Remote working: what is the employers' problem?

Sorry, can't stop to chat, too busy even for virtual watercooler

Here I'm again, banging on about remote working. I have been posting about it on this blog, tweeted sarcastic comments (i.e. Join the digital revolution chained to a desk in Central London), ranted about it in various professional forums, but I'm going nowhere fast. After working on three huge marketing campaigns for a global brand, my copywriting career is stalling again. Yes, I do have a bread and butter editorial job that I can do remotely but where are my challenges?

Why nobody cares that I write award-winning copy, one of my newsletters won a regional award, I have heaps of experience.... I know why, I live out of Oz, in the sticks (not that far, though, I can still take a train), i.e. not in London. When I left London I kind of knew that it could have been career suicide but I thought, surely this digital lark will help me out? Surely I can raise my daughter somewhere with a higher quality of life? My partner too, he hoped that it would happen, that we would find local jobs or at least use remote technology to work from home. The reality is that he had to commute to London on 99% of cases and I could only do local jobs inhouse (there aren't that many and lots of competition for anything, think flexible admin jobs with 60 applications, some from people with PhDs).

So I decided to try to sell SEO services as I'm told content is king (and I got the content crown back from Mouse Converter just in case) and it's building up but I'm still dissatisfied by employers' attitudes to remote working. Yes, I know there are jobs that can be done only in an office, but many don't. I was particularly annoyed by a social media job at Mumsnet, a site that should be flexible due to its ethos of supporting parents, but no, they wouldn't even consider a part inhouse and part remote arrangement.

I tell you, my wheel was spinning faster and faster when I got that reply via email. So if you are raising a child with partial (or none) childcare, what do you do? Pay for full-time childcare, never see your child and work on the grindstone doing a job you can do wholly or partly from home? Yes, that's it. And it's not only women who are not happy about it, men aren't. I hear it from many men here in Cambridge (including my partner), but sadly there aren't that many flexible jobs.

So with face-to-face conference calls (or Hangouts for free), email, remote access to company networks, the humble phone... Isn't this enough to breath on an employee's neck? Because that's what I suspect it is, it's about control not productivity or being one of the team. Yes, did I tell you that I'm paid to read excerpts of international business research? Well, I can tell you that misery management techniques don't increase profits, there is research that proves it. Job satisfaction makes for higher profits, so flexible working should be a winner... And if you are a doubting Thomas, this research is based on case studies, it's not pure theory.

Come on, employers, enter the brave new 21st century and let your employees work remote, it will save you desk costs, less energy spend (less carbon overall) and you will get motivated employees. And despite employers' perceptions, homeworkers are more productive because there are less distractions. See how much work you get done in an office and compare with homeworking where you have zero commuting time loss and no distractions from colleagues or external callers (yes, the postman might right the bell to deliver a parcel, but that's it).

Homeworking, telecommuting... it's high time we use remote technology

My home office - overlooking the garden
and with a back-friendly chair

I have been going on and on about homeworking for a long while, ranting on LinkedIn about employers' archaic mindsets, the "bums on seats" culture, breathing on employees' neck fetishes and so on. Since I became a parent I have been mostly working from home but had a few inhouse jobs just to see what it was like a few years down the line (and get out of the house a bit). These experiences just confirmed what I already knew: many jobs can be done remotely given the right equipment and  software. Pre-millennium there were several articles about remote working, we will be doing it more and more and yes, management research proved it's profitable for a company to hire remote workers, bla bla... but it all fell on deaf ears as old-fashioned, narrow-minded management styles are still the norm twelve years later.

I once asked somebody why the job I was doing inhouse couldn't be done from home. Why, I'd even charge less and everybody would be a winner. Basically I sat there typing for a whole day and the directions were given by email from somebody sitting two metres away. I didn't get a proper answer, because obviously I could have done that job from home!

If you ask this question in the media/marketing sector, the standard response is: you need to connect with your colleagues, go to meetings, brainstorm together, etc. Well as an inhouse freelancer I have been to very few meetings - in several years' experience I can still count them using my 10 fingers.

So here are the top seven reasons (off the top of my head and in no particular order) why telecommuting or homeworking is the way to go. Feel free to add more or disagree!

1) Environmentally friendly
Imagine the energy savings (less commuting, lower utility bills at HQs and less materials/resources used). This will bring less congestion on our roads and public transport that can cope. Can you imagine what it will be like to commute to work using the tube when the Olympics games are on? Less traffic on the roads means less pollution too. Carbon emissions down on all fronts. It will also reduce housing pressure in very congested cities.

2) Safer
Yes, there are quite a few accidents caused by people rushing to work. And if you are making that trip every day, chances are you are not that alert and take things for granted.

3) Healthier
Commuting to work is stressful, air conditioning spreads bugs and there are several work-related health injuries every year. Working from home might be lonely at times but at least you can choose a good work station (a good chair is a must), take breaks when necessary and even work if you are a bit under the weather (you can just be in your PJs and get plenty of hot drinks from a much cleaner kettle). It's also great for work/life balance as you gain more time by not commuting and, with a flexible timetable, you can work while raising a family.

4) More profitable for the employer
I won't go into details but there is research proving it's more profitable. Think about less sickies, not needing to provide for an employee in terms of equipment, insurance, health and safety, more motivation for the employee (much less guilt for working parents)... Ethically it's a better proposition than subcontracting to a poor country to exploit its cheaper manpower. Research also shows that firms who apply corporate social responsibility measures have a competitive advantage too.

5) Saves time and as time is money....
I already mentioned saving time by removing commuting, there is also the fact that office work is less productive as there are more interruptions.

6) Fairer and inclusive
Aside working parents, but what about the elderly, those with health problems and the disabled? They are unjustly excluded because of health and safety issues in terms of equipment and access to the workplace. Working from home would be possible for them.

7) Less staff turnover and preservation of knowledge
Let's face it, people move jobs not only because they want to go up the career ladder but also because of location. They might decide to buy a house in the country or work for a company with more central offices... And keeping staff is crucial as losing them means a loss of knowledge - you need to hire somebody else and train them up again while the employee who is leaving has precious information about your business you might not even be aware of. Again, there is research in knowledge loss and how to prevent this....

I'm not saying that every job can be done remotely, but a huge majority can! What can persuade employers to embrace remote technology? Targeted employment policies, more bonuses for green practices? Feel free to air your views here (positive and negative, I won't bite).

UPDATE: I found this article about it: http://www.payandbenefitsmagazine.co.uk/pab/article/home-working-recommended-12328481#comment-127591
H&S directives here: http://www.natwestmentor.co.uk/news/articles/2012-02/hsepublishesrevisedrisk.aspx
A word of caution: http://www.whatbizopp.com/mark-business/2169-what-is-homeworking-and-how-to-avoid-common-homeworking-scams