John51 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Not that common at the moment but IT based working from home does seem to be growing, albeit slowly. What happens when it becomes routine? Almost every office worker that doesn't need to be face to face with the public can, in theory, do their job from home. Less overheads for employers, less outgoings for workers. What will being able to pull a decent income irrespective of location do for house prices when that applies to say 60% of the workforce? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Technology and fast speed broadband means anyone can work anywhere.....they can travel when the need occurs......we can all touch and feel (and sell) wherever we are..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Not that common at the moment but IT based working from home does seem to be growing, albeit slowly. What happens when it becomes routine? Almost every office worker that doesn't need to be face to face with the public can, in theory, do their job from home. Less overheads for employers, less outgoings for workers. What will being able to pull a decent income irrespective of location do for house prices when that applies to say 60% of the workforce? Rather than proximity to stations etc dictating prices, broadband speeds? Rightmove already showing estimated broadband speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveinHope Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Technology and fast speed broadband means anyone can work anywhere.....they can travel when the need occurs......we can all touch and feel (and sell) wherever we are..... Yep, I quite often do a days work sitting in the garden, on the beach, on a cliff top etc - so long as it's not raining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticus Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Not that common at the moment but IT based working from home does seem to be growing, albeit slowly. What happens when it becomes routine? Almost every office worker that doesn't need to be face to face with the public can, in theory, do their job from home. Less overheads for employers, less outgoings for workers. What will being able to pull a decent income irrespective of location do for house prices when that applies to say 60% of the workforce? Are you WFH just now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habeas Domus Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It's a short hop from a remote worker based in England to one in India Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticus Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Technology and fast speed broadband means anyone can work anywhere Only insofar as certain kinds of services and IT work is concerned. Apple picking and health services still demand some physical presence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinE Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It's a short hop from a remote worker based in England to one in India This is why I hate WFH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool_hand Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 What will being able to pull a decent income irrespective of location do for house prices when that applies to say 60% of the workforce? do 60% work in IT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticus Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It's a short hop from a remote worker based in England to one in India It is not uncommon for IT type staff in India work from home as well. Education and skills still remain a differentiating factor, not physical presence. The time difference makes dealing with staff located on the other side of the world a good deal harder than dealing with UK based remote workers (assuming management is based in the UK). Unless the site is totally decoupled (e.g. with its own management, objectives and projects). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montesquieu Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) As an IT worker I've found myself increasingly working from home as teams become more distributied. For me the trend started in the 1990s - there's ittle point in going into a Thames Valley office if my boss is in Leeds, my co-workers on a given project in Manchester or Belfast. I can go into an office in Reading and find plenty of people I know but no-one I'm directly working with, unless I arrange a meeting. (Increasingly that is a video conference too). There are limits to this - some teams, doing some work, do need to co-locate (bids for example where there's brainstorming and co-writing to be done). I've noticed an increasing move back to campus working for some disciplines where bosses clearly feel the working at home trend has gone far enough. A swing back is definitely perceptible. Some people prefer office working and always go in regardless, perhaps because they have no work space at home (or noisy kids, for example in the school holidays) or they just work better in an old-fashioned working rhythm. (Some people struggle to focus when working alone from home). Given that most companies have already released savings by closing builidings and changing the shape of what they have - fewer allocated desks, more hot desks, meeting rooms and social/casual meeting areas - there are also limits to what expenses employers are prepared to pay to enable home working - it's all very well in theory living in Devon and going up to London two or three days a week but unless you are officially a home worker or attached to a local office, it may be hard to get the train and subsistence expenses approved - no change out of £600 or £700 a week for that. All things being equal it's still more likely we'd hire someone closer to a hub (Manchester, Reading, Warwick, London of course) than an outlier from Pembroke or Lincolnshire due to the hit on departmental budgets. Only the better off can really get the full benefit of all this though - in order for the wife and I both to have studies (since we both work from home a lot) we had to buy a 4 bed plus study minimum, within an hour of London, just to have three bedrooms available as bedrooms. Hard to find much even outside the M25 for less than £500k. Edited February 17, 2014 by montesquieu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sour Mash Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It's a short hop from a remote worker based in England to one in India Absolutely what I was going to say. If anyone thinks that IT work from home is the way forward to an easier life, they are going