Working from a Third Place

Krishna Dagli writes to mention a USA Today report on the social and business ramifications of working from a third place - somewhere that is neither home nor office. From the article: "An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation's workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko's generation, employees who spend significant hours each month working outside of a traditional office. This rootless army is growing 10% annually, according to Gartner Dataquest research. The reason? Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."

Comments

Like a screendoor on an employee.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack."

Now even more places for data to leak.

Legitimately working from home

[syousef]

There seems to be 2 kinds of working from home:

1) I'm taking a sickie really and I don't feel like working and look the business has provided me with a good excuse.
2) Legitimate working from home.

Unfortunately the infrastructure at the moment seems to be set up more for type 1, because every employer I've worked for hasn't got their technology right to facilitate type 2. Mind you I'm in IT and require access to a lot more than many non-IT employees might.

I think if you're going to allow work from home, that's a good thing, but for goodness sake unless your business can afford slacking off set some goals that have to be met, and provide the technology.