Teleworking in the UK?

neiljt writes "As a UK-based IT worker living about a 90-minute journey from London, I am interested in the idea of working from home, or teleworking. In the UK, however, the take-up of this practice has been less than frantic. My own immediate plan is to find work at home here in the UK, however my ultimate aim would be to find employment, which gives me the freedom to live where I choose. What barriers exist to working in the UK for a non-UK (e.g. US) employer. What about a UK citizen living outside the UK working for a UK or US employer? (Feel free to substitute your country of residence)"

"The arguments will probably be familiar to most here, but I will state them anyway, just to be sure you know how I'm thinking.

Advantages for me:

• Save journey time of 3 hours per day
• Save travel expenses
• Save travel frustration (delays, crowds, mobile phone idiocy, etc.)
• Be fresh and alert when I start work
• Feel better at the end of the working day
• Be at work promptly each day
• Work in a pleasant/relaxed environment
• Ready access to my (large) technical library

Advantages for my employer:

• Cost savings
• Office space savings
• Improved productivity
• Increased motivation

Advantages for society:

• Reduced traffic congestion
• Reduction in total travel and therefore pollution

There are a number of disadvantages and factors to consider, though none should be insurmountable. A couple might be:

• Employer needs to monitor quantity and quality of work performed
• Internet connectivity (mine currently limited to 56Kb)

The above illustrates that some take-up of the teleworking approach would be in the everybody's interests, but I am frustrated at the lack of good quality resources I have been able to find on the subject. There seems to be plenty available explaining the concept, but very little in the way of actual assignments or contacts. Of course I may have been looking in the wrong places, so if you know better (and I hope you do), please share.

It would be interesting to hear both from employers who support (or would support) this model, and from employees who have successfully negotiated employment at home.

In general, have your experiences been positive? If you have had problems, how have they been resolved? And now that the technology has been available for at least 10 years, will teleworking ever take off in the UK?"

Comments

Advantages.

[1s44c]

Yes there are advantages to teleworking.
Yes it would save company money.

It will never catch on though. Bosses like to have their staff lined up in little cubicles. They like to feel in control. In the minds of most bosses empire building, politics, and wanting to look like they are in charge is important. Company money isn't.

How many times has your company wasted money on stupidity because some overpaid fool thought it was a good idea??

My company does this often.

Re:Advantages.

[AlecC]

It will never catch on though. Bosses like to have their staff lined up in little cubicles. They like to feel in control. In the minds of most bosses empire building, politics, and wanting to look like they are in charge is important. Company money isn't.

How many times has your company wasted money on stupidity because some overpaid fool thought it was a good idea??

That is the way companies were in the past. If doesn't have to be the way companies are in the future. Once upone a time all employees had timecards and clocked in and out - they still do for "warm body" type jobs where you have to have somebody - almost anybody - present. But for brainwork type jobs, successful employers long ago found that it is not worth splitting hairs over clocking on and off times. A more relaxed attitude gives better motivation, and if anything leads to people working more, mot less, hours (in most cases - and the exceptions probably aren't very productive even when present).

If it has enough benefits, companies that cannot do it will go out of business and be replaced by those that can do it. But the fact is that the benefits do not much exceed the costs. And the greater part of the benefits accrue to the employee, not to the employer. Since the usual format is that the employer has more power, they are not motivated to overcome whatever difficulties occur.

Two things can change this. The first is to give yourself some power over the company. This is uaually by having skills they cannot get elsewhere. If you are competing against other moderately skilled people for a job, they will naturally prefer the commuter to the teleworker, for reasons that have been given. However, if you have some scarce skills, and make it clear that you are only willing to telework, they may have to accept you. this may involve a bit of arm-wrestling - refuse the communting job, then call a month later and ask if they have filled that hard-to-fill post - or are using expensive cosultants and/or contractors. Secondly, you can share some of the benefits which you get with them. Yes, they get some benefits - but (empirically) not enough to motivatge them. You get a 27% reduction in your effective working day (11 hours to 8) and save commuting costs. Share some of that with them - ask for less money than the commuter.

