The changing nature of "working from home"

It has never been easier to connect to our place of work, whilst "working from home". And yet the mere concept of bring our work life into our personal space has not only gone unchallenged, but we seem to have traded this invasion of our personal space without recognising the long term consequences of doing so.

As a telecommunications specialist, the idea of communicating across multiple locations is not a new one . With the advent of high speed broadband in most industrialised and developing  nations, allowing people to effectively "connect" to the office, is today easier than ever before. Advances in the  quality of the underlying infrastructure, means that today most applications such as mail, intranet services, voice and video conferencing, can all be done from the "comfort" of your home. I use the word " comfort" with some reservation, as the ability to seperate ones personal environment from our office environment has  never been as difficult as it is today.

Businesses traditionally  has been reluctant to formally provide for contracts that recognise the concept of working from home and more importantly the idea of " a home office". In most cases this seems to be cost issue, with formal home work, requiring an additional investment by the company, in terms of office equipment , health and safety , travel costs and so on..
The current approach is a grey one with many businesses , where possible, allowing for workers to connect remotely without offering formal contracts stipulating so.

It is more than likely that the concept itself of " working from home" is already an outdated one. With modern access methods and tools, the concept of connecting via various devices including ipads, smart phones, notebooks already possible today. This means that more than ever the need to define the rules of engagement when it comes to work-life balance are necessary. The consequences of not doing so, are not yet known, but the outcome of a society constantly locked in work and productivity mode leaves employees vulnerable to exploitation.