Finding your home in the office

Are you working such long hours that you can't spare the time to go to the bank or the dry cleaners? "Homing" is the solution catching on with some time-poor Britons, writes BBC News Online's Ryan Dilley.

Employees in UK endure some of the longest working hours in Europe. The country even risks becoming a nation of workaholics, according to those behind Work-Life Balance Week.

"... and a sliced white loaf"

No matter that next to their American cousins they are mere part timers, half of Britons have still considered quitting their jobs because of the pressure to work late.

As the average work day stretches into the evening, with even the weekend no longer sacred loafing time for some poor souls, there is little time spare for such everyday chores as food shopping, going to the bank or picking up dry cleaning.

"Homing" is latest work trend to wing its way over the Atlantic from the workaholic United States. Employers are becoming increasingly willing to allow workers to organise their private lives from the office.

Free phone

Last year, more than half of us used the phone or internet at work to complete some domestic chore, according to a report by The Henley Centre.

"There has always been some form of homing, because the UK was never really a 24-7 country. It was thought that once shops and services started staying open later homing would die out, but the opposite is true," says the Henley Centre's Clare Lees.

"I wish I was at work"

The internet has only exacerbated the trend, she says. "Unlike in the US, most of us in the UK were introduced to the net at work and we soon began experimenting with doing our chores online from the office."

Online banking and supermarket delivery services have certainly been a blessing to some busy workers - and those who hate to mix with hoi polloi in the real world.

Rather than just turning a blind eye to a few private phone calls, some employers have gone out of the way to accommodate homing.

Homers' odyssey

"Some progressive employers see it as a way to reward workers. At the British Airways headquarters phone kiosks have been installed in the lobby so staff can order their supermarket shopping and have it delivered to the car park," says Ms Lees.

Some employers have chosen to go one step further in providing their staff with "desk life" perks.

"Who ordered the goat?"

Concierge services have been engaged by such high-profile names as investment banks Goldman Sachs to relieve employees from having to walk the dog, buy birthday presents or mow the lawn.

"Management service" company Ten UK has been asked to track down exotic pets (a tarantula, no less) and arrange foreign language crash course.

One e-mail even read: "Need goat. Phone for details."

Professor Cary Cooper (a director of the Work-Life Balance Centre) worries that by encouraging "homing" employers could be sending out the wrong message to workers.

Homing but away

"It's useful to provide such services if they are intended to take the pressure off workers so they can be more efficient. However, if the purpose is to keep employees at work longer, then it's a negative thing."

"Homing" may not only keep workers away from their actual homes, it may also rob them of the human interaction venturing out into the real world provides.

"You've got 20 minutes tops ... woo away"

Many lonely singletons blame long working hours for their inability to find love. Some assume homing can come to the rescue and consult the array of introduction agencies offering to help fill in the gaps in their social life.

However, Venicia Willis of Only Lunch says the lengthening of the working day has even put the kibosh on our ability to go on dates.

"We started six years ago arranging lunchtime meetings, but increasingly people say they can't take lunch breaks. We began offering early evening suppers, but even then people are asking us to push them back to eight o'clock because they have to work late."

Ms Willis says part of the Only Lunch ethos is to encourage clients to balance their work lives. "Long hours are the reason there are so many single people around. We want people to stop working and go out and meet people."

So once you've put the hours in and found the perfect partner, is it time to get back to your desk? Sadly, two-thirds of women say work leaves them too tired for sex, and that their relationships suffer because of a lack of time.