A considerable number of people work from home in the UK. In part, this has been facilitated by improvements in technology. Individuals can now communicate with their employers from garden offices and other such spaces with ease. By ensuring they have internet access, a phone line and so on in their garden buildings, they can complete many of the tasks they would do if they were based within their firms’ own offices.
Indeed, if calls from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) are heeded, even more workers may base themselves from garden offices.
The organisation, which describes itself as the ‘voice of Britain at work’ and represents 6.2 million working people, called for employers to extend flexible working more broadly.
Analysing official figures, it found that the average commute time for men stands at 219 hours per year, while women spend an average of 174 hours getting to and from work.
Meanwhile, it was also discovered that London has the longest commute times for both male and female workers, at 27.8 minutes per journey each way on average.
According to TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, long commutes are “frustrating and expensive” for workers and are also bad for business.
He remarked: “Smarter working must be part of the modern economy. Staff want greater access to flexible and high quality home-working and employers need to do more to provide it.”
Mr Barber added: “The link between long commutes and better pay is a concern as it can discriminate against women, who still bear the greatest share of childcare responsibilities, and do more than their fair share of work in the home.”
He went on to suggest that by eliminating the need for long commutes, firms could broaden access to a wider range of jobs for those who cannot travel.
Thankfully, people seeking garden buildings to help them work from home now have many different options to choose from.