An interesting example is MySQL AB, the company behind the excellent MySQL. They are a true virtual company: their employees are scattered all over Europe (plus some in the US), and rarely meet. Obviously, as a pure virtual company, they have had to conquer the problems from day one. But also, they have found a way of teaming a larger number of skilled indivduals in a narrow technical field than you would expect to be able to gather in any single commuting area. If the world is your fishpons, any single city looks small.

If you really want to work at / very near home...

[jlanng]

.. and you want that to be somewhere nice... The best option is to start your own business.

I do this, but it takes time

[moebius_4d]

I work from home full-time, and make a good rate doing it. (Occasionally I have business travel, to client sites, say about 10 days/year.) I work for an software consultancy.

The way I got here was to work for this group full-time on-site on a number of different engagements over a few years. When the first opportunity to work at home came up, I took it. I provide my own hardware and net connectivity.

Since I have proven my ability to get results and to do whatever it takes to satisfy the customer, I got this chance. Since I still make my dates and satisfy the customer, I am still afforded this opportunity.

It has its downsides, no doubt. My 2-year old daughter doesn't always understand when I can't interrupt myself and come do what she wants. But the time I've been able to spend with her has been priceless, from coming up to eat lunch with her, to dropping by the pool in the afternoon for a half-hour swim, it's been wonderful.

I consider myself lucky and work hard to keep this opportunity in my life.

Old fashioned teleworking

[Captain Pedantic]

You could move to near where your place of work is. In doing so you would....

Save journey time of 3 hours per day

Save travel expenses

Save travel frustration (delays, crowds, mobile phone idiocy, etc.)

Be fresh and alert when you start work

Feel better at the end of the working day

Be at work promptly each day

You would also find that you will get better connectivity than 56kbit.

Re:Old fashioned teleworking

[hplasm]

Commuting is the most pathetic human activity.

It is akin to migratory animals who have no choice but to spend half their lives moving south, then the other moving north.

Moving house to be near work is nearly as bad as being a migrant beast. This is the 21stC ... why should we still live to work. Whatever happened to all of the "increased leisure time" that technology was supposed to bestow on us all??

Bah!! Work To Live - Not Live To Work!!

/rant

Set up your own company

[pubjames]

It's really not difficult to set up your own company in the UK. Also, you don't have to live in the UK to be director of a company based in the UK.

Having your own company gives you much more flexibility than just working for a single employer. It also gives you more flexibility with regards to how you pay your taxes.

Where you live can be transparent to your clients - you can have a UK-based address with someone to answer and redirect your phone calls quite cheaply. Your clients don't necessarily need to know you're coding whilst sitting by the pool with a cool drink in the south of France or wherever. Go for it.

Re:Set up your own company

[Anonymous Coward]

There are some (not insurmountable) complications with this, as I've found out working from my home in Spain for the last 4 years. All government bodies seem to be OK with using a forwarding address (e.g. your accountant) except the VAT man. They rejected the accountant's address and apparently have a list of major mail forwarding company addresses which they'll also query. I eventually found a small outfit and succeeded in getting the address change accepted. Of course, this makes mail even slower; I had once missed a VAT return and the threatening letter took ages to arrive. I was lucky that they tend to let you off if you have a good record of getting the returns in on time. I have my bank statements sent directly to me, though I think the bank once questioned this. However, I keep quite a healthy balance, so it's in their interest to pay the extra postage.

While coding by the pool may be a nice thought, the truth is you have to work hard at making teleworking work. If you're slacking off, being unproductive and faking hours worked, it will be noticed and that will be the end. I have a separate space where I work, a separate phone line for business calls and I pay for a higher speed ADSL line. I make myself work pretty much standard hours each day, all day ... that is, be disciplined. It does get boring, working alone all day and there are weeks that I don't leave the house: get up, daughter off to school, up to work, at end of day, downstairs for dinner, play with daughter, crash in bed ... repeat 5 times. But then I don't spend hours commuting and, the telling thing, I maintain UK pay rates while working here - which is the only reason I've put up with it for this long.

Re:loneliness

[the_bahua]

I don't think it's important what the "things" are. He is just making a point that if you're all by yourself, working for a living, boredom and loneliness settle in more easily.

I personally don't think I could ever work consistently from home. I need human interaction. A more pressing concern, however, is that the boredom will drive you(or me, at least) to stop working more often than it would at work.

