Should we have a National Work From Home Day in Canada? A discussion broke out recently on our Facebook page about the benefits of working from home, telecommuting. There was some debate as to whether ‘working from home’ wasn’t just code word for ‘taking a day off.’ Of course this is not the case; many people work from home either full-time or as part of their flexible scheduling arrangements. These people are not ’slackers.’
However, there is the danger of being perceived as merely taking a day off when you work from home, especially if your office culture doesn’t embrace the concept or your boss isn’t in tune with it. I promised Facebook user, Kylee that I would post some of the WFH benefits for her to help get the conversation started.
Working remotely, or not remotely working?
There are numerous advantages to having the option of working remotely for a day. Here are just a few:
- Focus. You can accomplish everything on your to do list that day without the constant interruption of people dropping by your desk for favours or chit chat.
- Free up time. You win back all the time that you normally spend commuting. Recent studies have said that this is an average of 45 minutes each way, (with Toronto scoring the slowest commute times in the world, and Montreal fairing not much better.) Just like that, you would add an extra hour and a half of freedom to your day.
- Quarantine. If you’re feeling a little under the weather (but not bad enough to take a sick day), you can WFH and therefore avoid the risk of infecting the rest of the office with your potential cold or flu.
- Achievement. People are actually more productive when they do their work on their own schedules. WFH implies that you are responsible for getting the work done whenever and however you accomplish it. Working from work implies you’re responsible for having your butt in a chair from nine am to five pm.
Those are mostly the advantages to pitch to an employer. There’s lots of personal benefits too, like it’s always ‘bring your dog to work day’ at home, WFH on a day that school is out saves the babysitter/daycare costs, no one steals your lunch from the community fridge when you’re at home (okay, that one could still happen.)
Obviously there are some pitfalls to working from home as well. Here are a few of the potential drawbacks.
- Out of sight… Because you’re not physically in the office, you risk being cut out of the decision making process for projects.
- Stalled. You lose face time with the boss, which can limit both your ability to learn from people in higher roles as well as your chance to make an impression on them.
- Loneliness. Actually going in to work offers the opportunity to socialize with coworkers, hear a variety of opinions, get immediate feedback on works-in-progress and to just get out of the house.
- No home to go to. If you work from home full-time, you’re also constantly at your workplace. Can you maintain work/life balance when you’re always at the office?
The arrangements that I’ve seen work best are flexible. People go into work most of the time, but on occasion (once a month, once a week, randomly-as-needed) they work from home either to accommodate some personal need, to add variety to a long work week or just to catch up on stuff.
Having the flexibility to work from home is empowering. Employees appreciate those kinds of perks, and it makes them more loyal to their employer. Plus WFH occasionally while maintaining a usual presence in the office eliminates most of the pitfalls that I mention above.
Perception is still a risk. So it comes back to broaching the topic with the boss, creating the culture of acceptance. (FYI – my boss has already ‘Liked’ the discussion on Facebook, and I plan to hold her to it.)
When researching my failed attempt (okay, I am starting to sound like a slacker) to make birthdays an automatic day off (see the Facebook discussion), I discovered that the UK already has a National Work From Home Day. So it’s not a new idea. Still, why shouldn’t we? Having a WFH day passed into law and printed on the calendar sure makes it easy to add to your work culture.
What do you think? Are you in favour of a National Work From Home Day for Canada? Let us know and I’ll write some follow-up pieces on successful policies and more of the benefits to help sweeten the deal.
- Peter Harris (Workopolis Writer)
I’m looking forward to working from home. For me that means working from the cottage every Friday all summer. I beat the weekend traffic!
A whole WorkFromHomeDay for the Country. I support you peter. From my living room.
I work from home occasionally and I find I can get more done than in the office. Without the interuptions and small talk in the office, productivity goes up.
I would welcome the idea of working from home
We used to have the option to work from home. It was great for everyone, until CERTAIN people started staying home 3-4 days a week. Some guys we never saw at all anymore. Management took the whole policy away from everyone because some people took advantage.
I remember Working from Home most Wednesdays. Really broke up the week and made everything go smoother. It should be law that if you don’t need to be in the office to get the job done, then you don’t have to go.
It’s a great idea! Think of how much good it could do for the environmen if everyone stopped commuting even 1 day per year. I have worked at home on occasion and find it is much more productive especially when I am trying to prepare something that needs my full concentration.
