It’s not exactly a new idea this, arguably common decision, to work from home. As such, one would imagine that seeing an opportunity, residential products, services, design and even homes would have started to adjust to the ever increasing requests of a growing body of potential customers who want to work from home. These people who are working in an Internet Business through online jobs have a need for an atmosphere that suits their everyday life and their work needs too.

It’s true, there are a number of products on the market that are aimed at those people who Work From Home but it’s fair to say that the offer is disjointed and it takes a level of skill in construction, IT and ergonomics to produce a suitable domestic atmosphere from which one could run an internet organisation. Most people only manage to offer a small amount of the facilities needed to be comfortable and dynamic.

The brief for a home office set up should be largely similar to that of a normal office or corporate workspace. A resident employee requires power, data and a place to sit and a surface to work on as a bare minimum. Add into that the requirement for social interaction, ad hoc meetings, cooperation and areas for focussed working and the brief starts to look very similar.

The easy and least productive solution to meeting these needs is to provide a desk, chair, laptop, telephone and data cable. On the face of it these items of kit will provide the necessary vehicle in (or on, or through) which people can deliver their output. The real question is how does one provide for the rest of the criteria and how do we use advancements in construction and technology to support the requirements for people who work in Online Jobs?

Firstly, let’s handle the workplace itself. Does it need to be a desk? In a usual domestic situation would a desk be an appropriate piece of furniture ? Technology gives us laptops and telephone headsets and the capability to work anywhere on any furniture. Add to that wireless printing and a web cam and really the office, as was, is now built completely around the person as opposed to a location.

Of course, in these days of corporate responsibility, the idea of using a laptop for long periods of time would give Personnel and Insurance teams an issue, but the reality is that what we have through technology is a new idea and what we would expect to see is new furniture designs to solve the ergonomic issues.

Secondly, there is the issue of privacy, sound and environmental comfort. A voice conference in a house full of playing children is not encouraging to productive work. Will we begin to see new homes provided with isolated space for working? Possibly provided as an extension, a loft or even a stand alone unit in the garage.

Whatever the answers the market is there already and the design industry has yet to react to it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Business and Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.