Drive to home working

The Inescapable data blog has two recent posts (here and here) that describe some of the gathering momentum around home working that are worth reading.  I am a great fan of home working personally,  although I have some short term reservations about how home working is often implemented by companies.  I think new processes, tool and cultural norms will rapidly mature to make home working a more satisfying experience in the medium term.  I think the nail in the coffin of the office will be when companies start to give employees an allowance that they can choose to spend on a company car, company PC, company phone, company desk and company office space all of which are optimised for the company or they can choose to spend it on creating an optimised personal environment that addresses their work and home life in a more integrated fashion.  I know which one I will be choosing. 

In fact I run an allowance system of sorts myself at the moment,  I gave up long ago expecting my company to invest as much in the tools of my trade as I would have invested if I was given the choice.  So when I started working from home I took the money that I was saving in fuel, personal broadband and other incidental travel and office related expenses and stuck it in a dedicated bank account.  I now draw on that account – without guilt – whenever I need/want to invest in my personal effectiveness and I am much happier as a result,  I no longer spend every day wishing my laptop had more memory, or wishing I had a second display, or a better headset,  I just buy them!