The Home Office

I do believe and hope in the near future, a good portion of many people's work will be done from home. With the accessibility of the internet and communication tools such as IM, ftp sites, video conferencing and such, distance will not be so much of an issue. Conference call programs, such as Web-Ex, are progressing fast, and the practicality of video conferencing is getting much better. I am also seeing trends in the design programs of my field of architecture allowing their subscribers to install their programs on one's home computer, as well as their office computer.

The benefits of working at home are multi-faceted. first, you will not have to commute to work everyday, saving gas and time in traffic (not to mention the environment). Offices will not have to spend the electricity their employee's might otherwise use at work. They may not even require as many work space, as employees would be more willing to have a smaller workspace or share one on a rotation, if they are only coming in a few days a week. Of course, the great fear is that efficiency or productivity will decrease significantly, as employee's working from home many not indeed be working, or they may be distracted by other goings on at home.

I feel that programs may be developed to solve this problem. employees can check into a server like a punch clock, and supervisors can use remote access to see their employee's screen, and can tell if they are working or not. The overseer program might even raise a flag if nothing has been done in a few minutes. At the end of the day, the employee's production should speak of their own work ethic. This may also make it more likely that employers will reward good productivity, rather than implied productivity, or extended presence.