It’s great to work from home thinking no commute and comfort. Only drawback is that if employer allows work at home that opens up an opportunity to get the same work done by outsourcing. Posibilities of those work getting done by India and China increases manyfolds. Same thing happened in England and USA recently. We are jeopardizing jobs in this case in long run. Believe it or not, if work can be done from home, same work can be done from anywhere. Technology has done a great job in this case. Quality from outsourcing? IBM, Microsoft, Amex, GM..they all have done it successfully.
Is it practical to work from home? How does boss know who works and who does not. Even at work many people do not.
I really enjoy working from home. I find I’m less distracted and able to focus on the work I need to get done. Its great to meet with colleagues and to be part of a team environment but when I need to sit and focus I’m much more effective when I’m away from the office.
Sounds interesting. Why make law and not choice?
You can’t be lazy. Working remotely puts the onus on the employee to over-produce in order to leave no doubt in their employer’s mind that they are in fact working full steam without supervision.
Great idea you have on facebook. How do you make a national day? If enough people agree is it official? Like secretary’s day?
Telecommuting is a real bonus when your work involves communicating across global boundaries.I work in global sourcing and purchasing, all of my working life has involved working with suppliers in different parts of the world.
How else would you communicate with teams other than in a virtual world?
My last role had me talking to marine engineers on board ship, the ships could be any where ! , and also talking with suppliers in Canada, Uruguay, Germany, Poland.
Its a mind set change, I work in a virtual world , my geographic location is not really important any more.
I have worked in the auto industry , injection molding company manufacturing car interiors.
There the injection mold tools were made in Korea (Japanese company), the design work was done in the UK, then the components were made in Hungary.
The technology allows people in different parts of the world to collaborate on the project, that creates a problem for Managers though that are not technology savvy. How do you manage a team in a virtual work place?
I agree you are more productive in the use of time?, you focus on the tasks and do not get side tracked! The video or teleconferencing aspect will change that as meetings are called to bring the team together.
The negatives – well it can appear to be isolated eg no human interaction, and yes people do need to talk and chat together. After all thats how skills and knowledge is passed from more experienced staff members to junior qualified staff.
What about the benefits for the environment? That’s the #1 reason to work from home.
I don’t think I could work from home. The machines won’t fit in my house!
How great would it be to NOT have to deal with TTC headaches for a day?! I will cross my fingers, toes (and eyes if necessary) if it would help make this happen.
How about the day that you get your pink slip.! We should just be happy we have work those of us who do!
I wish I could. I work for a large high tech company, writing software. There is no good reason that I couldn’t work from home a lot but my boss refuses to allow it except in exceptional circumstances. So, every day I spend 2 1/4 hours in the car wasting my money and polluting the air while effectively stretching my work day by that much. It wastes my energy and it makes me less productive.
This is not uncommon in the computer world unfortunately. For various reasons, smart people don’t always make smart decisions.
Working rom home a couple of days a week would be perfect. I am more productive from home because the office phones, people yapping, diffferent office noises does not disturb me at home. And I save on transportation and clothes.
I think working from home would be a great idea, just not 5 days a week. I think there should be 1-2 days that are work from home days. Not only would this save the environment but I know those 1-2 days would be my most productive. You still get in the office to be involved in the decisions and, lets face it, get some time out of the house, but you also get a day or two to break up your week and get you out of the office. Sometimes you need to get out of the office as much as you need to get out of the house.
I totally agree with a Work From Home Day (this is because I work 8 hours in a chair in front o the computer every single day…). What could happen would be all employees would have the choice to work from home one day a week, no more than that: 4 days at work, 1 day working from home. This would avoid the case where people take advantage, because they would be allowed to a maximum of 1 day WFH. And for those who are not responsible or disciplined enough to work from home, there would be still the option of going everyday to the office.
I think one of the biggest wins for working at home is the green effect it has on the earth. Less polution, less fossil fuel consumption, less commutter conjestion, my transportation costs would be very minimal etc. etc.
