Partner Article

Mass stayaway from the office

In what could be the largest mass absence from work for a generation, an estimated five million people will not be going to work this Friday, 15 May. None of them will be calling sickies, skiving or making excuses. In fact, their bosses may even be joining them and taking work home for the day, on National Work from Home Day 2009.

Work Wise Week promotes smarter working practices, such as flexible, remote and mobile working, and working from home. It aims to give half the working population, some 14 million people, the opportunity to work smarter by 2011.

National Work from Home Day on Friday is designed to persuade people to work from home on that day, instead of commuting to their usual place of work.

Paula Wynne, Co-founder of The Remote Worker Awards, said: “The recent emergence of ‘virtual jobs’ and ‘virtual communities’ is changing the way companies attract and retain skilled employees. With this new approach, the labour market is evolving towards remote working and working from home as viable options in their recruitment drive. It is also an ideal way to avoid redundancy.”

There are already around 3.1million people working from home in the UK and this is expected to more than double by 2012.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .