COMMENT
Working from home is good for people and good for the planet. But how easy is it for a team to collaborate while everyone's out of the office? Jo Best explains how silicon.com will put this idea to the test.
My most recent Upwardly Mobile column dealt with environmental issues and how the big mobile operators and handset manufacturers are doing their bit - or otherwise - in 'greening' their business. But are you doing your bit?
It's easier than you think to be mobile and green. A study out this week from Oxford University shows that flexible working and working from home (WFH for the uninitiated) is one way to help cut carbon emissions.
Anyone who has the privilege of working from home will not only testify to their greenness - less travel means less carbon - but also improved work-life balance and flexibility. Some research even found higher happiness levels among home workers.
And for all the bosses out there tut-tutting at the thought of employees 'skiving' away at home, WFH can bring about potentially increased productivity and certainly lower overheads.
Sounds like a win-win, doesn't it? You'd think we'd all be falling over ourselves to work in our dressing gowns but apparently that's not the case. According to recent statistics, three million of us now telework but the rate of uptake has been slow.
So what's gone wrong? Why aren't more of us enjoying the benefits of homeworking? Surely, every large company should have the infrastructure in place for its employees to WFH from a business continuity point of view. If the office is damaged by fire, terrorism or for any number of reasons and is out of action, teleworking allows a company to stay in business.
But just how easy is that scenario? For non-techies, it's not always easy to master the technology needed to work from home. Just because take-up of faster broadband, mobile email, VoIP and IM has rocketed, doesn't mean these techs are easy to use.
So just how easy is it for a whole office to work from home? Friday will see silicon.com grasp the nettle and work remotely. Each team member will need to carry out their jobs either from home or out on the road. It's not an exercise we've attempted before and we'll be bringing you a report on how the experiment went, warts and all.
Are you a regular remote worker? Send your tips and experiences to editorial@silicon.com.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Simon Allen
I have been freelance (at several things) for 17 years. The times when I have had to work exclusively at the client premises have been very tedious. I would never go back to conventional employment.
Sometimes I work in the middle of the night or at weekends - as long as I meet the deadline, who cares?
By the way, "You'd think we'd all be falling over ourselves to work in our dressing gowns" As we move into summer, I don't bother with the dressing gown ...
2. Rob Nicholson
I continue to be amazed how rarely one comes across Citrix and terminal server in large organisations for remote working.
It is one of the best home working environments around, possibly *the* best.
With the exception of remote controlling your PC remotely, no other system can let workers log on to almost any PC and get their familiar desktop in seconds.
Yes we use it and it's wonderful, it really is.
3. anonymous
Go talk to IBM - maybe not today's "poster child" trendy IT company - but they started home (and remote location of any kind) working in the late 1980s with very early experiments (PCs with no hard drives and 300kb modems!) and by the early 2000's this was pervasive around the world for the dominant proportion of their staff. It is now so ingrained it is impossible to imagine the company without it.
If you want to understand the technology needed, the cultural change it takes (particularly in management) then you could do a lot worse than use IBM to help any company make this change.
4. Charles Stirling
Government policy to increase housing density and the economics of land and housing prices are producing houses with so little "extra" space that WFH is much more difficult for many. No space to isolate the working environment. The kitchen table might be fine for occasional use, for more full time WFH some sort of home-office is needed and not being built into new houses.