I occassionally work from home and when I do I too accomplish more in my 8 hours with more time to go out after 5 to do the chores or just to get out and be more social with the people that I want to be more social with. Co-Workers are OK but I’d rather be hanging with my friends more often who are generally in the same town I live in. I would be less lonely working from home then spending all those frustrating hours driving alone, down a brain numbing highway (401), putting up with some crazy drivers. I will probably live longer without that stress and the inhalation of toxic fumes from the vehicles. Why was all this technology developed if we are not going to make use of it. Just a few of my thoughts
Totally awesome idea. Save the environment, save time, save money, all using readily available and – in a lot of cases – already installed technology (Citrix, RDP, VPN, DirectAccess, etc.).
Now if you take it a step further and use that empty office space to house the homeless or feed the hungry – NOW there’s a win win!
I would just love it, but it would be more interesting if it was more that 1 day a year.
Anyway, I’m in.
Absolutely a great idea! And wouldn’t it fit in nicely as a “car free” day? Good for your mental health, good for the planet’s health! Win win
I am actually working from home today. It is a great idea. I think if you job doesn’t require you to be at the office, you should have the option to do so. Our company has all the technology set up to be able to work from home. I think it should be a policy at every company!
I agree for a national work from home day. I believe this day should be in the winter. At times I have had to drive to work and its taking me 3 hours (one way) and was told that if I went home I would have to call it a sick day or vacation day. Do you know how much work I could have accomplished on that day (6 hours of travel time) almost a full day of work.
So they lost alot of my time on that day – but I decided to go home as it wasn’t risking my life driving through a snow storm.
So bring on National Work Day!
Unless we are getting paid to do so, I think it would be another day off that not very many of us can afford.
So many people are working from home these days, I think it makes perfect sense. You get a lot more done and think of the environment, less cars on the road.
I’ve worked from home for years, and I find it rather irritating that many people generalize from their own inability to work from home, to assume that everyone is the same.
I work as a contractor, so if I don’t work, I don’t get paid – simple as that. Like everyone I have productive and unproductive days, but they bear no relation to my location at the time.
Like anything, you get better at it with practice – if you only work from home once in a blue moon you probably will spend the day doing the laundry. After a while the novelty wears off and you just get on with business.
When I’ve led projects I’ve found it’s generally perfectly obvious who gets work done and who doesn’t, wherever they are sitting. I don’t notice what time they get into work, but I certainly notice what they produce. If, as a manager, you can’t tell what people are producing without having to watch them, you need to brush up your skills and spend more time reviewing their work!
As long as I was getting paid for the time I put in at home, Im in and the planet will be winning too!!
Not only does it help the environment, we would not need to make more highways to support the growing traffic if most people worked from home some of the time. The traffic on the highways would move faster. The government should reward companies that encourage their employees to work from home.
With my work, that would be great. I don’t have to worry much on commute time. By bus, it takes me only 30 minutes to get to work, but that is mostly 10 minutes on the bus and 20 minutes walking. In good weather, I take my motorcycle, which still takes half an hour because of the traffic.
My part time job is done from home. You can’t say there is no interaction, since I communicate with my boss by phone, email and on some occasions, in person. If there is a big project to get done for a client, I will meet with my boss at my own home to go over the job.
If I could work from home, at least once a week I can work on both jobs and end at 5. There is always time in between to get things done. The other days in the workplace, I will worry fully on my full time job and when I get home, to work on my part time. That will be great to have 1 day a week to not have to stay up late. That will help to cut the week and make me feel rested.
I feel that this day, would be great for all employees. I know that the profession I’m in requires a lot of paper work every so often. Sometimes, it’s extremely stressful when I’m at work. I can not always focus on the paperwork aspect, but the present issues that arise within the timeframe of my shift. Of course, there will be some people who work that will take advantage of this day as a “day off.” Those people, need to speak to their employers and advocate for themself some vacation time, or a real day off. As for this work from home day…someone tell me when :)
I’ve actually been working as a salaried employee, 100% from home, since 1992. It’s been very rewarding, but also a strange life. Some pieces of advice:
1) Don’t even think about it if you are not a very self-disciplined person.
2) Reserve a dedicated office/workspace in your home — it’s important to feel as though you are in an office, even though at home. Get a dedicated phone line for work, and a 2-line phone. Answer the phone professionally, as though you were in a real office.
3) If you are single, and not the loner type, consider the fact that you will have no social connection to the people you work with, and therefore your social life will rely totally on existing friends and family.
