Connecting Bristol says you can Work from Home

by Stephen Hilton on May 14, 2008 · Comments

workwiseuk
Tomorrow (Thursday 15th May) is National Work from Home Day. Promoted by Workwise UK, national Work from Home Day marks the start of National Work at Home Week – a celebration and demonstration of the joys and benefits of flexible working.

In a nutshell, the big idea is that home working = smarter working. It is good for the environment, good for productivity, is cost effective and offers employees greater flexibility, leading to improved job satisfaction and better quality of life.

Connecting Bristol is a great advocate of (ultra) flexible working (Homeshoring, Slivers of Time etc.) We see this as a way to create more flexible job opportunities for people who face particular obstacles in gaining employment. For example, the unemployment rate amongst blind and partially sighted people is 75% – unacceptably high… technology could play a crucial role here. However, it is also noteworthy that employers rank ICT as the most significant obstacle to achieving flexible working, in WorkWise’s 2008 survey.

So if you are an employer, how about encouraging your employees to work at home tomorrow. Who knows, with fewer cars on the road at peak times maybe the buses will even run on time?

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Tagged as: Bristol, Connecting Bristol, jobs, Skills, work

  • Having spent the last 18 years working from home as a freelance translator, I read the item with interest. I'd definitely agree that home working = smarter working.

    There are, however, more benefits than just the time gained by not commuting. Amongst the greatest of these I would include being able to fit work around one's life instead of vice versa: this means for instance being able to go shopping when stores are less busy. In addition, no dress code applies to home working: as long as the work is done, does your appearance really matter?

    Of course, the work has changed over the years with the aid of technology. When I first started time had to set aside for printing and posting/hand delivery of the job by the deadline. Nowadays, it's all returned by email unless hard copy is specifically requested. Invoicing too is via <acronym title="Portable Document Format">PDF</acronym>. Jobs now arrive by email instead of post or fax. However, the biggest saving is perhaps in respect of awkward/unusual terminology: whereas this used to involve a trip to the reference section of the Central Library and a trawl through their dictionaries, the advent of online terminology databases such as IATE and forums for translators are a real boon.
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