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• I've seen people at another large US bank work from home one day per week, but they all seemed to be entirely in operations or IT.

  Anon 27 Mar 2007

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• We have a small group piloting a program to work from home. However, my own boss has made it clear that he doesn't believe in the value of it - so regardless of the results of the study it's not an option.....

  Al 28 Mar 2007

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• Working from home is tougher and better as the hours are incredibly long and never-ending, plus the kids want you to play football all the time.
  
  
  Obviously not all positions are suitable for working from home but in terms of productivity, jobs designed around a partnership model are better done from home than the office as your productivity is directly proportional to your effort, without the usual bureaucratic and social distractions.
  
  
  In a nutshell the only relevant difference is that you can managed your time better without losing 3 hours for travelling, 1 hour for lunch and 1 hour unaccounted, in a 24 hour day.
  
  
  Thanks.
  
  
  My experience is that working at home is good for me as I only go tot he city on a need basis.

  Eno 28 Mar 2007

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• Maybe it's just because I'm in IT, but I know lots of people who can work from home on an irregular basis (if they have a work-supplied laptop), by just asking their boss the day before (or even that morning if there's an issue with the trains).
  
  
  There are also a significantly smaller number who work from home more frequently than coming into the office (myself included).
  
  
  The home connection requirements of an IT (or Ops) person is pretty minimal (email and a small number of applications), and is actually getting less as more internal applications are web-based. So much so that there are even some people working from home that no longer even live in the UK, and just fly/Eurostar in for the days when they need to be in the office.
  
  
  However, I don't know of anyone in the Front-Office who can work from home. Part of the issue is that a front-office user would generally need a lot more bandwidth (for  market feeds, etc.), and has specialised requirements (like Bloomberg). Add in that a trader's phone conversations need to be recorded, and home-working for front-office staff would seem to be still a few years away.

  Michael 28 Mar 2007

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• Most members of my team and myself included work a minimum of 1-3 days a week from home. Ours desktops have been virtualised and our physical desks in the office are shared also. We only come into office for 'meeting days'.
  
  
  Other times we 'remote-in' and work with peers.  On a project myself and a collegue worked from two different cities for over 2 weeks without coming into the office. As the technologies now enable this, I suppose this is a definite way forward.

  Kenny Joseph 28 Mar 2007

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• I have recently negotiated a contract whereby I work from home two days per week, and it's fantastic.  It gives me the space I need to make quiet telephone calls (as opposed to from an open-plan office) or work on strategy papers uninterrupted. 
  
  
  I still travel in to the City for meetings.  Key to making it work is having a designated 'office' in your home, where you go to work, and others in your home know that this is off limits.  I'm more productive, and more importantly more balanced and less stressed, than I've ever been - and my results have improved as well.

  Andrea Dean 28 Mar 2007

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• Working from home is a great idea. But have you guys ever thought  about the fact that if they let you work at home, they might as well like someone from India to do the work that you do.. in the future. 
  
  
  Personally, I think jobs which cannot really be worked from home (consultant, trading front-office, CEOs, client facing) are less likely to be replace by cheaper workers, whereas if you can work from home, and they pay you 70k a year, why not get someone from overseas remotely and pay them 40k a year for the same thing.
  
  
  Make sense? Meeting can be done over teleconferencing.  Why you think most customers service based over the telephne are transported to India or other cheaper areas.  Exception is they if the person has an extreme rare knowledge or talent especially in computing.

  ben 28 Mar 2007

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• I work in Marketing for a bank in Canada. I actually work one day a week from home and find it extremely beneficial as I can focus on getting things done. My day to day agenda is usually filled with meetings.
  
  
  Everyone working with me knows that on this day there is no face to face meetings to be scheduled but I'm available  for conference calls and I'm connected online all day.  It works fine for everyone.

  Livia 29 Mar 2007

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• This paradigm needs to be assessed from a different perspective. Any or all job roles which revolve around business development, sales management including client facing reltaionship management roles are clearly up for moving out of expensive brick and mortar offices.
  
  
  With technology providing mobility,access and flexibility, increasingly cost conscious organisations need to and will look for its sales teams working out of homes.
  
  
  Organisations like IBM, ACER have already created these paradigm shifts and are a reaping the highly efficient sales teams. It also reduces the sizeable cost of living and stress, direct social as well as financial costs such as travel cost, house rentals and time for employees and therefore  a strong tool for retention as well. The processes and technology however plays a strong role in this structure and model.

  Amitabh Bhatnagar 29 Mar 2007

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• Professionals work professionally and any assignment, job or task has to be done at the place that suits the purpose.
  
  
  Banking work cannot be achieved or completed at home or any other place except in the banking environment and at bank premises, as it need secrecy of the information, documents and assignment. If you are married then it is difficult to keep the secrecy.

  Yousuf Ibnul Hasan 29 Mar 2007

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