4) If you are married and have young kids, consider that they will not understand why you lock yourself in a room for hours at a time. Better if you can go to an office space on a separate floor if possible. That way it seems like you’re going somewhere to do something, and not just trying to avoid them.
If you’re going to work from home more than just one day each year, it’s important to make your home workspace as much like a real office as possible. Too many distractions means that you will not be as productive as you can be. If you’re one of the few they let work from home in your company, then you’re very lucky, but you’ll have to prove your worth.
That’a total wrong concept – you are beating around the bush. Sounds like you’re saving the environment, avoiding traffic accidents and all the blah blah. If you want to do somethong useful, it has to come within. For example, people deliberately eat fat icecream and they go by the skim milk. Does not make sense! Geeting to a workplace will teach you how to behave with others and become more sociable, and the likes. Because we are tired for doing something else and trying to take Friday off, for instance. So the problem lies somewhere else. A sound family or individual life can be a cure for all the problems. Just ask yourself within if you have five quiet minutes…..
First of all we should have to deside that why we have home? what is meaning and utility of home of in our life? It my belife that home is for relexesation, for to be fresh,for to be more energetic for next day,for mentain our social family relations and for to be fulfill our health and phisical needs.We are living two life one is office life and other is family life and now we are discusing to connect these two lifes.I think it may be borring to mentain for a long.
Morever office gives us copatitives atmosphere,practical knowledge improvement,team work,co opration,guideline,help,support,and employee can be more respnsible.I think working atmosphere is important, as we can not sleep in noisy atmosphere,same in doing work.
But some types of work can be done at home and it should be optional we should not immpose it .
Thanks!
Always a wonderful idea, but what hapens to those whose real jobs cannot allow them to work from home?
I currently work from home once a week and that took 2 years for me to convince the my boss. I gain 2 hours of commute and am very productive as I manage the interruptions . My team as well has work from home options so this shows them I trust them and that we dont need to be at the office all the time. My Senior management team never works from home (and is not 100% comfortable with it) and that is unfortunate, as they need to lead by example. There are challenges of course, if an employee goofs off at work all day, then don’t punish the entire team for one persons bad behavior. Overall love it and wish it was 2 days a week!!!
WFH can be very advantageous for some, and hinder performance for others. It takes a strong discipline to stay focused while at home as there are just as many distractions such as televisions, surfing the net, personal calls etc. Unless an employer/employee can quantify their efforts whem working from home there will be no measurable value to the employer to understand the pros and cons.
Be careful, as one person has already identified, WFH could easily sway the employer to review their current practices and consider outsourcing the function to a third party, subsequently keeping you at home permanently (with no job).
Absolutely support! The work should be productive. Would be great to measure efficiency and productivity of work on such a day to compare results with those under the normal routine. If we can prove that it is possible to be equally PRODUCTIVE while more EFFICIENT at home than at the office, this approach should be given more consideration.
working from home is great if you’re an office worker where technology can send all the information over the internet that’s required. but if you’re not an office worker this idea is kinda silly and only helps a specific part of the population. what about those who are construction workers or work in warehouses and other similar jobs? kinda hard to build a skyscraper or a house from your own home. or drive a forklift around while picking orders or organizing materials like lumber or goods for sale to be sent to grocery stores and other places like that.
Working from home is great! If you are able to. If I could bring my switchboard home and take calls from there ya it would work. Personally I’m tired of running into work everyday while half the office is “working from the cottage…err i mean home”. Sucks for me!
I am much more productive when working from home. It is to an employer’s benefit to allow working from home.
They can monitor whether your working, at least in part, by your time remotely connected (if they don’t trust you).
In return they get higher productivity, less electrical usage in the office since you are using your own instead, etc.
We can even attend meetings remotely via phone, webcam and other methods, some even being secure connections.
As a disabled employee, there are some days I can’t even make the commute and/or handle woking in the office. It is critical that I have a job allowing the flexibility to work from home. Unforturnately, in my experience, employers frown on working from home.
Maybe a work from home day is just what we need to kick these dinosaurs into the 21st century. After all, what is all of the communication technology for???? Certainly not just for in the office. You don’t need to phone the person who sits next to you…..
I am significantly more productive when working from home. With today’s technology we can even attend meetings remotely.
