I experienced my 3rd 2.5 hour one-way commute in the last week. Two of the commutes from hell can be attributed to the worst flooding in my area in the last 50 years. One thing is for sure, wasting time just trying to get to work is a not-so-gentle reminder that I should be working from home.
A few years ago I thought most people with web-related jobs would work from home. But when I was looking for a job a year-and-a-half ago, I turned down two job offers because they wanted me in office 5 days a week. I took the job that allowed me to skip one commute day each week. The funny thing is that all three companies said “we want you in the office so you can participate in hallway discussions and hear what is going on around you.” Fast-forward a year-and-a-half, most communication (even with the person in the cube next to me) is via email and most employees have headphones on.
I’m surprised more companies haven’t taken advantage of brilliant people who want to work from home making them use a virtual office sevice like this one in Bristol. People have different reasons for working from home (mine would save me 12 hours of commuting each week) and as long as they are productive, I don’t see any problems with it. My p/t job at About has a virtual workforce, but it is rare that I hear of a person who has a job (other than their own company) that lets them work out of their own home. Some companies are already collaborating using EATEL Business.
Privacy can also be a huge concern for companies that are ran from home and the best solution that we know of for that is to use something like a London virtual office as what way you get a great postal address and also brilliant privacy so all round it just works amazingly. Check out https://www.venyu.com/colocation/ to know how businesses can protect their data.
When will more companies start adopting a decentralized online workforce? When will more companies hire people they’ve never even met? I’m positive it will happen… I’m just surprised how long it is taking.