I would like you to read the article Could your
home office kill you? published at http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131204-could-your-home-office-kill-you and comment on/discuss it. Besides, describe
your study room/home office. Are you a homeworker? If not, can you imagine
working from home? Will more people work
from home in the foreseeable future?
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ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not a homeworker at the moment, I did work remotely for a while. However, it was a fairly relaxed environment, with none of the regulations mentioned in the article. None of the benefits, either, but the freedom of work itself is a pretty significant perk. The actual job didn't require any specific equipment beyond my personal PC/laptop, and as such, the bureaucracy part was very limited. I don't believe it would be nearly as pleasant in more regulated corporate job.
ReplyDeleteI can understand employers having their doubts about the issue. I never thought about it too deeply, but some of their concern are well founded. Additional allowance to spend on ergonomic equipment for prolonged desk work seems like a great idea. People not complaining about their work conditions due to fear of losing their remote job - viable concern.
However, some of these things seem rather awkward, like teaching remote workers self defense to protect themselves from stalkers. The effectiveness of such training is debatable in itself, nevermind the fact that anyone could theoretically be assaulted anywhere and being a homeworker shouldn't add to such risk. And finally, there are bizarre things like paying 1.3 million dollars compensation for someone dying from overworked... or tripping over her dog. I'd never think that something like that would be possible, but it's appearently a legitimate concern. It's pretty sad that the modern "culture" of suing for everything can be a reason for (potentially) abandoning a perfectly viable idea.
I'm not sure about the future of home offices. On the one hand, working at home seems like a benefit for all the involved parties. On the other, I never really thought about some of the issues involved in the process and they do seem pretty limiting. I assume that this market will continue to grow, but not at as rapid pace as I might have thought earlier.
Also I'm not a homeworker at this moment but many times (minimum 4-5 times per month) I work from home so i don't need to imagine this. I like to work from home cause everytime this is an extra 1 hour of sleeping ;)
ReplyDeletePhoto from this article is of course with a high level of abstraction but when I work from home I don't care about cleanup, then i using two laptops, two tablets and smartphones. With cables this is a mess.
I think that in the future more people will be working from home because our world seeks to mobility. If people are systematic I don't see problems to send their to work from home. Also if they can work from home employee is cheaper for company (they don't need big or even any office). Thanks Malgorzata for this article, I read from work so I was happy to read this ;)
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ReplyDeleteI'm not a homeworker but sometimes I work from home.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion only people which are systematic and responsible can work from home. In Poland many employers are afraid that, if the employee will be working from home he will not work efficiently, for that reason they want to from them to go to office. Also, not every work from home is possible, for example, when I worked as a programmer most of the time I was working from home, now most of the time I spend on meetings that is why I need to go to office. I know that someone can say that we have phones, Internet and so on but in my case it won't work :)
In my opinion in the future more and more people will work from home because it is more cheaper for the employers, like it was said when employ work from home then employers don't need to pay for the office.
At the end , I would like to mention about the fact that work from home may also have disadvantages, for example, working from home, we can stop separate work from personal life, while working in the office we finishing work after 8-9 hours we close the laptop and go home, but working from home there can always appear next urgent thing to do, and instead of working 8 hours we work 20 hours.
I know that working in the office, it is also possible that we will work for 20 hours, but I think that it's much more difficult :)
Another disadvantages is that we lose contact with the people:)
Did you sometime feel pressure on going to your office when you were working from home?
DeleteI heard about situation when project had failed and some heads noticed causes in less efficiency during working from home than in the office. I am not sure whether such situation were not finding causes of failure far apart. On the other hand I notice difficulties for improving some processes which are not fully controlled by managers like working from home.
Of course, if everything goes right there is no problem for working home.
To be hones I never feel that kind of pressure maybe because I always try to do may job best and from me it is no different if I work from home or from office as long as I don't have some meetings of course.
DeleteI also hard about that kind situation that's why I wrote that no everyone can work form office only people which are systematic and responsible:)
I completely agree with you that regular working from home is for systematic and responsible people. I wonder your opinion (as practician) because I hear about remote working in my company more and more.
DeleteWhen I tried to work from home I had the biggest problem with my family members. It was almost impossible to explain my a few years old daughter that daddy was at work.
Generally, I am probably against working at home. I like changes so it seems to me difficult to work, study and rest in the same place. However I sometimes use my house as office.
ReplyDeleteA new fact, which I noticed in the article, was that homeworkers work longer then office workers. Earlier I had been absolutely sure that working from home gives more free time. Other interesting part for me was about employer support for employees. It is good to know that remote working is not a way for maximal cost cutting for some companies.
My home conditions for working and studying are quite good. I live alone and have separate room with desk better looking than shown in the photo ;-). Disadvantages are: not too big size of that room, temperature during summer (then there is really warm and I don’t have an air-conditioning) and a slow link to the Internet (this difficulty ca be easy improved when necessary, of course).
I work only from home only in accidental situations and when solving these unexpected problems take only a few minutes (when there is no cause to go to office for such short time).
I think that people will work from home more in the future then currently. However, it is difficult to me to imagine teamwork, which I want to do, from home. At the moment I have to emphasize that I don’t live in big Warsaw and travelling between office and home (by car or bike) takes me less than one hour per day.
The benefits of working from home have a lot to do with lowering the costs of work. Imposing regulations, inspections and legal costs will diminish the attractiveness of this form of employment. With less than ideal job market situation and high unemployment in many places, these measures seem counterproductive. But of course, I'm sure there are lobby groups who would argue we need special certification, fees, insurance and taxes on home offices - the question is: what does it do to our ease of doing business and competitiveness rankings?