As someone with a disability, this is an important feature of any job I take. Some days I physically am not able to make the commute and/or work in the office.
Unfortunately, in my experience, companies I have dealt with discourage this practice, depite the higher productivity.
Maybe a national work from home day is just what we need to get these dinosaurs to wake up and get into the 21st century. After all, what use is all of the remote communication and connection technology if it just picks up dust.
Love it! I would fully support a national work from home day. It would be a step in the right direction. I think everyone who can should work half their work week from home. Imagine the reduced pollution and traffic on the roads. And the reduced stress!
“Great Idea” I work from my home office and typically work into the night and weekends, (lots of hrs) because the office is right there! I like the “excuss” of a day off just to justify it!
I’ve had two types of careers….one that required ‘face time’ and one where I have been an entrepreneur…..in both I put in more than the normal, basic hours every week…..in the first career, because I was a woman in a non-traditional environment (and had to over-produce to ‘prove’ oneself), and in the second because to be successful in business and to brand and become an internationally recognized expert one simply has to put in the effort. So, I can see the benefit in productivity of working from home (and how it applied to both my careers. However, I’ve met enough slackers in my life, that I could see how skeptics would undermine the credibility of it.
I’d love to vote for it nationwide or internationally, however there would be those who would not put in the effort and there would be those who would over-produce in order to ‘prove’ themselves worth and to satisfy the skeptics.
So, does one do it on merit, as a national thing, for everyone? Hard to say, harder to do…….
If you are at work, you have to give 110% to our work. Don’t let the work to enter your home, it will ruined your life. If you have opted work from home, then your home environment will be also like your work environment.
The home should be full of enjoy and stressless. It is helpful only once in week’s time, when you couldn’t go to your office because of xyz reason
Yes, right across Canada. We should have a National Work From Home Day in Canada. Hmm, just one minor problem. IF you are a Taxi Driver , Parking Lot Attendant, ParaMedic, Bus Driver. . . you might run into a problem.
Just to give you some idea NOT all of them or these hard working Men And Women will enjoy the benefit. BUT I do wish that they get a day OFF on “National Work From Home Day” with pay or consider it as a Stat. Holiday! ! ! !
Not all of us work in offices you know…
I currently work from home and I am now looking for an office position. The first year was great but the second was very lonely. I really like having the social interaction. Yes it’s a long commute for me (over 2 hrs each day) and it would be great to work from home a few times a month but on a permanent basis it’s not for me.
I do encourage occasssional working from home. The benefits gain from working from home can not be compare to working in the office. working alone could lead to boringness and which may cause difference diseases to the body. The reasons give by those that love working at home are things that makes human existence and brings happiness to human, like dealing with traffic, meeting others and learning from them. You can not know who you are and level of skills if you don’t associate. Human need each other in other to make a perfect, happy and progressive healthy living.
Working from home has been very good for me. I do two days per week at home. That saves me 5 – 6 hours of commuting time per week minimum. That time goes to the kids! I’m also less stressed and more productive. My boss telecommutes as well and so do many of my colleagues. You just need to know schedules and almost any meeting can take place over skype or teleconference.
I am one who strongly believe that working from home is a great idea. Less commute for people who have to travel 3 to 4 hrs per day. I too work from home and have found it to work very well for my family. I am able to be more productive and less distracted. I think it is a great idea to have a National work from home day. Think about it people, the amount of times you have had to call in sick because someone else in the office was ill and did not consider the well being of others. Hint Hint people if you are in the comfort of your own home, you will not have to share other peoples germs that would be going around the office/workplace. That is all for now
All very good comments – here is mine. Working form home is a great way to motivate and retain employees, too bad there are so many antiquated employers out there who think the resource has to be sitting in the office to do their job. I agree – it is not for everyone or every role however when it makes sense corporations should be offering employees the option to work from home – especially those employees they want to keep. I worked from home for 6 years and I was very successful – in fact I got more done out of my home office then I would ever get done in an office – too many disruptions and distractions in an office. Companies need to become more flexible – the workplace of the future will be made up largely of remote employees with only the core essential functions being performed in an office
On my last position as an Operations Manager, most of the time I worked from home. This provided me extra time from driving to the office, dressing for the office and I felt relaxed and with the door closed to my office, coffee in hand, gave me no sidetracks to totally concentrate on my job.
