Career Center: Top career trends
6. Telecommuting will rise. As urban traffic thickens and more jobs can be done from home, more employers will allow workers to telecommute, at least for part of the week. In fact, telecommuting was one of salary.com's hottest compensation trends for 2006. It makes sense. It reduces the real estate employers need to pay for, and with so much work done on computers, it's easy for companies to track productivity, no matter where the work is done.
How to get ahead: Pitch telecommuting to your boss, but think twice about requesting it full time. Often, if you're out of sight, you're out of mind when it comes time for the boss to assign plum projects. And from home, it's harder to build the relationships with higher-ups that are key to getting promoted. One more tip: When you and your baby are playing patty-cake, turn off the Web cam.