Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
Work from home: Why you may – or may not – want your job's workplace to be outside the office
It's National Work from Home Week. More jobs let employees work at home some of the time, which can boost work-life balance. But there's a downside.
www.usatoday.com
With traffic on the rise in major cities and climate change top-of-mind, you might want to work more from home.
“Telecommuting” (or “teleworking”) has been around since the 1980s, but it has taken off in recent years – thanks to technological tools like home PCs and reliable internet connectivity, which can keep employees connected via robust video and data networks.
In fact, roughly 40% of the U.S. workforce already works remotely in some fashion, according to research and consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics. Telecommuting runs the range from working one or two days at home per week to a full-time 40-hour telecommuting arrangement.
“We’re seeing a surge in the movement right now because devices and connections are more affordable than ever before – and thanks to smartphones and tablets, they have even been combined into a single, portable device that gives us all of the functionality that we used to have at a corporate desktop,” says Laurel Farrer, founder of the Remote Work Association. “So now, our work is something we do (not somewhere we go) and our office is anywhere we already happen to be.”