The advantages are not for everyone. You need to have no children at home, a partner who totally understands you need undisturbed time and the home to be quiet. I would suggest that many a successful Entrepreneur started their career from a home office. This is a familiar place designed and decorated to your own liking. If it feels good, you will do well.
The problem with working from home is that people in the office don’t believe that you are dedicated to working. This leads to office gossip and when you need the communications within the company team, doesn’t always turn out how it should. I believe this is an upper management problem that filters down to the office workers. If upper management believed that their Managers hired the proper people dedicated to their position, this would filter down to the office staff.
I feel a day of home work for general office staff would help, if organized properly, understand how it works.
Working from home is a great concept and should have all sorts of advantages. Unfortunately, in my experience working in adminstrative support in secretarial roles, the managers like to work from home, but the ‘plebs’ have to stay in the office to do the menial stuff, like answer the phone and deal with the documentation etc. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that “working from home today” meant I will answer my cell phone on the golf course or when I mute the tv or finish paying for the shopping. Just a suspicion….
Working from home is not my favorite thing to do. Some companies expect you to see your work during the weekend, need to see what is going on with e.g your orders for a software, I recently left Opent Text and I know many people there “working from home” that was just a joke.
Rules are not clear in these cases some people take advantage of this “working from home” when others use their sick days for a reason which is really being sick, some of these suckers will say “I am sick but I am working from home”. Ethics are lost in situations like this.
My oppinion is if somebody works from home, well do it all the time and do not show up to the office at all.
National work from home day, for office workers only, as usual. Of course the rest of us lose out … again.
NOT fair to those hired as receptionists / office services / mail / housekeeping / security, etc., as their jobs warrant them to be AT the office. If they are NOT on location at their place of employment the whole office shuts down for the whole day. AND for those who “could” work from home, they all have to be set up via IT with remote access to office servers / email, etc. There are a lot of “security” issues surrounding that. There would also need to be software in place on a person’s home computer / laptop (IF not the company’s) to monitor their time worked to prove authentication of work done from home
Perhaps a rotational “work from home” … however, proof of time spent “working” would have to be in place
The debate should move away from a national work from home day to whether employers would create a favourable social and productivity advantage from allowing employees a day at home…at anytime
Keep in mind that a lot of work situations are not office tower (won’t miss me)settings….many industrial and service operations are small work units that could not function with members absent.
The benefit of a national day would be another perk for the few who already have most workplace perks in society………the majority would not as usual.
I would be so much more productive if I worked from a home office.
Less interruption brings in more $$$$ in my view
I am a 100% telecommuter for my job, and so is everyone in my team, heck most of us aren’t even in the same state/country. I personally work in communications, and am currently engaged in creating a global standard, everyone I work with is on the otherside of the world. It is great, but one detracter I have found, is the isolation, every month or two I need to go into the office for a day or two or else I lose my focus and start to goof off at home.
1. other down point I have seen is everyone whom does not work from home, assumes that I am “free” to do anything they want. This has caused more fights that I would like to think about as others don’t understand the WFH mentality, and that I do have to put in 8-10 hours for work just as they do.
WFH sounds like an absolutely great idea! Of course, as with everything else in life, there are the pros and cons to having a National Work from Home day. Some of the pros are the higher productivity, less stress commuting, more hours in the day to do chores, environmental benefits, etc. while cons are the possibility of goofing off, less social interaction, boredom, etc. Unfortunately also, there are many professions that do not have the flexibility for this – what would happen if all the cops worked from home, or nurses/doctors had a day to work from home. As pointed out in many comments, this day would benefit the office workers with the available compatible technology the most. For those that can’t afford a day to work from home, Employers can compensate by adding perks like an extra vacation day, bonus, etc.
Working from home is not a black and white case, as there are many gray areas. the issue of goofing off can hold true even in an office environment. It all comes down to personal discipline. The bottom line, the benefits of a National Work from Home day, is my opinion, would far outweigh the demerits. Count me in!
I believe that if you allow your employees to work from home, not only will they be more productive, but you are also empowering them with the idea that you actually trust them. So many companies are afraid of this because of the lack of trust, but if you show them that you trust them, then maybe we would have a little more employee to company loyalty. As well imagine the decrease on health care because not as many people would be in car accidents each day and or having heart attacks because they are stressed to the max. I think this is a GREAT idea!!!
