Social Impact of Working From Home

A few days ago I was once again reminded by Joshua Levy and his piece “One Blogger Asks: Is the Grass Really Greener on the Web Worker’s Lawn?” on his blog Web Worker Daily that I wanted to write a piece about what I believe to be the social impact of home working.

Joshua is asking some interesting questions about working from home:

So is all of this freedom actually liberating us? Does web work actually represent an evolution in the working conditions of the masses? Or are we fooling ourselves, blind to the reality that we can’t have it two ways — you can’t have the freedom AND have someone else, er, pay the bills.

If I ask myself these and other questions I’m invariably drawn to find answers in my personal work life and how it has changed in the last decade.

In 1999 I was still office based, traveled from one of our offices around the world to the next and was rarely home. In fact most of the time those years I came home Friday very late or Saturday and then often left Sunday night again. So I saw little of my family and especially my son who is now grown-up and ready to go to university.

Then in 1999 I sold my ISP-business and went back to run WinWeb. This time around I worked from home, right from the start I did not want to be in an office and lead the same life as before. So for the past eight years I have been there when my son came home from school, I even picked him up often enough. I was here when he came home with the latest music CD, I had to listen to - not always easy, I admit - or the latest sport-shoes form addidas had finally arrived at the shops.

Similarly I spend much more time with my wife, going for lunch, doing some “essential” gardening - I hated gardening, but love it now. I could give you many more examples, but you get the picture.

While there are many challenges for home workers, I believe we are seeing the beginning of an “reversal” trend. I would like to list here some challenges I believe our society is facing currently:

• Child care - in our work dominated society we often outsource most of our child-care, in kindergarten, boarding schools, and other institutions, here our children will not receive the same level of care and love they deserve and need;
• Care for the Elderly - our lifestyles often separate us from our loved ones and in times of need we are often not able to care for our relatives or friends, because we live in different cities or even countries for example;
• Environment - many of us spend hours every day alone in cars or on trains - not alone, but still isolated - and contribute to the carbon emissions that change our climate.

There are many more examples. This whole process began with the “Industrial Revolution” some 150 years ago. Some of us may even remember a time when three or even four generations of a family lived in one house. People worked in their villages, child-care or care for family “just” happened - was that a bad or good thing? Looking at single parent families and the impact on our children, I would argue it was a good thing, and so would the many parents working from home exactly for that reason - to provide a healthy family environment for their loved ones.

I believe that the whole trend of home working may in the future allow us to have a much more natural work/life balance and will reverse some of the damaging effects of the post industrial revolution changes in our society. People will live closer to family, local communities will be revived - I believe that is happening as we speak, and our children will benefit from “more family”, and all this will have a profound impact on all our lives and the environment.

I would encourage Joshua and everyone else working from home to relearn the social skills of building local friendships, or live near family and give you the social life you need.

After all, this technology we at WinWeb and others supply makes it possible to work from anywhere, gives you a tremendous amount of freedom to live the life you want, where you want.

Let’s hope in hundred years from now people will see this era not only as the “Information Age”, but also the age when we learned to live a better work/life balance, in tune with our emotional and social needs as individuals, families and society as a whole. What do you think?

Have a great weekend with your family and friends.

11 Responses to “Social Impact of Working From Home”

1. Mark Roseman's Blog
   http://blog.markroseman.com/2007/09/social-impact-o.html
   
   Said on September 22nd, 2007 at 5:44 pm

   Social Impact of Working from Home.

   A nice article from Stefan with a different perspective on the “social isolation” perspective many people have about working from home. For me, one of the huge benefits has been the flexibility. Pauline’s job keeps her incredibly busy, so being

2. SylviaVictor
   http://tinyurl.com/359br3
   
   Said on September 24th, 2007 at 1:23 pm

   Your posting is really great. Many people prefer home business because people feel that working from home can be more convinient than working in an outdoor place.

3. reash
   http://www.theeashsyndicate.com
   
   Said on September 24th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

   The reason why most people likes to work at home is that the quality time they get to spend with their family. You can be with your family while running your business at the same time. You can’t do both if your work is office based. Another good reason is the flexibility of time. You can start working any time you feel like working, no boss to give you orders and tasks that needs to be done in a particular time.

