Daniel Robinson

Some recent research suggests that remote working is in decline in the UK, and blames the deteriorating economic climate for creating a “presentee” culture among employees. Staff choose to be seen at the office even if they are more productive working at home, so the argument goes, for fear they will be among those earmarked for the chop if the company decides to shed some jobs.

Of course, this research was slightly self-serving because it was commissioned by Microsoft’s mobility division, which has long been pushing Windows Mobile handsets as the ideal tool for remote workers, thanks to the platform’s growing support for messaging and ability to handle Office documents.

Nevertheless, it is illuminating that the report should find that remote working is declining, especially since this is something that everyone aspires to, so we are told. Over a quarter of senior managers would quit within six months if they could not work remotely, according to Microsoft.

The report goes on to say that “despite an overwhelming belief that being able to work remotely helps employees do more with their day, senior managers are still three times more likely to be able to work remotely than other employees ­ reinforcing the belief that mobile working is a senior perk”.

So what it really seems to boil down to is that managers are still not happy unless their employees are all present and correct, doing the traditional nine-to-five in the office. It’s a rule they can happily ignore themselves, of course, since they are the ones in charge.

But there seems to be more to the situation than it being a simple case of managers not trusting their staff to get on with the job when out of sight. There is a lot of informal communication between colleagues in an office environment that is difficult to reproduce electronically. No matter how good email might be, it will never be as convenient as shouting a question across the desk to a workmate, and you certainly won’t get as immediate a response.

Then there is instant messaging, which can prove incredibly useful in many situations, especially as most of these systems typically have some form of “presence” indicator to show whether you are online and available. The problem with this, as I can personally attest, is that other people expect an immediate response, because they can see that you are available and they know that their message will have popped up on screen in front of your eyes as soon as they sent it.

In fact, between push email, instant messaging and the mobile phone, you can easily find that you get interrupted as often as you would do if you were sat in the office, thus destroying the very reason why most people report they are more productive when they work from home.

But perhaps there is another reason why workers are actively discouraged from working remotely, as the Microsoft report claimed. Remote working has often been touted as a way for businesses to save money, since they would not require as much office space, which would mean smaller bills for electricity and air conditioning, as well as saving on costly real estate.

The problem with this scenario is that few companies are set up to work this way. The chances are that most large organisations have a number of sizable buildings that are probably leased for a long time into the future. Since they already have these assets that are costing them money, there seems little to gain from having employees work somewhere else.

The more I think about it, the more I become pessimistic that the option to work regularly from home will come about anytime soon.