There are pros and cons to everything. Not all jobs can be done at home. But I do believe that most office work could be completed at home.
Companies could benefit from virtual employees. Expenses for office space, furniture, office equipment, supplies and utilities would be less.
The individual would save on clothes, fuel, transportation fees, parking fees and child care.
The quality of ones life would change and families would benefit.
No more office politics or back stabbing co-workers.
Let’s face it. It’s a dog eat dog world and most of us are wearing Milkbone underware.
A WFH day, once a week, would give the employer a more productive employee, provided this employee is dedicated, disciplined and trustworthy.
There’s also the enviroment and economy.
If there were legit companies that hired virtual office staff; would there be less unemployment? Possibly. No age or appearance discrimination.
Would less vehicles on the highways help provide a healthier, safer enviroment for us and our children? I think it would.
I am currently unemployed, and would love to work at home for a reputable company that would provide a decent income so I could support my family.
With todays technology, I believe the WFH could and would work.
See if your employee can still provide a productive day outside of the office.
Help the enviroment for a day.
Count me in!!
I work for a regional municipality in Ontario. They make all kinds of noise about being green as well as launching a bunch of totally useless activities to promote being green. The biggest green idea is telecommuting which they will not do. HR people are allowed to telecommute, but no-one else is! Apparently, they say it can’t be done and they make the decisions.
In the summer the air-conditioning is reduced until it is about 25-26c in the office – in the winter the heating is raised to the same temperature! In the winter 18-20c is good enough as everyone is wearing winter clothes. No only is there a lack of commitment to do anything solidly green, but they throw in hypocriticality as well.
Any organisation run by politicians and their servants will not do anything solidy green by will only make useless gestures. Rather than concentrating on fairy-land pie in the sky things like telecommuting there is a need to do all the small stuff to save energy. Keep the temp down in the winter, allowing flexible hours to avoid rush hour and make it easier to use transit. Be flexible on the dress code so that peopel can wear cooler clothes in the summer and warmer clothes in the winter. Design buildings again with windows that open, allow more natural light into office space to cut down on light usage, etc.
Reading the user “TeriMac”, it is unfortunate but receptionists are quickly becoming obsolete. It would probably be in the interest of receptionists to expand their skill sets – find new positions within your organisation before your position becomes redundant. Even without telecommuting we are eliminating receptionists.
Our organisation (a municipality) decided that receptionists are unnecessary except for the main reception. We have a customer centric philosophy in which the people involved in any project contact the customer directly. Outside contacts are only by appointment – when they arrive at the office they call the extension of the person who they are visiting or call ahead. It works very well without the added barrier of a receptionist.
We have program assistants who handle mail in addition to clerical duties. It seems the clerical role within our organisation is becoming more and more generic.
As for those who cannot work from home, they can still work from the office. What I glean from TeriMac’s comment is that she is worried about her job. There are various pros and cons regarding telecommuting, but you would be surprised how few there are.
Security – We can connect using the Microsoft Remote Desktop or use a WSA (Whale Security Appliance).
Monitoring people’s work and time spent – Totally unnecessary, you need to assume that people are adults and not children. The majority of people I know will do their work without big brother looking over their shoulder. In the event that they do not get their work done, it would quickly become evident by their results.
Software on the home computer – Totally unnecessary. I can login remotely and access whatever software I need from the network to get the job done. I can access my email, any office application, SQL Server Management Suite, Blackberry Enterprise Server just to name a few.
Fair – you’re joking right? Only kids in school believe in “fair”. Anyone who has worked for awhile knows that the definition of Fair is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods. On occasion there will be big tents and rides for the children.
Most of the objects put forth against telecommuting seem to come from a “union mindset”. That is not productive in this environment. Union mindsets are fine on the factory floor or in offices with a lot of generic clerical workers, but with the IT staff who would most likely telecommute it would be counterproductive.
It is good to read above all the advantages and disadvantages….. each one of course makes sense. The wastage of time in travelling to work, listening to gossips, phone interruptions… etc etc etc. And what you miss, the rapport with a human, knowledge, socializing…. etc etc etc.
What can I say, all those who have jobs are the lucky ones. I cannot even find work, be it home or office, been looking for an year now.
Cheers!