4. Chris Leigh
   http://www.realtimerace.com
   
   Said on September 25th, 2007 at 11:03 am

   [Stefan Töpfer
   http://www.winweb.com

   Said on August 16th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
   Hank,

   Tank you for your post, i would be delighted to have you try our AccountsOffice. There will be a new release out on September 3rd - with new and enhanced features - have a look.

   Let me know what you think.

   ST]

   Managing Customer Expectations.

   I took on Winweb in 2 of my companies RuralFX.com and Realtimerace.com

   I was told by support at the tie that an update would be ready at the end of summer to include cost centres for invoicing. When you indicated on this board that the update would be out on September 3rd I was satisfied. Now its September 25th and no update. Today I contacted support and they said they didnt know when the release was coming out and were not prepared to give me an estimate.

   I really do think the existing software is excellent but have been left in a sticky situation with respect to this lack of functionality. Perhaps you could ask your development team to you accurately communicate to you for this blog and most importantly to the customers

   Rgds

   Chris

5. Dawn Rivers Baker
   http://blog.microenterprisejournal.com
   
   Said on September 25th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

   It may be even more critical that the trend toward escaping from employer-based careers and going home to work has some pretty profound implications for the civic lives of people.

   For generations now (at least here in the U.S.), employers have assumed something of a paternalistic role in the lives of their adult workforce. People look to their employers for entree into systems of social safety nets (Social Security, disability insurance, health care benefits, etc.). That sets up a relationship based on employer-as-caretaker.

   Then, too, educated as we are to become employees, we have a tendency to think what we are told to think and to be passive in the face of those we perceive as having societal authority. But that is a mindset that is not conducive to maintaining a free people.

   You can see the results of all this apathy and passivity in the political activity of the U.S. over the past few decades. Civil discourse has been replaced by a combination of marketing and a kind of spectator-sport attitude, with people rooting for their ‘team’ and vilifying members of the other ‘team’ as anything from misguided to evil. And what’s missing from all this is any real discussion of the issues in all their nuanced complexity.

   Independence in economic life will, I think, encourage all kinds of independence — including independent thinking. That can’t be anything other than a positive development, even if it takes the politicians a while to get used to it.

6. Stefan Töpfer
   http://www.winweb.com
   
   Said on September 25th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

   Hi Chris,

   The US release of version 3.4 is set for week commencing October 8th, 2007. Sorry for the delay - will try and do better in the future.

   Stefan

7. Stefan Töpfer
   http://www.winweb.com
   
   Said on September 25th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

   Hi Dawn,

   I could not agree more, but this trend is not only happening in the US. In Europe too, we like to “build” little boxes, then sit in them and close them from the inside.

   Everything and anything has to be someone’s fault, and someone needs to be blamed. If you run your own business, you will need to be more informed and more involved.

   As you said that can only be a good thing.

   - Stefan

8. Small Business Radar - Today Top Blog Posts on Small Business - Powered by SocialRank
   http://smallbusinessradar.com/social-impact-of-working-from-home/
   
   Said on October 9th, 2007 at 9:02 am

   […] Social Impact of Working From Home […]

9. Daniel Lowton
   http://www.danieldesigns.co.uk/
   
   Said on March 31st, 2008 at 8:14 am

   Stefan I found this article to be very interesting. I am Daniel Lowton – a freelance graphic desinger and web designer based in Kent, England. I provide a friendly, efficient, cost-effective freelance graphic design service to a range of corporate and small business clients in London, South East and the UK.

   I am committed to providing a high-quality print design and web design service and as a freelance graphic desinger will provide either a written fixed price quotation or base my prices on an hourly rate.

   Please visit my website at freelance graphic desinger to see my portfolio and feel free to comment on my work.

   Daniel

10. Sally-Ann, Property Solutions
    http://www.repossession-stoppers.com
    
    Said on April 22nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    A subject close to my heart at the moment - with a 12 month old baby and a 6 month old new home business. Spending as much time will my baby girl as possible is my ultimate goal, it drives me on and keeps me motivated.

11. Alex
    http://mp3masta.com
    
    Said on June 13th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    Working at home we save our time. Of course it all depends on the type of work. Saving time on the way there and back, no talks that distracting us from work. All that is advantages. On the other hand we are less mobile, less communicate on work less learn about the experiences of colleagues. Reading is one thing, quite another to hear. There is psychological point which affects the quality of our work and life in general.

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