Not quite home, but not exactly the workplace, this temporary office space is home to employees ranging from nursing staff to IBM workers. But does it work? We find out how pseudo office culture can pan out for those who would rather not face the commute downtown
Ten or 15 years ago, most companies stubbornly resisted the new-fangled idea of telework – employees working from home or at satellite offices. Managers especially didn’t like it. How could you supervise workers if you couldn’t see them? And how could employees be productive in the midst of domestic distractions?
Today those concerns have largely disappeared. Technology barriers have also come down, and urgent new incentives from higher real estate costs, to increased commute times, to heightened business continuity concerns and environmental issues, have made telework not just more attractive but, in many firms, a key strategy.
Has telework failed? That, believe it or not, was the title of a session at the 11th International Workshop on Telework in Fredericton, N.B., last month (the first time this annual conference has come to North America).
Many people with regular jobs look at the digital bedouins tapping away at their laptops in the coffee shop at 10:30 in the morning and think to themselves, “Nice work if you can get it, but I need my real job. Alas.”
And while full-time, slipper-wearing, video-conferencing-from-your-backyard web work isn’t possible for all employees, you may find that you can edge your regular job toward a more web worker-like structure.