Slashdot Mirror
Mobile Workers Work Longer Hours
Qedward writes "Last month it was reported on slashdot that a third of workers at a British telecoms company were 'more productive' working from home during a telecommuting experiment to prepare for the London 2012 Olympics. A more recent study reveals almost two-thirds of mobile employees say they are working 50+ and 60+ hour weeks, with most also working weekends. It also has security implications, with most mobile workers saying they will do anything to get an internet connection, including hijacking unsecure networks. The problem of needing a connection has also led to an increase in workers waking up through the night due to stress."
Get used to it people. It's a green initiative.
"The problem of needing a connection has also led to an increase in workers waking up through the night due to stress."
Seriously?
What in the world is this shit? How can someone even attempt to work from home without a solid Internet connection and with no secure method of connecting to the company network? And waking up in the middle of the night because you need a connection to the fucking internet? Man, what a mess we're living in. And I thought I was messed up.
Just get a fucking solid Internet connection. Surely one could afford it, I mean come on...
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
a third of workers [...] were 'more productive'
two-thirds of mobile employees say they are working 50+ and 60+ hour weeks
Which means a third is working more hours while not doing a damn thing more.
Either that or a lot of people are lying about how much they work.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Yeah, and I have Bigfoot doing all the server backups. You expect them to say they are doing less work? Or even the same amount of work? No confirmation from their companies on whether the company saw an increase in productivity?
Now before everyone gets flippy, I have known some people who did the mobile thing and were more productive, mostly because they didn't have people interrupting them every 5 minutes, and actually liked working more (as in hours) that way because it was more enjoyable. I also have known people that did their work in 3 hours and played games the rest of the day (also maybe because they could do 8 hours in 3 because of less distractions.
Main point- employees are never going to say anything bad about work out of the office.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
But having commuted for five hours a day in the past, and worked from home on other occasions, I would much rather work nine hours at home than work for eight in the office with even one hour of commuting.
Fuel, tires, collisions, stress, bus fair, everything associated with commuting sucks. I would much rather talk on the phone and fill out my work logs in my underwear than that.
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hours, a. time spent in an office, factory, or the like, or for work, study, etc.: The doctor's hours were from 10 to 4. What an employee does after hours is his or her own business.
Worked from home for the past 10 years...
I have no doubt they say they work longer... but it's more likely they just feel like they are working longer.
With no separation between work and home, it can feel like you are always working, even when you're not. And that is what keeps them up at night.. the stress from never being able to wind-down.
what will happen with Olympics network over load?
I can see working at home turning into a big mess. even more so if cable nodes over load.
That's quite a lot.
Does the writer say how many of those hours include sleeping while on-call or interview one or more of the workers involved?
They did not.
It's an opinion piece with a talking head.
That should be >48 hours
I am the opposite. I would rather work with people then without them.
I know I would be less productive and hating it while I would be doing it. I like to have my home and my work completely separated.
As the people are most likely volunteers, it would seem logical that people who volunteer, wanted to do it. Those will then be more likely to be indeed more productive.
So perhaps it is not so much about telecommuters being more productive, but people who are in an environment they like to work in are more productive. (DUH!)
Let them force people who do not want it to work at home and see if the same happens.
I have absolutely no problem with the commuting part of it. I even see it as relaxing. Most of the time I listen to books and I often take detours that takes me even longer to get home. Once I am home, I like being there and do non-work related stuff.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
When I work from home, I dont even THINK of starting until start time and I am offline the second 5pm hits. Phones go to voicemail, sucks to be you with yout 5:01 TPS report as I will not even know about it until 7:59 the nest morning.
If you let your employer abuse you, they expect you to take it. Stand up and realize you are doing your office a favor by working there, not the other way around.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well, you obviously don't live/work near Houston.
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To hell with cube's. And where I live, local companies still won't let people work remote which is funny because they also can't find developers.
"The problem of needing a connection has also led to an increase in workers waking up through the night due to stress."
A spliff before bed does wonders for that.... ;)
What? People more productive?
Why? They are only:
- away from noisy cubes.
- away from hallway meetings.
- saving time from a commute.
- saving aggravation from a commute.
- a few feet from their private bathrooms and break-rooms. (Not several hundred feet down a long, busy hall.)
