Swedish Offices Empty During The Microsoft “Work From Home Day”

As I told you in an earlier post, Microsoft Sweden had proclaimed a “Work From Home Day” for last Wednesday. It has been interesting to follow the discussion on social media, in newspapers and in television, and here is a summary and some more of my own thoughts on the subject.

Nearly 50 organizations joined the event
According to Microsoft Sweden nearly fifty companies and organizations joined the “Work from home day”, and that is not bad for a small country like Sweden. Below you see an image from the Microsoft office that day. Note that the offices were still open. The only difference was that the employees worked from their homes. Many of the participants were in the IT business, of course, but also a big organization like The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation closed their office and asked the staff to work from home. For them the benefits of less pollution when less people commuted were decisive.

Reactions on Facebook
Microsoft Sweden created a Facebook page for the event, and the comments were many and varied. In my opinion there was too much about unimportant things like how you dress when you work at home and too little about how to solve practical problems. Maybe the reason is that few of the visitors actually work from home on a regular basis? There were also comments from people who can never work from home, like teachers and nurses. And one visitor said “I would love to be able to weld from home!”

Mass media coverage
Many newspapers wrote about the Microsoft initiative, and it was also featured in several television channels. One of the news programs reported that people are not working more from home today than they did ten years ago, in spite of all the new technologies that make it easier. Many employers do not let their staff work from home even if it would be possible. Is it because of lack of confidence? Do they look more at time worked than at what is actually delivered?

Clear instructions make it easier
Sales Director Marie Ygge at Microsoft Sweden recommends clear instructions on what should be done when an employee works from home, so that both parties know what is expected. The SharePoint Task list is excellent for such instructions. We use a customized Task list for the kalmstrom.com staff, and it is easy to fill out and to check what has been done. And I know that at least one of our employees likes to look at the old, finished tasks also, for the encouragement that only a task well done can provide!

Working from home is not possible or even desirable for all, but for those who can and want to do it employers should cooperate. I firmly believe that happy people are more healthy and do a better job, and if working conditions can be improved to make employees more content it is in the end an advantage not only for the individual people but also for the company.

Microsoft Sweden Proclaims "Work From Home Day"

Next Wednesday, 8 February, Microsoft Sweden has called for a national “Work from home day”. Their offices will be closed and everyone will be working from home. Microsoft also urges other companies to follow their example and do the same.

Technically possible
Today people can have conferences over the internet and share information in the cloud, so in many cases physical meetings are no longer necessary. Microsoft is doing a lot to extend these possibilities, with products like SharePoint, Office 365 and now also Skype, so the “Work from home day” is not just an altruistic project. Naturally Microsoft wants people to use more of these tools!

Advantages
Apart from the Microsoft business aspect there are however several advantages with working from home. I should know, because I always do it. kalmstrom.com Business Solutions uses the Microsoft platforms mentioned above, as well as some of our own Outlook applications, to make it possible to work with a geographically distributed team of experts.

Working from home gives me several benefits:

• I don’t have to spend time travelling to my work place.
  
  
• I don’t have to pollute the earth while going there.
  
  
• I don’t have to follow strict working hours as long as I am online and reachable during a better part of the day.
  
  
• I can arrange my work space just as I want it, and it is nice and quiet
  
• I don’t have to dress up!

Loneliness
But working from home is not only a bed of roses. The most obvious drawback is perhaps that you feel lonely when you don't meet with your work mates in person. That can be solved, though, if you work only part of the hours from home, maybe two or three days a week.

Practical difficulties
I think it can be harder to solve practical issues like safety measures, security and equipment. If you work from home on a regular basis, you cannot sit at the kitchen table or in a sofa. You need a good space for a workstation with the necessary communication and sharing tools. The place must be efficient, comfortable and secure, and you need backup for internet and maybe also for electricity.

All that costs money, and who pays? In my case it was easy, since I am one of three company owners, but with a big group of employees spread out in their homes you get a more complicated situation. The more security and special equipment an employee needs, the more difficult it will be to find a solution for working from home.

Future way of working?
I think the Microsoft initiative in Sweden is good. It can give people and organizations a kick to start discussing the matter of working from home more seriously than before. If all parties make an effort, I am sure the problems can be solved for more people than today. Many wish to work from home for at least some days a week, and we will probably see more of that in the future. So I wish Microsoft Sweden good luck with the “Work from home day”. I will certainly work from my home that day - and all other days also!