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This in theory should solve the world's problems.

We should move most 'regular' office jobs to home offices; all communication done via internet teleconferences. This removes commuting, travel expenses, congestion and solves global warming. It would also reduce infectious disease such as influenza pandemics. People could live and work in their nice countryside homes away from horrible overcrowded and polluted cities like London.

So why do we still cram into tiny workspaces in the city centres, suffer from horrible and expensive commute and high stress levels?
 
daugirdas said:
So why do we still cram into tiny workspaces in the city centres, suffer from horrible and expensive commute and high stress levels?
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so the boss can look over your shoulder...
 
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It's a great idea. The two hours of work a day which most office workers pack into eight hours at the office could be carried out much more efficiently at home!


Steve.
 
And this'll solve the world's problems? Right.
 
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I work from home at least once a week and find I get a lot more done when working from comfort of home that I do in a day in the office.

We only have about 80% of the desks and you have to hit desk so they encourage people to work from home at least once a week.
 
I remember "working from home" once (many years ago) in a previous job"... well Friday afternoon sitting on the patio with a cold beer...

work mobile with me and work laptop logged in , on a conference call......

what I was not expecting was 8, yes 8, RAF Tornado's to come screaming overhead, quite low and very fast.. and therefore very noisy....

People were "what the hell was that?" I took the easy option of joining in with the "what the hell was that comment"
 
I work from home. It's a great opportunity to do the decorating.
 
Lynton said:
I remember "working from home" once (many years ago) in a previous job"... well Friday afternoon sitting on the patio with a cold beer...

work mobile with me and work laptop logged in , on a conference call......

what I was not expecting was 8, yes 8, RAF Tornado's to come screaming overhead, quite low and very fast.. and therefore very noisy....

People were "what the hell was that?" I took the easy option of joining in with the "what the hell was that comment"
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New keyboard please @Lynton :D
 
Some jobs being controlled functions just cannot be done from home. Trust me.

Furthermore all these factory jobs in Sunderland, Swindon and Burnsaston. Just how can you build lots of Nissans, Hondas and Toyotas from your house.

Never mind all those Romanian fruit pickers pulling apples off the TV remote as Jeremy Kyle gets his teeth into some Chav
 
what would happen to the industries and the employees that rely on servicing those office workers - transport workers, cafes, restaurants, bars, beggars .... ?
 
ST4 said:
Furthermore all these factory jobs in Sunderland, Swindon and Burnsaston. Just how can you build lots of Nissans, Hondas and Toyotas from your house.
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since when were they regular office jobs as stipulated in the original post?
 
ST4 said:
All the supervisory/managerial posts go with this industry need to be on site not ensconced in front if the TV
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Clearly our interpretation of "most 'regular' office jobs " is different. I don't read it as every office job from every industry.
 
Banks, Emergencey services, Armed Forces, Hospitals, gas, electricity services etc, etc, etc...... !!!!

I guess you didn't factor them in to your plan.
 
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I often work from home. It can be more productive and knocking 3 hours of commuting off a day is nice too. But I work in a very team based environment, so it is equally important to have days in the office.
 
@daugirdas So does this mean you're taking onboard everyone's advice from your Romanian fruit pickers thread?

Bye then :wave: :p
 
new2me said:
what would happen to the industries and the employees that rely on servicing those office workers - transport workers, cafes, restaurants, bars, beggars .... ?
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There would still be enough custom for sure. London transport can't cope with volumes of [British] office workers as it is.

Yves Geza said:
@daugirdas So does this mean you're taking onboard everyone's advice from your Romanian fruit pickers thread?

Bye then :wave: :p
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I'm genuinely trying to solve problems for you living in the overcrowded London.
 
I've been working from home for a while now.

I should think so as I'm a carer looking after an elderly mother who lives with me. :runaway: :D
 
daugirdas said:
There would still be enough custom for sure. London transport can't cope with volumes of [British] office workers as it is.



I'm genuinely trying to solve problems for you living in the overcrowded London.
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As opposed to the undercrowded London near Brigadoon?
 
11-12 years ago, I was offered a job with a new company setting up, providing call centre services for various companies, but all the agents would be sitting in their own homes. In principal it was a great idea, the directors, all who had many years experience managing call centres, had put a lot of time and money into researching the feasibility of it and we even got as far as visiting BT's development centre to sit down with the software developers and learn how the systems would work.[I went with 2 of the directors as I was going to be a supervisor from the off because I had a lot of customer service experience in several industries, motor trade, insurance and retail] As a divorced mother with two primary school age children, this was the perfect job for me. The initial 10 employees, myself included were pretty much trained up and our new computers delivered and installed and we had already been involved in interviews and induction for 20 more agents, and there were 7 companies signed up to come on board to actually use the service when BT dropped a bombshell. Their initial quotation for provision and support of the software that would link everyone together had been in the hundreds of thousands of pounds... they decided to double that..and add a bit more. It simply wasn't doable, they refused to budge despite their initial costing being a quote [not an estimate] and the banks that had helped get everything off the ground said they simply couldn't loan the extra needed. Everyone was truly gutted as you can imagine.
However, that was, in technology terms, many years ago now, and the ability for people to work from home has moved forward light years compared to back then, so as much as it galls me to admit it, Daugirdas is in some ways right, I think there is a huge value in having many more people home based. Yes there are issues of 'motivation' and myriad other stuff but none of it stuff that can't be dealt with. I don't think it will solve all the world problems, but I do think there is far wider scope for people doing this in certain jobs than is currently being used...and its probably a lot cheaper to implement these days too ;)
 
boyfalldown said:
not to mention we (generally) need the social contact that going to work brings
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Like with the hot girl from fundraising ? ;)

