Dad At Work

Here's a brief report on working at home from Australia's "The Age":

"Westpac's head of diversity, Niki Kesoglou, says workers are assessed for ability to work on their own, provided with the equipment they need and helped to ensure their work environment is safe. Guidelines are given for communication with managers and progress is monitored according to meeting objectives, rather than when workers clock on and off.

Westpac benefits through greater productivity, worker retention and morale."

...

"But Barbara Pocock, the director of the Centre for Work + Life, at the University of South Australia, says there is a downside to telecommuting.

While it gives parents, particularly working mothers, the flexibility to work from home and deal with emergencies, it can encroach on family life.

Professor Pocock says there is an increasingly "porous boundary" between work and home life that is being breached."

That does seem to be true, though I'm sure it depends on the demands of the job. For me, there have been times when I just kept working. Now, the situation is that I trade two evenings - working from after dinner to 10 or 11 - for a Friday off to take care of our son. So that's less about work encroaching on home life, than exchanging some home life time for other time. If I was working a normal 8 to 5, I wouldn't get to spend an entire day with our son, and instead only seen him for a few hours each night.

(Aside: I read the professor's name above as "Professor Peacock" my first time through. Reminded me of Clue, which I played once again recently around the holidays. Wonder if she gets that often?)

Labels: Clue, flexible scheduling, working at home