Teleworking - a Questionnaire

Several years ago I made a personal decision to work mainly from home. I did so for family reasons because I wanted to play a more active role with my girls while they were growing up. There have been costs, but also enormous personal gains.

Last November I wrote a story on the Ndarala Group blog looking at some of the issues involved in teleworking from a personal perspective. I have now been approached by Andrew Buckland seeking help on his Masters thesis.

Andrew is reading an MSc in Facilities and Asset Management at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University. His related dissertation centres on establishing if home working is a viable alternative to the modern office environment. As part of this, he has developed a short questionnaire to gather information from people who have experienced working from home. His focus is on those who have worked from home but who are not self-employed.

I know that a number of people in professional services do work in whole or part from home, a trend that has been increasing in part because of the steady increase in the proportion of women in the professional work force. Given this, I thought that some of my readers might be able to help Andrew by filling out the questionnaire. He can be contacted via email - andrew@ascb.eclipse.co.uk.

For the benefit of my international readers, the Australian Government's Australian Telework Advisory Committee (ATAC) has been investigating the teleworking option. The Committee's report plus supporting reports and submissions (here) contains a range of useful information on teleworking.