Home office

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do" a song by Billy Joel, based on a popular saying. The meaning of the proverb is quite clear, I think. Yet, as having lived in various countries, my activities in the CEE region give me a certain culture shock. Even though, modern technology has brought the whole globe closer together, and business practices either from California, Hong-Kong or Malta are not so distant any longer, some differences in practices are still apparent. 

Commuting to work is a bothersome part of your day. Perhaps in most cases inevitable, yet it depends, whether that is an absolute truth. The Dutch government, for examples, for years faced urgent problems regarding the overly crowded highways, causing every morning hundreds of miles of traffic jams. The problem is not merely an "annoying feeling" of being stuck and coming late to work by a couple of minutes. Economically, it is a drain of several billions of Euros on a yearly basis. Challenges of a crowded country, where space (for infrastructure) is relatively scarce.

One of incentives given to employers by the state was to encourage working from home. Not necessarily full time, but one or two days, would made a considerable difference. Not only diminishing traffic jams - and thus the fluency of the supply chain is less obstructed - but equally the CO2 emissions of exhaust fumes is reduced.

The Dutch have a widely accepted working from home concept. When discussing this in Slovakia e.g., this is still regarded very exceptional - only for the CEO, or suspecting the employee is lazily dodging his job. The contrary is true; in practice, the home-worker will be relieved from wasting his time and gasoline in a traffic jam, feeling less stressed, perhaps be even less disturbed by his colleagues - continuously barging into his office. Less stress and better focused (Sitting in the office a number of hours, is never a proof of being productive all the time).

My own experience with home-working is very positive and I can highly recommend to implement it. But as with everything, it takes time before society accepts a new trend. It certainly improves your work-life balance (another subject to write about).