That's one nice thing about work. You are there with a purpose. Working from home, to me, would be like wandering around a mall, in my eighties.

Re:If you really want to work at / very near home.

[inflex]

Starting your own business is great. . . but don't expect overnight success. I've been working for the last 3 years almost 'non-stop' apart from a change of country and wedding.

Really, it depends on your personality. Do you have sufficent self-motivation, can you whip your own butt into doing work when you'd really rather just laze in front of the TV.

It's a choice - do you want the comfort of a consistant (??) pay cheque but without the freedom of time-choice, or vice-versa.

I recently had the opportunity to telecommute if I was to become an employee of another company, doing almost the same thing I'm doing now - but, then it struck me - the most important thing to me is the ability to do as I please, I'm just exceedingly fortunate that I manage to still make enough sales.

Regards.

Re:loneliness

[tigersha]

Ask any frustrated new mother who sits at home with baby. The situation is similar. Raising a baby is a lot of work (and you have to be on call all the time) but there is little social contact.

Work is for many people as much a social activity as it is a financial activity. Being with coworkers who are roughly doing the same as you and working for the same goals does make a difference and being alone will driveyou crazy.

Also, the whole "discussions at the watercooler" effect tends to go away if you are not there. Those discussion are sometimes very important.

Working from home

[schouwl]

Please thing of that you will become lonely and strange if you do that for longer time.

Move to the city or find a job close to home.

I am currently living in Tokyo a city that is 3 times bigger than London so I know what I am talking about for NOT commuting.
It is "normal" for Japanese to commute 1 1/2 hours each way after working 12 hours here.

Regards,
Lars

Re:Try the banks

[Alan Partridge]

I live in Amersham, and it takes me about an hour each way into London in my car each day (I work in Covent Garden). I don't really see any problems with this kind of commuting - I don't need to get up particularly early (I need to be in the office by 09:30, so I leave around 08:00) and I usually get home at around 19:15.

I've considered teleworking (possible for maybe 30% of my work), but I ENJOY London and all it's facilities, I don't want to be stuck in a small town (even a nice one like Amersham or Marlow) all of the time. You've got to ask yourself, what would you DO with that extra 2 or 3 hours? I'm pretty sure I'd just waste it myself.

Beware...

[Duncan3]

If you can work from home, then you're proving to your employer that someone in Asia could work from their home for 1/5 your salary. There is a good chance you will ever find yourself unemployed as soon as it's "working really well for the company".

The reality is your employer was simple beta testing its remote worker processes.

Re:My experience

[Saint Stephen]

I know there are as many opinions about this as there are people, but, for me, working from home is not even desirable for the reasons it's supposed to be good.

*When there was someone in the house and I worked from home, (a) I couldn't get anything done but more importantly (b) I didn't want to see her that damn much anyway.

*When there wasn't anybody in the house, my god how maddening to get up, go sit over there, do stuff, go over there, go to sleep, repeat. Like being in an institution.

This isn't the usual "it's no good because you can't get your work done" thing", this is the "it's no damn fun" thing. It's just my opinion, and I'm sure some people have completely different experiences, but I was WAY happier going over to *that* building to do shit just cause I at least get to see two different buildings! and I have a reason to shave and get out of the pajamas...

But an office is a drag too. My favorite was when I was an accounting consultant. We had about 35 clients. I'd be in one place in the morning, another in the afternoon, sometimes one place for a whole week, sometimes at home. The variety of environments and people was stimulating.

Middle Management - the real probleg

[orangeguru]

Germany / Munich here (although I have worked in the UK and US as well)

Technology and organisation are not the real problem - it's usually middle management and their fear of lossing control.

I have been freelancing for many companies, who were all "capable" of supporting teleworking. But the decision was mostly based on how paranoid the middle management guys were. And if they felt "secure" and "empowered" to let go of their cubicle slaves.

Visibility

[Builder]

There are a couple of downsides. If you're not visible, in the office and working, when the next round of redundancies roll around, your name will be high on the list

Secondly, finding a company to let you do this is nearly impossible. I currently work from home about 1/3 of the time. I'm in the office 8 hours a day and then work from home 2 - 4 hours a day. The work I do at home is of the same quality that I perform in the office, but generally the same chunk of work takes less time at home due to fewer interruptions. Despite this, we are not allowed to work from home. Management will not allow it, despite having presented a fairly good business case.