Personally I work about a day a week from home , but as team leader I also need to be on site to actually lead my team (and chat up the hot girl from fundraising, obviously)

Although i actually get far more done working at home, the big isue is self discipline to actually work which not everyone has
 
big soft moose said:
Like with the hot girl from fundraising ? ;)

Personally I work about a day a week from home , but as team leader I also need to be on site to actually lead my team (and chat up the hot girl from fundraising, obviously)

Although i actually get far more done working at home, the big isue is self discipline to actually work which not everyone has
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I think the bigger problem, and I say this based on networking with and talking to a lot of people that are self employed and work from home - is convincing those around you that you are working and cannot just leave the desk to go and sit in the garden for half an hour, mop up the dog sick, run to the shop, or whatever else you might do at home when not working.
 
Yv said:
I think the bigger problem, and I say this based on networking with and talking to a lot of people that are self employed and work from home - is convincing those around you that you are working and cannot just leave the desk to go and sit in the garden for half an hour, mop up the dog sick, run to the shop, or whatever else you might do at home when not working.
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This is true - I only work from home wheni'm on my own in the house - otherwise i'd have more peace and quiet in the office.
 
Yv said:
However, that was, in technology terms, many years ago now, and the ability for people to work from home has moved forward light years compared to back then, so as much as it galls me to admit it, Daugirdas is in some ways right, I think there is a huge value in having many more people home based. Yes there are issues of 'motivation' and myriad other stuff but none of it stuff that can't be dealt with. I don't think it will solve all the world problems, but I do think there is far wider scope for people doing this in certain jobs than is currently being used...and its probably a lot cheaper to implement these days too ;)
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cheaper and easier logistically, still a nightmare to admin though. supporting remote users is a ball ache.

plus who pays for and maintains the internet connection if its primarily for work use, tax implications etc.
 
Yv said:
I think the bigger problem, and I say this based on networking with and talking to a lot of people that are self employed and work from home - is convincing those around you that you are working and cannot just leave the desk to go and sit in the garden for half an hour, mop up the dog sick, run to the shop, or whatever else you might do at home when not working.
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Hmm, but when people open in the door wearing their dressing gown it's not very convincing.
 
neil_g said:
cheaper and easier logistically, still a nightmare to admin though. supporting remote users is a ball ache.

plus who pays for and maintains the internet connection if its primarily for work use, tax implications etc.
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I imagine in terms of the internet connection, it would very much depend on the company, they could maintain/pay for totally [possibly the better option for reliability] or its a personal line that has tax allowances in the same way your other utilities do if you are home based working.
 
Yv said:
I imagine in terms of the internet connection, it would very much depend on the company, they could maintain/pay for totally [possibly the better option for reliability] or its a personal line that has tax allowances in the same way your other utilities do if you are home based working.
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the later (personal line) would be better. minimum terms on line contracts, issues surrounding leaving the person without internet or phones when leaving the business etc arent worth the bother.

we have to pay for our own connection (after all, everyone has internet at home right) but the cost is covered in flat rates for being on call. something to do with tax.. :)
 
There are a lot of people who live in the countryside and commute to work. Sometimes Internet connections in villages are extremely slow. This is a national issue that needs addressing but as private companies own the line it's not an easy one to resolve. The utopian home working dream is many years away from reality I would suggest.
 
Yv said:
I think the bigger problem, and I say this based on networking with and talking to a lot of people that are self employed and work from home - is convincing those around you that you are working and cannot just leave the desk to go and sit in the garden for half an hour, mop up the dog sick, run to the shop, or whatever else you might do at home when not working.
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Leave skype permenantly open (for text) and ensure you respond promptly.

I could do over 90% of my job from home, but I don't have that option.
 
Blank_Canvas said:
There are a lot of people who live in the countryside and commute to work. Sometimes Internet connections in villages are extremely slow. This is a national issue that needs addressing but as private companies own the line it's not an easy one to resolve. The utopian home working dream is many years away from reality I would suggest.
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When I moved house in 2010 one of my absolute requirements was that I could get at least 2Mbps ADSL (I can get about 3-3.5 Mbps ADSL here). That's not enough for HD streaming etc, but it's enough for surfing and so on that is likely to be all that's needed to work from home.

RDP might need more if the office is all windows server with dumb clients rather than just taking the data needed home and bringing it back when you come into the office, but I've not investigated (suspect that Neil is more likely to know about that).
 
onomatopoeia said:
RDP might need more if the office is all windows server with dumb clients rather than just taking the data needed home and bringing it back when you come into the office, but I've not investigated (suspect that Neil is more likely to know about that).
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ive RDP'd in from a flakey 3G on the train before. doable albeit not pleasant.
 
The problem is these companies would realise they don't need all the middle managers and team leaders and you would be out of a job.

Why would employees need to be spied on with webcams etc.. you give them there work to do and if they don't do it they are sacked just as they would be in a office.

There are many many jobs out there that would work just fine at home if there was the option.
 
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I suspect genuine IT issues might also be a problem , our VPN is so slow ive virtually stopped using it when working from home (we have a webmail option as well)
 
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