Home-working 'still seen as perk'

More people are working from home

Employers have been urged to give up their "big brother" obsession with keeping staff in the office.

Management attitudes will have to change radically if more people are to work from home, according to independent think tank The Work Foundation.

Bosses will have to find new ways of evaluating their staff and stop judging workers by the amount of time they spent on a job rather than what they produced, it said in a report.

'Underground' movement

The right to request flexible working - coupled with tax changes in this year's Budget - could fuel a boom in employees doing part of their job from home, the Foundation said.

But it warned home-working remained an "underground, informal movement" despite a 65% increase in the number of people swapping the office for their front room since 1996.

Co-author Tim Dwelly said: "People who work from home are often made to feel guilty, as if it were some kind of perk.

"Yet all the evidence points to home-working being remarkably productive.

"Fewer days are lost to illness, commuter stress is avoided and there is less time wasting.

"In contrast office staff are frequently judged by the number of hours they spend there."

Formal policy

Managers often reserved the right to work from home for themselves but were suspicious when other staff wanted to do it, the report claimed.

Research among 25 organisations showed they were in favour of home-working but most didn't have a formal policy and believed it should be voluntary.

More than a million people spend part of their working week at home rather than in the office, mainly men in senior jobs, according to the latest research.