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Or a
Kibbutz.
Sounds like a commune Keith.
Darryl
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 7:30
AM
Subject: [Futurework] Teleworking --
or, a fortune awaits a house-builder
It has amazed me in recent years why teleworking
has not taken off at a far greater speed than hitherto and is not far more
widespread. British Telecom reckon that there are about 1.5 million people
who work from home in Enlgand via the telephone or the internet, but that as
many as 5 million could easily do so. When I see the hundreds of Ministry of
Defence civil servants who drive past my house every morning going to work
in drab offices where they sit and talk or telephone all day, or sit and
write sometimes or attend dreary committee meetings, there is little doubt
in mind that many more jobs in the country could also be done from
home.
Or perhaps not home. During the last six years, during which I
had set up my own teleworking business, which involves a team of colleagues
in seven countries (and who have never met) publishing work which is bought
by customers in over 70 countries, I have often returned to the thought. Why
aren't there more teleworking businesses? And why don't many more large
firms encourage their staff to work from home? Both they and their workers
would save immense amounts of time, commuting costs and expensive office
accommodation.
One of the reasons, I thought, was the insecurity (or
the status needs) of middle management who need to be able to see their
workers in case they shirk their duties. We all know those photographs of
Victorian foremen patrolling machine-shop floors, or matronly office
supervisors pacing large offices in which hundreds of girls battered away
busily at their Remingtons. We've also seen modern photographs of huge call
centre offices with hundreds of individuals booths vanishing into the far
distance. Now in that case, it seems to me that the profitable thing that
employers should have done next is to ask their staff to work from home.
Instead, many employers have now taken two jumps forward by moving the work
entirely to Bangalore. This, of course, is even more profitable, and I can't
blame them. Nevertheless, I feel sure that some companies who've made this
move regret it because even the very bright Indian staff don't always
understand callers' dialects and, often, their problems, because they are
not familiar with our culture.
The other reason I thought of for the
slow adoption of teleworking from home is the obvious one that perhaps
people are lonely when working from home. It took quite a while for the
penny to drop in my case because, personally, I like working alone, and it
never occurred to me that some may find it stressful. I have friends,
obviously, and I communicate (and gossip!) a great deal, but most of that
that takes place over the Internet these days. But research is showing that
it is indeed this lack of sociability which is the chief reason why many
people don't want to work from home and why the idiotic (and unhealthy)
practice of driving for long distances every day to go to work -- and back
again in the evening -- is so readily accepted by so many people.
So
here's something. I have had this idea for some years and have thought
through most of the angles, I think. I'm quite convinced that there's a
fortune awaiting those house-builder who try it out. It is to build a modern
village of, say 20-100 houses -- together with a combined office unit large
enough for most, or all, of the adults -- together with café facilities --
together with a lounge -- together with a crèche/nursery for pre-school
children. There would be no need for all the adults to work for the same
employer. Each could have his/her own private office -- but these would have
ready access to the other facilities. Besides the obvious savings in rents
and commuting costs, there would also be savings in the time and money spent
in nursery care for children. The parents themselves could take it in turns
to supervise, without any additional costs.
There we are. That's the
idea. In due course, I'm quite sure that something along these lines will
take place, even if it only occurs by being rammed into existence by the
steeply increasing costs of travel in the years to come. So, step forward
any house-builder who wishes to make a fortune!
Keith
Hudson
<<<<
ATTRACTION OF AN OUT OF OFFICE
EXPERIENCE
A large scale study show teleworking offers a range of
benefits
Alison Maitland
Gossip is one of the greatest
attractions of office life. But as teleworking gradually takes hold, it
turns out that this pastime is one of the main casualties, much to the
distress of those deprived of their daily fix. So a few companies that have
pioneered hot-desking have introduced a café culture to try to preserve
their mobile employees' sense of community.
The Dutch subsidiary of
Oracle, the US technology group, invested $10 million during the late 1990s
to turn buildings into what it calls "FUNctional offices". Each person's
space has been cut from 23 square metres to 13. The compensation is a
central café, in which to meet colleagues when using the office, and
brightly coloured surroundings to provide "a buzz". Hot-desking has its
detractors but the Oracle employees say the teleworking arrangements have
improved their lives. The company says it has gained $20 million over five
years from the reduction in space, improved productivity and higher staff
retention.
Vision Web is a young, Dutch-based company with 400
consultants specialising in data warehousing, wireless networks and
e-commerce. Most are mobile workers. When they need an office, they use
flexible workspace at one of the company's five "meeting places", each of
which has a large café as its centrepiece. The company says its work model,
based on trusting individuals to organise their schedules and to be
productive, requires just three square metres of office space per person,
with resulting savings in energy.
These two businesses are fairly
unusual in having worked out the costs and benefits, according to a study
published this week by the European Commission-funded Sustainable
Teleworking (SusTel) project. The findings will be discussed at workshops at
BT's showcase teleworking centre in London next week and in Brussels in
January.
The two-year research, covered 30 organisations with
teleworking experience in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the
UK. Staff were surveyed in six organisations, including BT, Oracle and BAA,
the British airports operator. Only 12 of the organisations had a complete
understanding of the costs and benefits, 10 had a partial understanding and
eight had a limited grasp.
It was difficult for some to make
comparisons because everyone teleworked, says Peter James, co-ordinator of
the study, Is Teleworking Sustainable? "Cultural and legal barriers
are also important. In Denmark, for example, telework is often seen as a
right, which does not need detailed justification or
monitoring."
Claims that teleworking improves productivity can also
be dubious if employees are under pressure to work harder. "Establishing
with certainty that telework is the cause requires a control group of
non-teleworkers, which is usually difficult to do in practice," says Prof
James. However, electronic monitoring has allowed some organisations to make
precise comparisons. "Nearly a quarter of the 2,100-strong staff in Telecom
Italia's Info412 call centre operation work full-time from home. They spend
15 per cent less time on calls than other staff and take 3.3 per cent more
calls an hour. The company has encouraged teleworking by paying "rent" for
four square metres of space in employees' homes and covering extra
electricity costs. It says it has benefited from savings on office space,
lower absenteeism and greater flexibility.
A pilot scheme involving
staff who process claims for welfare benefits electronically for Bradford
council in England produced similar results. The home-based workers were 25
per cent more productive on average, measured by the number of claims
processed per hour, and their accuracy levels remained
similar.
Isolation is often a problem for teleworkers. LVM, a German
insurance company, has tried to overcome this by pairing staff. Typically,
one of the pair works from home on a Monday and from the office on a
Tuesday, while the other does the opposite. The system has been so
successful that 600 of the more than 2,000 staff at LVM headquarters now
work in this way. Absenteeism is 14 per cent lower among teleworkers and
they have proved more productive. The insurer says it has made about $50
million worth of savings in office space.
Prof James says teleworking
can have negative effects, including longer working hours for some
employees. Much-trumpeted reductions in car travel can be partly offset by
increased use of cars for short journeys near home. However, he says the
disadvantages of teleworking can be minimised by well designed and managed
schemes, and that they are balanced by the many more potential
benefits.
Financial Times -- 5 November
2003
>>>>
Keith Hudson, Bath, England,
<www.evolutionary-economics.org>, <www.handlo.com>,
<www.property-portraits.co.uk>
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