Home Offices

Home offices seen as the new business venture

Published Date: June 01, 2007
By Shamael Al-Sharikh, Staff columnist

Working Nine to Five (at home), what a way to make a living...
What is your dream job? What is the profession by which you identify yourself? What is that one thing that you like to do so much, that you can do it for eight hours daily, five times a week for the rest of your working career? Having a job is an essential part of most people's lives, if not to achieve self-actualization, then at least to earn a living. Unless we are heiresses or married to millionaires, most of us need to work.

However, even the most dedicated employee gets bored with their job. Some get so bored that they opt to change working environments, or sometimes, just switch to a different career. Others just need time off during the day to do whatever it is that keeps them entertained and then go back to work. I belong to the latter category.

I love my job and I love the people I work with. I just get so bored sometimes. Eight hours in an office with nothing to do but paperwork, reading, and research can become really...blah! Sometimes, I look forward to having a meeting with anyone just to make the day go by, even though the meeting will probably be fruitless and lead to delaying my work. Having coffee with one of my colleagues is always a breath of fresh air, but again, sometimes their schedule does not match mine and we cannot find that one half hour in the work day, where we are both free. Taking time off work is not the proper course of action, because it is not a rest I need, but a break for the eight hour routine.

This has gotten me thinking about working from home. With modern communications at hand, such as a laptop, video-conferencing, a fax, a mobile phone and a hard-line phone, who really needs to be at an office anymore? Why not just have office workers stay at home and perform their duties, in the comfort of their own pajamas? If there are certain confidential documents that need to be signed or shared between employees, then they can send a messenger with the documents to deliver them and pick them up. If there is an urgent meeting, then they can call the employee at home and he or she can show up to attend the meeting, then head home. With the feeling of being liberated from punching in at nine and out at five, some employees may even put in longer hours at work.

Kuwait has a serious shortage of office buildings and rents are continuously skyrocketing, so it does not seem to make sense anymore that companies pay so much for office rent when it might actually be cheaper to set up a home office. Furthermore, the traffic situation in Kuwait has been horrendous and is only getting worse with time, so it might even be a blessing in disguise for our traffic to set up home offices for individuals choosing to stay at home, and lessen the number of motorists on the road.

Problem solving

A home office could be the best solution for dealing with problematic employees. From my experience, there is always that one person at the office who is an excellent performer on the professional level, but an absolute horror to work with. The work place would be a happier one if the company just set up an office at his home, so he can do his job without bothering his colleagues or being bothered by them.

Working at home is also an excellent option for working mothers. Instead of giving six months time off allotted to Kuwaiti new mommies, why not reduce it to three months off with full pay, and instead set up an office for the mother to work from home for two years or until the child goes to a creche? The employee will feel more at peace being with her child and she can still perform the job required from the comfort of her own home.

I am not a mother as of yet, but I would love to work at home. I wouldn't have to worry about rush hour in the morning. When I have an hour or so of absolutely nothing to do, I would use it to exercise, instead of aimlessly surf the Internet. I would save bundles of money on work clothes, because I would hang out in sweatpants the entire day. I would even watch CNN or BBC World and monitor what is going on in the world, instead of checking news websites every hour for any breaking news. I would also be able to control my diet, instead of drinking excessively sugared coffee drinks, munching on cookies, or nibbling at cashews and almonds all day (Please do not say "Just order out", because after a while, even the best sandwiches and salads get boring!)

There are, however, some side effects to working at home, such as interruptions from young children who are not in school. Also, staying at home too often can lead to cabin fever and any home-worker would eventually need to step out and meet people, especially since business in Kuwait is based on personal networking. Furthermore, there can be scheduling problems when the boss calls for an immediate emergency meeting at 9am sharp, and the home worker is still in the bath, reading a fashion magazine while waiting for her dry/frizzy/colored hair masque to set in. There are some glitches in the working at home system, but I still believe that it may be the way of the future for the work place in Kuwait. What better way is there to get to work than by jumping out of bed and heading to your home office, without going through the hassle of putting on stuffy clothes, make-up, heels, and driving in morning traffic? Now that is a nine to five job I would thoroughly enjoy.

Email: Shamael@kuwaittimes.net