ReplyDeleteI think every home needs an office nowadays, but not every job is an office job. I enjoy working from home, mostly because I can make myself more comfortable. It's hard to tell what impact working from home will have in the future. Will cities have to be rebuilt? Learning from home is another interesting topic.
I am a homeworker for more than two years. But in summer months I'm working remotely, not at home. The classical office I visit, but very rarely, at most a few times a year. On the other hand, sometimes, especially in the summer months, I live mostly in the mountains, where I train rock climbing and mountaineering. In those days, if necessary (IT system failure), I work with your computer even under the tent. I have office wherever I have access to the Internet, sometimes in small towns or mountain villages.
ReplyDeleteMy home office is comfortable, I have got ergonomic chair, wide and long desk and bookshelves and all that is necessary to me. At home I chose a room on the north side with good ventilation, making the summer even without the air conditioner is not too warm.
In my opinion, in the future, more and more people will work in the home office, especially those who work like me, in the IT industry. So it will be, because it is necessary due to the rational use of resources including energy and time. In my case, and I live about 25 kilometers from the center of Warsaw, do not lose at least 2 hours a day on a stressful (traffic jam) traveling.
Answering the question "Could your home office kill you?” I guess so, as well as most other environments, especially when someone a very will try to keep home office in state like the picture above, or worse.:)
I'm not working from home and I could not imagine myself working from home. If I would be forced to work from home I would probably have to rent some office space prepared for self employed people. I can not agree with what Krzysztof wrote that "only people which are systematic and responsible can work from home" because i found myself systematic and responsible and still I think that working from home is not for me. This is not about regularity and responsibility but about all the stress and problems that you leave the work and go home to relax and get strength for the next day.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of working from home is great in theory - you don't have to spend money or time on commuting, you have your favorite coffee available in the kitchen and lunch is much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteBut as with most great ideas this one isn't perfect either. Some of the downsides are listed in the article - not having proper chairs, lighting or ventilation might lead to some health problems. More importantly, I see a different issue connected to the mental state of a person that spends all of his time working from home without contact with other colleagues. For me a home office is not a good idea, as the social aspect of working with others gives a great amount of positive emotions and broadens my horizons and creates a learning environment. So I believe that prolonged work from home might lead to some kind of depressive state (maybe not for all people but it would for me).
So all things are good in moderation and this is also the case for home office - who does not enjoy this special day (or two) in a month when you can work from home??
In essence the idea of a remote work, sometimes called “tele-presence”, is growingly accepted. It does make sense, because of convergence of available video-conferencing technology and economical factors. It is much less expensive to set up remote work station than the real office space. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the trend of telecommuting is on the rise. Personally I believe this to be a good trend. However, from my experience it takes a special, additional effort to adjust to such new working environment and some people may find it hard to accept, despite the apparent convenience. Setting working space at home may require changes of existing attitudes, creation and enforcement of new house rules. These may not be easily acceptable for everyone for eg. children.
ReplyDeleteI can describe myself as a part-time homeworker as I am involved in few projects that I work on from home. My home office is quite comfortable as it was designed to serve as a work place, though the space is very limited. I have everything I require to work in a small area so I don’t waste my time on wandering around.
ReplyDeleteAs a full time job I wouldn’t choose a work from home as I am more productive while working in the office because there are too many things that disturb me at home, especially I am very prone to take a nap that actually lasts longer than I expect.
Image of a home office in this article is great. I would like to have similar one.
ReplyDeleteI'm working partially at home but I don't believe home working has any sens in small companies (that I'm currently "working in"). It's a great idea for bigger comapnies where every position in a firm has a well prepared procedure for actions that should be taken everyday by an employee. So I can see an option to work from home but not in all cases.
I don't think that working from home will become so much more popular than now. It has it's drowbacks.
I have a small home office, but surprisingly main element in my office-room is a drums set. I guess I'm not that focues when working from home.
Sefty can be an issue when working from home and I believe it will be hard to overcome.
Yes, of course, with the passage of time more and more people will work at home. In the field of IT will be a particularly programmers. They will perform the work remotely or at home in front of
ReplyDeletehis desk. I agree with Gregory because working at home is cut off from reality. The house definitely should relax and not work. We can separate area of your office and work it in another room to
rest. I hope that the office most people look good. For many people working from home is suitable. It should be remembered about the people who are somehow strapped to your home. Since
there is opportunity for them to connections the place where they want or need to stay and work in this is the perfect company.
Working from home is quite difficult and not that easy as it might seem.
ReplyDeleteHow can you deal with the family and mainly kids? It is not easy at all to refuse interacting with them every time they ask you something.
Next issue is the blurred border between work and private life. When do you stop thinking about work and start thinking about your staff?
I believe that a short commute distance is possible and does not necessary mean that we all would need to have our homes changed into home offices. It is rather a matter of transforming big hq offices concentrated in city centres into smaller branches scattered in suburbs with high speed connectivity between them.
For me, this article is very biased and tells the story of an artificial problem. Accidents happen everywhere and in work, because work is a large part of human life. My opinion is that the real problem is the loss of control of the employer over the employee.
ReplyDeleteI work 3/4 of the week at home and I think that this is the best environment to work.
I do not stand in traffic when I go to work.
I do not need to go to business meetings.
I do not have to talk with colleagues at work, to walk with them for a beer.
I do not need to listen and pretend that I'm interested in the golden mean boss.
I can work in any position lying down, standing, and not only correct sitting position.
You could list goes on.
Employers do not adults for this type of work. Employees just waiting for that instead of getting up at 6 in the morning get up at 11 for coffee.