Working From Home - November 4th 2007

WHY DON’T MORE PEOPLE DO IT?

There are three broad types of work; the manufacturers who make and fix things, the networkers who interact with other people and the knowledge workers who nowadays mostly work with computers. The present situation is that virtually all types of worker typically work in offices, factories or some other recognized type of work location. The number who work at home is surprisingly small.

Clearly, most manufacturers must work in an organized factory location. It is not practical or efficient to break up an assembly line so people can take parts home to work on them. Since services such as those provided by the medical profession would be included in manufacturing, this too would have to remain in a “factory” environment. Some manufacturing is done from beginning to end by a single person and, assuming the machinery required is not too big and expensive, could be done outside the factory. This is still not very efficient though, except perhaps for small, one person businesses.

Networkers have many types of job, from teachers to salespeople to politicians. Many of these careers require face to face interaction and hence need to be done in some centralized location. Whilst on the face of it many networkers’ interactions could be done by video link, in practice much of the real work is done on the side. To make a sale, salespeople may have to entertain a client and get to know them to build trust. The real work of politicians is not done in the plenary sessions but in the corridors. Over a video link, many vital nuances can be missed.

Knowledge workers include computer programmers, call centre operatives, most bank staff and many other occupations. They are on the face of it ideally placed to work at home and remotely from their direct clients. Many call centre functions in North America and Europe have been successfully outsourced to India and other countries although strangely many of these call centre functions are carried out in vast purpose designed buildings. Since all a call centre operator needs is a telephone and a computer connected to head office, why don’t most of them work at home? Programmers work tends to be solitary even if they are working on a small part of a big system. Work from many programmers can be easily put together over a network and any problems with the whole are immediately apparent. Apart from the necessity of understanding the domain in which they are working, there is little need for programmers to be in the same location or to meet frequently.

I have worked at home almost exclusively for the past five years and would never contemplate going back into an office environment full time. I have found that the advantages of working at home are many. The biggest advantage is that there is no commute required. Why spend two hours or more a day travelling if you don’t have to? That time is better spent doing other things that enrich your life. The next main advantage is flexibility. I work best first thing in the morning and am often at my desk by 5am. I like to take time around the middle of the day to walk my dog. This too is beneficial to my work in that it gives me a chance to think about the next stage of work without feeling compelled to be typing something. For employers, there are significant cost savings such as not requiring expensive office space and not having to subsidize employees commuting costs.

So if the technology is there and the advantages so obvious, why is home working so rare? One possible reason is lack of trust or the feeling of loss of control by employers. However, untold numbers of office workers already surf the internet, write e-mails and make private telephone calls when they’re supposed to be working so in many cases managers are not really in control of their workforce. As long as work output can be effectively measured in some way and as long as rewards are linked to productivity then employees have the necessary incentive not to waste time when they are supposed to be working.

My wife runs a construction company that has no offices. The main telephone number is a cell phone and the company address is a PO Box. The secretary/scheduler forwards the cell phone to her home number when there or uses the cell phone if she is taking the kids to school or something. Communication with the boss and workers is done by e-mail, MSN Messenger, phone calls and fax. Holidays are covered by passing the cell phone to someone else. The customers who are Calgary and area house builders never need to visit the office, the workers are responsible for their own tools and supplies and work on site so never need to visit either. The result is that overheads are low, the staff are happy to work from home and they are well paid. Why would anyone want to run such a business any differently?

Comment by Bob on December 8th 2007

Hi, I like you!