Remote working: the upside

In a previous update we discussed some of the unseen pitfalls of working home alone over the net. Now it’s time for a look at the flip side of the remote working coin – the advantages.

In today’s global warming-conscious days, working out of the office has been shown to significantly reduce the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. So working from home is the eco-friendly answer to global warming. Here’s why and other benefits that aren’t immediately apparent.

Your daily commute
Commuting to work each day, particularly if you drive there, pumps out ozone-depleting emissions like no-one’s business. Going to work no longer takes in excess of 30 minutes: more like 30 seconds, possibly less if you can locate your carpet slippers straight away.
Traffic reports on the radio are chuckle-inducing. Even more so when you consider the fuel you are saving, not to mention wear and tear on your vehicle, your nerves and the residual value-sapping mileage.

Your lecky bill
It will go up admittedly, but not as high as you may imagine. With the door to your small home office tight shut, there won’t be all that many days that require the central heating to go on. With hardware firing out heat in all directions, it doesn’t take long for a bedroom-sized room to be comfortable to work in.
Remember to factor in some winter days where the lack of proper daylight necessitates lights burning in order to locate things on your desk. Overall, there’s still a net gain for the environment in most cases.

The weather
When it’s lashing it down outside, there’s a certain relief you don’t have to go out into it to go to work.
Conversely, on good days there’s always the temptation to take advantage of the flexibility offered by remote working. (See School concerts etc.) Personally, I’ve abandoned my keyboard temporarily to carry out a few weather-sensitive jobs outside. Once postponing writing this stuff to shift several loads of horse manure because the ground was sufficiently frozen to get a Land Rover and trailer onto the croft. The two-hour window was just long enough to get the job done before returning to shovelling another kind of nugget.

Breaks
Another bonus of solo remote working at home is that 99.9 per cent of the time there’s never a queue in the kitchen when you want to make a cup of coffee.

Deliveries
Never miss another package again. From your domestic work bunker, parcels and courier deliveries will always be within earshot, saving you time and trips to the sorting office/depot to retrieve mail items.
Interestingly, requests to keep an eye on the washing are never successfully accomplished unless the rain is accompanied by Force Ten winds and is skelping off the window as if from a hose.

School concerts etc.
Forget asking the boss for time off to catch offspring sing, dance or otherwise entertain or take part in sports. Remote working is flexible…up to a point. And with the office being closer than your own doorstep, you know fine you’re going to make the time up later on.

Dress code
Unless you’re kitted out with a web cam anything goes really. Just don’t let the side down by sitting at your desk in your pyjamas confirming all the old stereotypes of the unwashed, scruffy remote worker.

Your desk
At last, no-one’s around to nag you about the state of your desk. You can be as messy as you please. And then there’s the floor for any overflow. It may look like a mess to the untrained eye but to you it’s a perfectly sensible filing system of sorts. You can always use Skype or a landline to call your mobile phone when it gets lost under an avalanche of paper.