Advance in technologies has transformed the globe into a village in some sense, where communication is just several finger movements away on the keyboard of your Mactintosh. This gives rise to a new work fashion, working at home. Working at home enjoys enormous popularity in contermporary society, because it brings public with economical,environmental as well as social merits that would prosper this practice in return.
Technology progress that has been achieved in the last decade has made working at home a reality. More specifically, different sorts of online service and chat tools link people together when they need to exchange ideas or discuss problems even if they are thousands of miles apart. Many multi-continental enterprises nowadays use skype, an online chatting tool equipped with video meeting function, for business meetings when several branches in different continents are involved, let alone brainstrom sessions inside a company, where employees could sit together virtually and present their ideas by the internet. It is exactly through these online gadgets and service that connections between people are completed, spawing this new work mode.
On the other hand, economical and environmental benefits can be brought with the proliferation of this work fashion, especially in this era when energy resource becomes increasingly scarce. It is widely acknowledged that energy consumption in commercial buildings accout for a significant share in a country. More than 90% of the commercial buildings in urban areas are not energy-efficient becasue of its non-flexible HVAC systems and light systems, estimates Green Building Council of USA. Working at home, in this sense, would be a great contributor to energy conservation accompanied by economic and environmental benefits, which would make energy consumption in commercial buildings and energy consumed during rash hour by commuting unnecessary.
Moreover, working at home, from a social perspective, helps entrepreneurs to avoid any social emergency that might disrupt their businesses. Social emergency, like flu pandemic, not only jeprodize the health conditions of its employees but also poses enormous negative impact on business. It has been estimated, by the ministry of economy in UK, that swine flu happened last year led to a loss that amouts roughly to eight millon dollars in London, while the economic growth fell by 2% compared with the same period a year ago. One expert on economic behaviour and social realtions said the loss could have been avoided if companies had and operated in a working-at-home mode when interviewed by BBC. Indeed, technology is so advance nowadays that we can purchase and even close a deal without sitting in the same table in a meeting room. Likewise, it is unjustified to assume people can only work when sitting in the office.
To sum up, the advent of the era of working at home is brought by the rapid development of technology, especially online service, which will become a working fashion acceptedy by mainstream and entrepreneurs considering its economic, environmental and social merits. Companies which appreciate this practice would become a role model among others, and save a great amount of operation cost that could be used for other investments.