Hard Day at Home

The report says that in the future offices will exist mainly to provide corporate identity and social interaction. IT departments will need to provide remote access to electronic mail (e-mail) and company information systems. They will need to ensure that people bringing in laptops can easily plug into network resources such as printers. And that there is a policy for fixing or replacing faulty equipment fast.

Companies will also need a strategy for protecting the security of information being carried around or logged in to remotely. Confidential data held on laptops might have to be encrypted.

There are three main approaches to introducing a home/mobile working scheme:

• the property-led approach, which focuses on reducing office space;
• the technology-led approach, which is driven by the ability of technology to change how people work;
• the business-led approach, which employs mobile technologies to improve business performance or to redesign the business process.

The last approach is most likely to bring big benefits because it focuses on productivity improvements.

Having selected an approach, Pagoda recommends that companies try flexible working on a carefully chosen pilot group that reflects the whole business.

Generally speaking, home working is most suitable for work carried out alone at a PC or laptop, or for interacting with customers over the phone or by e-mail. The report reveals that up to 80 per cent of an average office employee’s tasks are performed alone at a desk and could therefore be carried out anywhere.

Of course, remote working can be less than ideal. While it is easy to write memos on a train, it is more difficult, because of lack of privacy, to talk to customers. Travelling executives say it is stressful to work on the move. Battery life for portables is limited, and laptops and spare batteries are heavy to carry around.

Home-based workers will feel isolated, and managers will be slower to find out about and solve their problems. There is also a number of legal and taxation issues, which companies must solve before encouraging workers to stay at home. Whatever the problems, however, the message of the report is that home and mobile working are here to stay.

From the Financial Times

1. Question to ponder:

1) Would you like to be able to work from home? Give your reasons.

2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of working from home?

3) Do you think that having a flexible time-table has a positive effect on work in general?

2. Number this information in order it appears in the text:

1) Company computer staff will have to find ways of letting employees look at their e-mail from outside the office.

2) Company computer staff will have to find ways of repairing or replacing equipment that doesn’t work.

3) Company computer staff will have to find ways of letting employees connect their computers to the company’s computer system so that they can use equipment like printers.

4) Offices will exist to give companies an identity and to allow people to meet and discuss things.

5) Organisations will need to have plans to make sure that information on computers is not available to people who do not have the right to see it.

6) Information on laptop computers may need to be put into code.

3. Find out if the statements are TRUE or FALSE according to the text and correct the false ones:

1) A special system must be created to provide the security of information.

2) Confidential information is supposed to be held on one computer.

3) Home working is good for people dealing with customers by phone or e-mail.

4) When a company chooses an approach, all its employees should follow it immediately.

5) The technology-led approach is the one that focuses on reducing office space.

6) The technology-led approach is the one that will have the most benefits.

7) Eighty percent of an average employee’s time is spent in meetings.

8) Business-led approach focuses on mobile technologies to improve performance.

9) There are two ways of starting up a system of people working away from the office.

10) Companies are not going to be responsible for extra network facilities.

4. Find this computer vocabulary which is important in home working:

1) when you can get into a computer system even if you are not in the place where it is;

2) the computer system in a company that everyone can use;

3) a computer that you can carry easily;

4) the company department that deals with computers;

5) to get access to a computer system.

5. Find the adjectives and adjective expressions used in the text to describe these things:

1) home-based workers;

2) carrying laptops and spare batteries;

3) battery life for portables;

4) working while travelling;

5) talking to customers on a train;

6) writing memos on a train;

7) remote working.

6. a) Match the words to build new word combinations:

b) Make no more than 3 sentences incorporating all of these word-combinations.

7. Word-building.

Make new words out of the given ones using the suffixes:

-tion -ive -ment

-ant -able -ism

-al -ance -er

1) global 2) manage 3) consult 4) skeptic 5) corporate

6) nation 7) important 8) develop 9) object 10) transfer

8. Put the parts of the words together to make new compound words:

1. multi- 2. hand- 3. transfer- 4. stereo- 5. world- 6. lap- 7. technology-

a. -type b. -wide c. -top d. -natural e. -ful f. -able g. -led

9. Find mistakes in spelling:

1. developement
2. enginrer
3. homebased
4. aproach
5. excecutive
6. competencys
7. homecountry
8. costomer
9. employe
10. to encourage

Key:

Ex. 6: 1-e; 2-i; 3-l; 4-h; 5-k; 6-j; 7-d; 8-a; 9-b; 10-c; 11-g; 12-f.

Ex. 8: 1+d; 2+e; 3+f; 4+a; 5+b; 6+c; 7+g.

Ex. 9: 1. development; 2. engineer; 3. home based; 4. approach; 5. executive; 6. competencies; 7. home country; 8. customer; 9. employ; 10. to encourage.