BellSouth (now AT&T) also discovered a productivity boost among employees allowed to telecommute during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Data security classically was: you keep your data in a mainframe, and give people only terminals.
Then it was: You give people PCs, but put gum in the USB slots.
These days that's hard to do because motherboards want keyboards and mice to be USB.
Not to mention laptops. And in some companies (like Nokia US), it's all laptops all the time. And mobile (i.e., no) offices.
In such a scenario, how do you protect against an employee who wants to cp the entire database (design, products, customers, whatever)? Or other documents?
Maybe this should be an Ask Slashdot.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Enterprise global Wi-Fi network provider iPass surveyed 1,700 mobile employees at 1,100 enterprises worldwide...The survey also found that 88 percent of these wireless heads thought cable-free access was "as important to their lives, or almost, as running water and electricity". Another 95 percent reported significant reductions in their job productivity without wireless access.
It's not clear to me that "mobile worker" means the same as "telecommuter". But the article seems to be saying that companies need to run out and buy more Enterprise Global Wi-Fi Networks (tm) so they can get employees happily working 60 hours per week and being more productive at the same time. Sure, we'll get right on that.
It's the only way to enclose everything in the perimeter. It has a lot of drawbacks but if you need a sealed electronic border around the company, remote desktop or virtual desktop infrastructure is the gold standard.
When I do have the occasion to work a full day from home (rare, but it happens) I end up working a 10hr day, and find myself missing that reading time.
... wait, what?
Mobile workers work longer hours than workers in other cities in Alabama.
Telecommuters work from home. They do not need to worry about connection because they are at home and they have one available (unless they are so cheap that they are connecting to theirs neighbours').
Mobile workers (aka road warriors) are the guys that roam the country (think of vendors) and have to connect to office from wherever they are. I know a lot of them and yes they work at all, mostly because after their normal routine they often are stranded in someplace where they know nobody so, instead of being with the family or going to a bar with fiends they have nothing to do so they keep working.
Stupid /. editors, again.
Why can't
I wish we had a good train system around here. I used to take the bus downtown, but to say the least there was too much over-crowding, bouncing, jerking around and too many traffic fumes to properly enjoy reading. I did some of that, but it was easier some trips that others.
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Who supervises the ones that work from home and how effective is it? Keeping an eye on staff working in an office is difficult enough, but it is more challenging if they are at a remote location. So how does it work?
What the hell are firms doing even making it possible to connect to their systems on unsecured servers? I've worked from home for years (well, 3 days at home, 2 in the office) and the only way I can connect is via my work laptop which has an encrypted hard drive and connects via VPN and an RSA keyfob thingy. Trying to connect any other way means you'll just get rejected by the servers and rightly so.
As for hours, yes, I work longer hours at home but I can work them when I want (more or less, meetings permitting) so can be around for the school run, making dinner for the family in the evening etc.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
People who don't have to deal with office politics, idiotic bureaucratic rules, and stupid coworkers do more work? COLOR ME SURPRISED. Seriously, if everyone could work from home productivity would likely shoot up due to morale going through the roof. My job is answering a phone and typing in a message. Set me up with a state of the art phone that receives those calls at my house and the appropriate program on my computer and I'd be there whenever they needed me during the time I was awake thanks to not having to actually be near other stupid human beings.
50 to 60 hours? Yet when you deduct the commute they're back to under par.
Maybe they should try farming. I only work 80 to 100 hours a week, but at least I don't have to commute and the quality of life is spectacular farming.
Okay so if you are in the office (or in a remote office) they would stump for your internet connection so why is it not common practice to pay for a connection for your telecommuters??
(aka why is an internet connection an issue??)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
OK, suppose they put in the same amount of effort as in the office. Now consider the following:
1) They do not have to commute. That saves hours of time each week, a two hour daily commute amounts to 10 hours a week. They are in fact recapturing some of those extra hours.
2) Less commuting means less stress and probably better productivity.
3) They save money on bus fares and other commuting expenses. A de facto pay raise.
4) In some places I have worked parents had to take an hour or so to pick up kids, drop them off at home or day care then rush back to work. The creates less need for rushing around and/or paying for day care. That is an instant increase in quality of life.
Those are a few of the immediate benefits I see. My conclusion is that even if they work a few more hours, they benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+