Re:loneliness

[Malc]

Well, I wasn't awake in time to post this: you beat me to it. Getting up in a timely manner - especially if you're in a different time zone - takes a lot of discipline. I've been working from home for 3.5 years. It's been tough at times. It didn't help that starting the job coincided with moving not just to a new city, but a new country. You're right: the loneliness is the hardest part of working like this, and if you suffer from seasonal changes, winters can become especially nasty. I didn't think I did, until the last three winters.

All my friends are my wife's friends. Well, I've started making some of my own, but when you don't get out socially on your own terms, it's slow. You've really got to work hard on getting to meet people, or you'll go crazy for social interaction... and no, chatting on the phone or IM or email with people at work 3,000 miles (my case) won't cut it. It's almost driven me on a couple of occasions to quit, take the 40-50% pay cut to work locally here in Toronto, but work in an office again.

It's hard to network when you work from home. It's hard for your career to progrees when you work from home: you have to work on easily packaged projects, and more senior roles involving management of others are less effective. You have to have a team that communicates well. Personally, if I were in a hiring position, I wouldn't take on anybody like me who can't even get to the office.

The flexibility makes up for a lot of it. I'm in a position that allows me to re-arrange my hours as I see fit. It takes a lot of self-discipline though, and a lot of trust by my employer. If I want to run errands during the day, or go for a run, I do. If I want to meet my wife for beer when she finishes work, I do. If I want to sleep in the next day with a hang over, I do.

Re:Nor can we

[mccalli]

The ratio of house prices to salaries in the UK is now at it's highest since records began in 1900.

Aah, but the mortgage rates are also some of the lowest since records began. This makes mortgages more affordable than they have been for a long time.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a UK house owner, yet would love to see a house price crash. Why? Because at the moment all the high prices mean is that various people get to swap pieces of paper about with big numbers printed on them. What does it matter if both my house and the house I'm buying went up £100k in the last two years? Actual value hasn't gone up - the relative cost is the same. However without first time buyers to drive the market, no-one can sell at the bottom level. Which means there's no-one to buy at the middle level. Which in turn means there's no-one to buy at the top level...you get the idea.

Cheers,
Ian

Out of London -- into Telford

[stevebrowne]

As someone else has said, the best way is to start your own company and find your own clients. I know that can't be done in some cases, but if it's an option, then it should be taken with both hands.

I've worked from home for the last 3 years or so, initially in London (New Malden) and now in Telford. It seemed mad to be living in an expensive London suburb when I didn't need to commute at all. And now we are out of the cramped London conditions, next to the countryside, with NO TRAFFIC JAMS!!!

Again, being in IT, it's fairly easy to get everything you need installed at home. A clutch of PCs and servers, software, some kind of Internet connectivity, and a telephone.

With a permanent Internet connection, IM helps you stay in touch, and to be honest I probably make more of an effort to chat when i see friends & family all over the world appear on my IM list. It'll be better if ADSL is actually going to make it to my local exchange...

Telford is about 2.5 - 3 hrs from London, so not exactly a huge distance away, and my trips there (and to Reading) can take place up to 3 times a week without any problems - any more than that and it would be a bit tiring...

But as someone else has said - if you have kids, it's great. My first child I was working a 1-1.5hr drive away. She was just getting up when I left, and just going to bed when I got back. She seemed to grow up really quickly. My second child, I was working only a 15 minute scooter ride away; I saw much more of her and could take part in more of the school related things. With child number 3, he has just hit 2 years old, and he has a strop when I have to go out for the day! He is so used to me being there, that when I'm not, his whole world gets shattered.

The ability to pop out if needed, take a day off at short notice, and basically decide your own game plan is fantastic.

And long may it continue, I hope...

Re:loneliness

[barnaclebarnes]

I would have to agree with this statement. I am currently employeed as a pre Sales technical consultant with a mobile computing software firm. It can get quite lonely when working from home. A few things to do to make up for it:

- Have friends close by who also work from home. Regular 'Lunch Meetings' gets you out of the house. Especially today since London is in the middle of sunshine (About time right!). Also Friday 4pm is 'Beer O' Clock' with the mates to wind down from the week.

