public officials as a way to help unsnarl the freeways, clean up the air and better balance our complicated lives.

And where will Wilson, Riordan and those other officials be working today? In the office, it appears.

Mayor Riordan “is not going to be working at home, but he probably will be home in spirit,” quipped mayoral spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez, who also will be in the office today.

“He isn’t even going to get to go home early. He’s got a full schedule” that includes welcoming Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos and first lady Amelita Ramos, Rodriguez said.

San Diego Mayor Susan Golding does work at home periodically and is electronically hooked into her office, but today she’ll also be hosting the peripatetic Ramos and meeting with the City Council, spokeswoman Maryanne Pintar said. “She has a good reason,” Pintar said.

Wilson will be traveling in Southern California and “will be away from his home in Sacramento,” said his spokesman Ron Low.

The idea behind the day is to induce workers to try working from their homes and to offer guidance to confirmed work-at-homers, said Carol Larsen, executive director of Pacific Bell Work at Home Resources, a new service from the state’s largest local telephone company that provides information and products to telecommuters.

“We believe that if you work at home just once, you’ll be hooked,” Larsen said. “With 3.5 million Californians working from home, California is definitely leading the way on this trend.

“It really is not about May 7 or taking one day to be at home.” she said. “It’s a mind shift that says, ‘This is something that can get your productivity up.’ ”

More than 700,000 Southern Californians telecommute at least one day a week, according to the Southern California Telecommuting Partnership, a consortium of local governments and corporate sponsors.

Frances Machado is one them. A paralegal in the Irvine headquarters of Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon and Gladstone, Machado works out of her house nearly full time.

“There’s really no reason why I need to be in the office. I can do everything at home,” Machado said. “It’s beneficial working from home because I seem to get a lot more work done at home than at the office.”

Ten attorneys in the five-office law firm telecommute regularly, said managing partner Craig Simon.