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Week 1: Could your home office kill you?



I would like you to read the article Could your home office kill you? published at  http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20131204-could-your-home-office-kill-youand comment on/discuss it. Besides, describe your study room/home office. Are you a homeworker? If not, can you imagine working from home?  Will more people work from home in the foreseeable future?

Comments

Tomek said…
Up until now, I have never heard of supervised remote work. I thought companies would only provide guidelines for employees who wanted to work this way. In my company, we don't have strict rules forbidding off premise work but everyone is encouraged to stay at the offices. This has more to do with the types of projects we currently develop than convenience. We focus hard on organizing the work to be done to minimize chaos. Most of the time, tasks are clear and meeting in person not necessary.
I sometimes work at home but mostly on my own projects. I can’t focus enough to do it on a regular basis.
Maria said…
I work at my house, but I'm not a type of person who start working still “wearing pyjamas” . Luckily my computer is in separate room. Tomek wrote that he couldn't work at home on regular basis, because he couldn't focus enough. As far as I am concerned , it is just opposite. Sometimes I work in different places, but working at my desk gives the best results. I can eat my dinner when I want, I can go for a walk with my dog whenever I feel tired, I can wake up when I need to wake up. I don't know many people who sees themselves in such solution but I claim the secret is in organizing the workstation and creating yourself deadlines.
As it is mentioned in the article more and more people are working at home and I think that is still an upward trend. I think it is so, because working at home is simply cheaper.
Unknown said…
I'm not a home worker so articles like these make me jealous. Having to sit in one office (that is not my home, so I'm far from anything that is not related to my work) for 9 hours every day I think home workers don't understand the convenience that they have. Besides the fact, they have the convenience of being able to move their office to another location (you can chill in the Carribean while working and do that more than 20 days a year). I can see some negatives, for example it might not be the perfect solution for people who prefer maintaining social relations at their workplace, but that's not a problem for most people, I believe.

I know I would prefer to work from home. Furthermore, I know I COULD work from home, but most companies force their employees to come to the physical office location. It's convenient for the company, but not always convenient for the employee. I don't know if a new major trend starts and people start working at companies remotely, but I certainly hope that if it does, it'll be soon enough so I can be a part of it. Duh, I'd like to be the trend setter, if only I could ;-)
Sylwia said…
I'm not a homeworker and I wouldn't like to be one, even if it gives a lot of freedom. I know that homeworking has many positive aspects, but I also see drawbacks.

What I like about my current job is that when I leave the office I completely forgot about everything connected with it. As I do not have an company phone and computer, which I take with me to home, no one disturbs me after hours. I can relax and have fun not thinking about problems whenever my phone rings or I look at my computer. I think that mixing home space with work space is not good for our life balance. You may feel like you are at work all the time. I know some people who works from home and as far as it was their decision and their are happy about it, they also confirm my concerns. Their admit that when you work at home, usually without fixed hours, people call you and send e-mails with tasks and questions round the clock and some of these tassk need to be handled the same moment.

Answering your last question, the trend is still growing, however I think there is limited number of companies and proffesions, which allow working from home. What is more, as me, not everyone is intrested in such way of working, so probably it will stops at some point. In my opinion homeworkers alwasy will be minority.
In my previous job I had a few opportunities to work from home. Firstly I was happy about it. I thought I could wake up at 8 o’clock, make coffee and start working in my pyjamas. It sounds good, sure, but this work was very unproductive. If someone like Maria is able to concentrate at home, it’s great for her, I'm jelaous. In my opinion, everything depends on the personality and the type of work. I still see one huge advantage of homeworking – you don’t need to spend time on commuting and/or standing in traffic jams.
For employers or corporations remote working is the future, because company won't have to rent or build large office space. Moreover, part of the saved money can be invested in employess home offices to fulfill all of the standards, to keep employees safe and productive. Another way to invest could be communication systems and systems designed to control performence. I hope that in the future I’ll learn to work form my flat in way which meet the expectations of market.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
I agree with my most of you guys. Working from home can be very hard if not prepared properly. It often can be unproductive and flustrating if we are not able to concentrate on the job. The reasons for that are quite owies. Sometimes we do not have required space where we can work and isolate ourself from others. If we live in family house or flat we might have a problem to concentrate because someone keep disturbing us. This person could be your boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, family or even your noise neighborhoods. The list is long. In such a situation we end up in a place like the one presented on the picture, trying to isolate from anyone else.

