10 June 2009

Office Jobs Go Down The Tube


As commuters across the country get that ‘underground feeling’ and plan alternate routes to work with the news that another tube strike will disrupt transport to work tomorrow, remote workers and home workers will take the liberty of an extra lie in bed.

They won’t be stressed to get early trains or get into the fast lane of traffic congestion. Instead, they will amble into their home office, switch on their PC and prepare for another day at the office, without commuting interruption, for they are the ‘Home Working Nation'.

With 3.5 million Brits across the UK now working from home and many more millions working remotely, isn’t it about time this way of working became an even more every day work practise?

Thousands of commuters from the South East, the highest proportion of commuters, will spend the equivalent of an additional working day diverting around London in order to avoid the chaos. The region presents the greatest opportunity for the largest number of people to benefit from the introduction of new smarter working practices.

Ken Sheridan, an advocate of remote working and Director of Remote Employment, said (wearing bright pink pyjamas): “More tube strikes will illustrate the opportunity for productive working away from the office. More and more companies are getting in on the remote working action!”

Remote Employment, an online web service dedicated to connecting employers with job seekers who work remotely or work from home, has seen substantial expansion to their business and believes that the wider adoption of smarter working practices, such as flexible working, working from home, mobile and remote working will improve business productivity and reduce transport congestion, especially during tube strikes!

Working from home significantly improves efficiency, enabling businesses to be more competitive. BT are leaders in their flexible working policies and now have more than 70,000 flexible workers, with seven out of 10 people working flexibly and nearly 10% home based.

Remote Employment recently launched The Remote Worker Awards in association with BT Business, to highlight how remote working benefits business mobility, and they are offering life changing prizes such as a home based franchise worth £15k, an Open University study grant and five business start up kits. Along with this they are celebrating companies who are proud of their remote working practises in the Remote Employer Award.

For more details, go online to www.remoteemployment.com. For a chance to win one of the life changing prizes on offer, check out www.remoteworkerawards.com.
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How to set up a home office ...

Before you set up a work station at home, check out our Seven Top Tips on how to work from home:

Your Home Office
Ideally, you will have a spare room to create a home office. If not, a corner of another room, will be fine as long as you are not constantly distracted in the family fast lane. Set up your kitSet up your computer, files and phone to give you maximum comfort for long hours. Have enough plug points for PC, printer, phone, scanner, mobile charger, fax machine and answer phone. Even better get an all in once mod con to save on a jumble of cables and wires.

Pick your desk location
You should be able to see the door of the office from where you are sitting or at least more of your surroundings. Beware of facing the garden and the bird bath – too tempting to watch the world go by! A hard chair will give you backache so spend a little extra on a good one.

Working Hours
Working outside 'normal' working hours helps to balance your work and home life so don't feel guilty dashing off to take the lads to footie after school, as long as you get your work done. Catching up in the early morning or later in the evening works well, but also watch out for going OTT. Make sure you close down and walk away at some point or the family will go hungry.

Have a breather
No matter what kind of work you do or what home you do it in, you can go bonkers if you spend 24 hours a day at it. Get out, whenever you can, to clear your head and to see other people. Use lunch time as a good break to pop down to pick up groceries for dinner, step outside to feed the birds during your coffee break or walk the dog around the block to clear the cobwebs. This is also a great way to mull over a document or get inspiration for new ideas.

Keep in Touch
Have no fear that your social life at work comes to an end if you leave your office to work from home, in fact in some cases your relationship with your colleagues may improve. Email is instant but be careful of 'funnies' – they can eat up a huge chunk of time. Chat through business issues by phone and meet for a quick bite every now and then.

Goal scoring
Give yourself little goals and objectives and then reward yourself when they are complete. Make sure family and friends know your hours or days of working at home and stick to that. Don't be tempted to pop over for a coffee or cook a large meal. Give yourself this time as a reward for getting up early on a Monday to finish a long-winded report. Or if you score well with a new client take five to put your feet up before the school run. Whatever incentives work for you, use them to motivate yourself to balance your time around your other responsibilities.

If you have any suggestions on working from home, please submit your articles to grace@remoteemployment.com.

Remote Work

Remote Employment is a brand new online recruitment site specialising in remote working and home based appointments, professional jobs working from home, home based career opportunities, high quality office-home job combinations and flexible work positions that can be effectively managed away from the office.

Register to find professional, jobs working from home and self employed home based business opportunities. Search to find Candidates, Freelancers, Consultants and creative projects.

Do you want to work remotely