Who wants to work from home?

Management Issues is highlighting a new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which reveals that tele-working or tele-commuting is not as popular as once thought, and figures are being skewed by the inclusion of the self-employed. Hardly surprising, really.

I posted an article on the subject back in July, in which I mentioned some of the major stumbling blocks. Chiefly practical ones, they nevertheless pose a sufficient barrier to make it not worth the effort for most people.

I spent a couple of hours on Saturday morning in my study working on the project Condor report, and it was pretty productive really. But only for a couple of hours, and only because my son was out with his mates. I also had to e-mail the document - and the review comments - to myself at home, because I cannot access the LAN from home.

When someone comes up with a system which provides broadband internet access securely from company laptops, I will be one of the first to give it a try. However, a lot of my work involves face-to-face discussions, so I would still be in the office most of the time anyway. And I would find it really difficult to plan when I was going to work from home, too.

Which raises another point. How many of us have weekly buss passes, weekly train tickets, or weekly parking tickets? Working from home sometimes will surely negate some of the benefits of those discounted tickets, so there is little incentive there.