Anyway the article is about health and safety so lets talk about responsibility of our employers. If they are responsible for our health and safety while working in our office they should take some responsibility for taking care for their workers working remotely from home. They should to check if this or that person is capable to work from home and have required space and possibilities.

I like the US solution where they get some allowance to equip they work place. But this also should comes with standard training and health assessments. Just to make sure that everyone is conscious about the risk around home work space.
Kacper K said…
In my opinion the way of working at home is really good but only for people who are well- organized and having a strong motivation. There are lots of obstacles for homeworkers such as a really good television program or a flying visit of anyone.
From time to time, I work at my home. Personally, I really prefer this way of working especially during night because nobody distracts me and I can concentrate only on the task. In my opinion good results depend on someone’s approach towards work. The most important is to create terms and schedule and follow them.
Being a homeworker brings many positive aspects such as possibility to eat dinner or go for a walk when you want. On the other lots of homeworkers e.g. IT engineers work at home during. Such a hard work could cause deterioration of health.
We all know that the continuous progress of technology and really high pace of life, for sure, will make employers increasingly incline to work remotely because of reduced costs. It is so common in the West. I think in Poland we can also meet such tendency and also because of cut costs.
Kasia Kmieć said…
Working from home is surely a perfect option for some people - most of all for the well organized ones with a lot of self-discipline. For me it is a brilliant idea. Luckily, some of my projects can be run from my computer at home. I truly appreciate the fact that on some days I can just wear my most comfy pyjamas, eat and drink in front of monitor without caring to look like a professional.

But surely work from home would never replace a real contact with colleagues. I am also aware that it may be difficult to set hours of just working and not browsing the Internet, playing with a cat or just chatting with your family. On the other hand, too much work can push out your personal life from your own house. So to work this way you really have to keep discipline.

I assume that in the future more and more companies will try remote working in some departments (like IT or marketing). The technology will enable it for sure. And that will be an incredible advantage and possibility for those who just can't leave the house so easily (like some disabled people). But some duties would never be performed outside the office and without face to face relations (like developing a project or determing the budget). Partially we can conduct some meeting virtually but eventually we will have to meet our partners.

Additionally, for those who may work from home but still have some difficulties organizing it, I'd recommend to read these few tips: https://www.futuresimple.com/blog/10-tips-for-organizing-your-desk-and-desktop-for-better-efficiency/. I'm sure they'll help a bit:)
Darkia said…
I defenetly prefere working at home, here i have my all equpment, i can work when i like to work. I'm type of owl, and i prefer work at night and sleep by day :D
I have PC and laptop. Most of time on laptop i looking for interesting tutorials, find something i need, or just used as music player, and work on PC. It's perfect for me ;D There is no one who would disturbed me, want something from me.
Anonymous said…
Work from home seems very nice but on the other hand can be tricky. Certainly not for people extroverted and with poor time management. You have to be very systematic and stick to the rules.
Therefore, not for me :D. I have to come into contact with people, share and gain knowledge from other.
So 'Could your home office kill you?' in my case, yes! I know that the way to work takes me over an hour, that people distract me and I'm not working at 100% possibility. But the magic of my office is much much more :)
Unknown said…
Working at home is an interesting way of job but is it really easier? I used to work like that during my summer holidays because i broke my leg. Firstly i thought it was great, i had deadlines of some tasks and i could work at day, night, wherever and whenever i wanted to. Than i found out that it is harder to motivate when you dont even have to leave your bed to start working. I really loved that way of job, even though sometimes it wasn't easy.
At the current moment I couldn't imagine working in home, because in my mind the moment I arrive home is strictly connected to the moment I can start relaxing after a long days work. However this state of mind is a simple consequence of the fact, that I stay all day out working (when I have both work and school I go out at 6 AM and come back home at 8 – 9 PM) so when I am finally home I don't feel like working. However if I would do all my work home I think I would enjoy working that way and really do it, not just slack off.
I admit I never thought of the safety aspect of home offices, then again I work as a developer, so I am not exactly the kind of person who has customers coming in and out. And I can certainly take care of myself, so that's not a concern. Anyway, I think that if the employer is the one to „force” a home office, then he is the the one to take responsibility.
Unknown said…
I am a computer scientist and I have my own business. I work for several companies and sometimes I work remotely. So you can say: Yes, I am homeworker. At home I have a desk with a comfortable chair but I prefer work on my couch.
I think that the homeworker is a very comfortable, I can schedule my own hours to works. It is important that everything was done on time so you have to be conscientious.
In my opinion a work at home is not popular yet, because it is not easy. However, people need contact with other people and the appropriate person who will lead them.

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