to be severy disappointed and shocked once they realise that their skills have now become extremely vulnerable to globalisation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) Yep, I quite often do a days work sitting in the garden, on the beach, on a cliff top etc - so long as it's not raining. Cool dude. Edited February 17, 2014 by winkie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StainlessSteelCat Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Don't work in IT but do work from home. I highly recommend it, but it's not for everyone as it requires considerable discipline, self-motivation and ability to work alone. If you do though, then mix it up a bit. You don't have to be confined to barracks all of the time (although unavoidable in some cases). Take advantage of being mobile. This lunchtime I strolled over to the nearby woods with my saw and cleared the footpath of four fallen trees which were blocking it - and had a nice chat with a hill farmer on the way back. I have done phone meetings while walking across the fields, feeding some horses or running over a local hill. My job is basically knowledge working, but I like being outside. Working from home lets you do both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Only insofar as certain kinds of services and IT work is concerned. Apple picking and health services still demand some physical presence. ...there are plenty of people that require hands on help and local assistance, the kind of jobs that can never be offloaded anywhere else....the real practical worthwhile jobs that people need and value......valued peaceful safe places with caring genuine compassionate people offering highly sort after valued work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FallingAwake Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Yep, I quite often do a days work sitting in the garden, on the beach, on a cliff top etc - so long as it's not raining. Presumably you haven't done a day's work in months then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveinHope Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Presumably you haven't done a day's work in months then Usually start work at 07.30 (24hr clock btw ), still working now, currently with colleagues in the US. And yes, can post on here in the meantime. probably finish around 21.00 today, can go on until midnight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 If anyone thinks that IT work from home is the way forward to an easier life, they are going to be severy disappointed and shocked once they realise that their skills have now become extremely vulnerable to globalisation. Duh. IT skills have been 'extremely vulnerable to globalization' for years. I work from home when the weather is bad and I don't want to have to spend an hour driving to and from the office and hoping not to get side-swiped by a truck that can't stop along the way. But I'd have to admit that I'm less productive here than I am with fewer distractions at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Allegro Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It's a short hop from a remote worker based in England to one in India That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that the jobs will go to Indians. It will (and has done) with non-customer facing work, but some companies have actually stopped using Indian workers. A friend of mine trained them and said it's hard to get them to think off the script. This may change of course, but for the foreseeable future I think quite a few jobs will still need native British workers who frequently have to visit HQ to maintain the esprit de corps. What I think we will see is a lot more people, especially young single people, realising that they are better off teleworking while living in a cottage in Spain than they are commuting to a job in London from a bedsit in Slough every day. I do something similar myself. Whether it will have a big effect on UK house prices remains to be seen - I doubt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 hpc is full of lonely remote workers and retirees. No not lonely or remote.....best of both worlds.....very near but also very far..…touchy but never to be touched only imagined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
middleway Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sour Mash Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) Duh. IT skills have been 'extremely vulnerable to globalization' for years. I work from home when the weather is bad and I don't want to have to spend an hour driving to and from the office and hoping not to get side-swiped by a truck that can't stop along the way. But I'd have to admit that I'm less productive here than I am with fewer distractions at work. Perhaps I should have said 'your job' rather 'your skills' ... once the infrastructure and processes exist for you to work on an IT system at your 'workplace' from home then it also allows anyone, anywhere with a suitable internet connection to do likewise. Best bet is to actively seek a job that has access to sensitive systems and therefore requires clearance and UK access only. Edited February 17, 2014 by Sour Mash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Perhaps I should have said 'your job' rather 'your skills' ... once the infrastructure and processes exist for you to work on an IT system at your 'workplace' from home then it also allows anyone, anywhere with a suitable internet connection to do likewise. But it already does, and has for years. Most of the work I've done since moving to Canada is for a London-based company who, years ago, might have considered doing it in-house instead. BTW, from what I hear from people who work there, they've also now eliminated personal desks, and employees just use whatever desk is available when they're actually in the office (since so many travel a lot, or work from home). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It wouldn't surprise me if the whole planning set-up of residential estates, for living, and industrial and office parks, for working, wasn't deliberately engineered for the benefit of the car and oil industries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 It wouldn't surprise me if the whole planning set-up of residential estates, for living, and industrial and office parks, for working, wasn't deliberately engineered for the benefit of the car and oil industries. Hands up all those who want to live next to a factory? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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