Photo: Lenish Namath

Print this story out and keep it in a quick-draw holster, so the next time your crusty, dinosaur boss rejects your request to telecommute because they think the remoteness reduces productivity, you can slap this down on their desk.

Meet French businessman, publisher and journalist Gauthier Toulemonde, who recently telecommuted from an Indonesian desert island to his job in Lille, France for 40 days. The stunt fulfilled Toulemonde’s boyhood dream of testing the extreme limits of working remotely. His equipment included a tent, four solar panels, rations of rice and pasta, a phone and his laptop. He also fished in the sea, and scavenged for vegetables.

Practically speaking, the test was a success. Toulemonde satisfied all his responsibilities while his company, Timbopresse, put out two editions of “Stamps Magazine,” though he admitted that over time the lack of human contact was an issue. That and fending off rats, snakes and lizards.

With the once rising popularity of telecommuting and location independent working recently slammed into full reverse, namely by high profile companies like Yahoo yanking hard on the choke chain, it remains to be seen how telecommuting will evolve in the future.

[Via]