Better internet services see off nine-to-five commute
Home working has to happen and technology providers will facilitate it, says Max Stoner
Max Stoner: Now is the time for change to working practices, helped along by IT
The nine-to-five working week is something we have probably all questioned. For most of us this has manifested as more of a whine or lament than an outright challenge.
However, louder voices of discontent have often been undermined by a lack of belief – not necessarily in their own power to change, but in the working week’s capacity for significant change.
Yet the times may be changing. And the role of agent provocateur in the latest attack on the working week is taken by government-backed initiative Work Wise UK.
Work Wise UK comes armed with fairly aggressive rhetoric about the working week becoming a thing of the past, bringing about change similar to the industrial revolution. Strong words – although they are somewhat tempered on closer inspection of its aims and principles.
Work Wise UK wants simply to encourage the widespread adoption of smarter working practices. This means a shift to more flexible working, including practices such as remote working and adoption of more flexible working hours.
The ultimate goal is to have half the UK population working mainly in their own homes, or in different places using home as a base, in five years.
Many people would relish a reduction in their need to commute to and from work. I accept that commutes vary in their quality. However, many people do not enjoy being squashed twice a day into trains or buses.
Others may travel in the ‘comfort’ of their own car – but even that may entail many wasted hours sitting in traffic that could otherwise be spent more productively.
The commute also stresses our roads and strains our public transport infrastructure. And a car travelling at crawling speed reportedly generates over 500g/km of carbon dioxide as opposed to the 175g/km it would generate at 100kmh (62mph).
And recent sociological research seems to indicate that our work-life balance is out of kilter. Most people questioned in a work and family life report last year claimed that work dominated their lives, and family life suffered as a result.
Last year, the CBI calculated that £5bn was lost due to mental health and stress-related illnesses.
Work Wise UK paints a picture of our traditional working week as a moribund relic, ill-suited to the demands of a complex and diverse 21st century, wheezing and coughing its last polluted breaths.
Surely, functioning in a way that is likely to reduce the ill effects of work on our nation’s society, health, economy and environment is common sense.
Of course, pitfalls to flexible working are plentiful. In my opinion, success will rely on changing working culture and psychology as much as on legislation.
Technology is a likely catalyst for a move to more flexible working, and technology companies may profit.
Flexible working generally requires an internet connection. Sometimes, existing home connections can be harnessed, sometimes something more reliable and business oriented is called for.
Communication between sites will need security via some kind of wide area network, while head office sites may require more robust and reliable connections to cope with the influx of incoming traffic.
Videoconferencing also reduces the need for work-related travel. More attention to contention, up-time guarantees and resilience will become critcal.
Discussing this article with my own boss, Piers Daniell, managing director of Fluidata, was illuminating. While not enamoured of my suggestion of finishing every Friday at 3pm, and appalled by office murmurings of ‘duvet days’, he agrees there is no reason that the way we currently work is the right way.
“Businesses can no longer assume that old fixed corporate practices and methods will be successful," he said.
"Now more than ever companies need to provoke change and disruption through new technologies, practices and methods of working."
Max Stoner is sales manager at Fluidata