- If you are working for a US company the timezone difference can be hard. I always check my email once before going to bed at night. I usually end up spending an hour then dealing with any issues that may have otherwise wasted a day in the US. This makes me a little more relaxed when taking an extra hour in the middle of the day for lunch. I kind of feel like I haved earned it.

- Meet up with your 'workmates' at least once every 2 weeks. There are 3 of us in the UK (2 slaes guys and me). It is good to get together, bitch about the US people and let of steam. Also builds those 'water cooler' relationships you don't get being alone.

- ADSL (512K is plenty for me), WLAN and a mobile phone is all you need. I connect to our US office via VPN for access to Exchange and the network drives. Web based presentations are done via WebEx and conference calls. It works well.

- If you can get your employer to say you have to work at home you can claim tex rebates in the UK. You can claim (Number of Rooms in house/Number of rooms used for business) for Electricity, Councli tax, Heating and Rent (you cannot claim for mortgage payments).

You missed some downsides

[Anonymous Coward]

I work from home. Overall, its pretty good, though i find myself missing the office. I am a "loner" by nature, and keep myself to myself. however, i find i really miss the social interaction of an office. Its just little things like saying 'morning!' to that guy at the desk you walk past every morning, it really keeps you human. I find myself becoming very introverted and detached (to the point where i feel it to be unhealthy) unless i make a serious effort to get out and see friends. Another thing is its very hard to stay motivated. I really enjoy the work i do, but day after day, waking up at the office, spending 9 hours working by yourself not saying a word to anyone (or even rolling your eyes with someone at some stupid comment made by a coworker) it gets very hard. It's strange the effect it has long term. Theres definately a difference between corresponding via email or over the phone to actually being physically present with someone, seeing the reactions they make to what you say and so on.

it depends on your situation really. maybe you have a partner you live with, or kids you want to be able to pick up from school, that would be different. but i live by myself and more or less spend monday to thursday in complete isolation (friday nights i go out). That may sound nice, especially if you have coworkers you dislike, but after a while, lame as it sounds, you start to miss it, becauuse (at least for me) there's coworkers you like as well.

these are quite important things i feel. there are some serious pluses to working from home, but everything comes with a price. try work it so you go into the office one or two days a week. If they know you're going to be in on certain days, generally they'll schedule meetings requiring you and other stuff on those days youll be in.

full time telecommuter experience

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been a fulltime telecommuter in the US for the past 3 years. Before I offer my 2 cents (er, shillings?) on how to become a teleworker, let me add to your list of disadvantages.

- It's lonely. I didn't think it would bother me, but after 3 years, I'm starting to feel it.
- You get left out of a lot of discussions. Think of all the time a decision is made in the hallway between two offices. You won't be involved, and will have to live with the decisions made.
- It can be difficult to disengage from work. When you work in an office, all you have ot do is leave. Since I work from home, I find myself sitting down after the kids are in bed to check email or review documents. It has taken a real effort to stop working at a reasonable time.

I don't mean to make it sound like a bad way to go. I wouldn't change my situation for anything. One advantage you didn't cover is the flexibility you can get form telecommuting. I am able to spend a couple of hours a week helping at my kids schools. Something I couldn't do if I were 90 miles away at the office.

Now, if you still wan't to become a teleworker, here is how I did it.

1) When I took my current job, I made sure the company was open to it. I didn't start working form home right away though.
2) As I reached certain milestones with regard to training, usefullnes and autonomy, I started discussing it in earnest with my manager. I started by working from home 1 day a week, and advertising the benefits the company was receiving. "Hey, look at what I did yesterday. I could have never got that much done with all the interruptions in the office"
It took me about 18 months to get to a full time teleworker status. I now go to the office about once a month to meet with people. This is critical to maintain relationships and find new projects/opportunities within the company.

As for the technology, I have VPN connection running over DSL. I use email, telephone and AIM. Occasionally I will use netmeeting to share a screen with someone. I have not seen a need for video conferencing.

Re:My experience

[kmilani2134]

The thing I find annoying about working from home is that on days when I am home my girlfriend thinks that the house should be cleaner and various chores should be done before she gets home from her job.

Fortunately, this is an extra motivation to actually do my office work and try to limit the interruptions of doing "house work" just because I am home.