Working from home - Pros and Cons

[IQS.RLOW]

Aspects that can be done via the http://www...at" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; the office

[AiA in Atlanta]

Started a new job at the first of the year and negotiated 1 day a week working from my remote office - home, but haven't actually worked a single day from home yet. Why? Not really sure. I enjoy the work environment and everything is still fresh but the commute is long ... and expensive and that will become draining as the months go on.

Sounds like IQ has cog-in-the-wheel type employees which can't be trusted to work from home. That woman Yahoo CEO who has disallowed working from home ... well, she won't be getting the best employees from now on; that is for sure.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Richard Branson disagrees with IQ. Would you give advice to a billionaire?


To successfully work with other people, you have to trust each other. A big part of this is trusting people to get their work done wherever they are, without supervision. It is the art of delegation, which has served Virgin and many other companies well over the years.

We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they at their desk or in their kitchen. Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will.

So it was perplexing to see Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer tell employees who work remotely to relocate to company facilities. This seems a backwards step in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever.

If you provide the right technology to keep in touch, maintain regular communication and get the right balance between remote and office working, people will be motivated to work responsibly, quickly and with high quality.

Working life isn't 9-5 any more. The world is connected. Companies that do not embrace this are missing a trick.

http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/b ... re-to-work

[Super Nova]

Well it is hard to argue with Richard since he has been so sucessful. One of the things he does do is empower his people and build a strong culture, including the trust model.

The key in his statement is to get the balance right.

[IQS.RLOW]

That trust needs to be earnt. I have 2 of my trusted lieutenants work from home on occasions for family reasons and i set up a Cisco, VPN and remote database management for that purpose but it's not an allocated weekly time slot...and they wouldn't be off playing golf either like our resident slacker.

It's also not an entrenched 'right' for employees either...although I suspect the left would like to make it one so they can watch the country go even further backwards

[Super Nova]

In the uk it is almost a right with the employer being obligated to provide special consideration to request to work from home based on any personal reason or circumstances.

[IQS.RLOW]

There are many things that are wrong with the UK.

This would be one of them

[AiA in Atlanta]

Were it not a woman running Yahoo who bans working from home but a man we would not be talking about this. And if it were not a very wealthy woman who had a nursery built next to her office so she can take care of her baby yet denied the same thing to her woman employees we would not be talking about this.