Working for yourself at home is great but what about benefits such as vacation time, health insurance, disability coverage, and all the other perks you get when you work for a big company? Must you give those up for the freedom of working at home? Not if you telecommute.

Millions of people now telecommute for all kinds of companies, and more join them every day. The question everyone asks though is which companies have employees who telecommute?

Glad you asked. Here is a short list of companies with telecommuters. Other employers with huge telecommuting programs include the federal government and AT+T.

·Alpine Access

·Palm Coast Data (FL) (web based transcription services)

·Sun Microsystems

·SureWest Communications

·IntelliCare (health care call center company in Portland, Maine)

·Methodist Hospital (Houston) IT, marketing, human resources positions

·Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) in Cleveland, Ohio

·Pitney Bowes

·The Treasury Department

·Patent and Trademark Office

·IBM

·JetBlue (home-based service representatives)

·Home Federal Bank (South Dakota)

·PyraMax Bank ($437 million-asset community bank in Greenfield, Wis.)

·GE Energy (Atlanta)

·Georgia Power (Atlanta)

·Qualcomm Inc. (to ease commuter woes of its employees in Sorrento Valley, California)

·IBM in Research Triangle Park

*George Mason University

·U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General

·Deloitte Services LP.

·Creative Services (Manhattan)

·Intel

To track down additional companies search the Web using Google, and be sure to check with your local business librarian. She may know of opportunities in your area. Although by definition telecommuters don't have to live in close proximity to their employers, it's best when that's the case. That's because you'll still need to show up at the office once in a while, since nothing can take the place of face-to-face communication.

Good luck! I've been telecommuting for more than 10 years now and while it gets lonely at times, the benefits are worth it 100 times over!