Doing their homework

Immer mehr Firmen vergeben Aufgaben an Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter, die von zu Hause aus arbeiten. Julian Earwaker befasst sich mit den Vorteilen und den Herausforderungen, die das Arbeiten im eigenen Heim mit sich bringt.

Sandy Lloyd doesn’t have far to go to his office — just a few steps upstairs to the study that was once a bedroom of his home in Ipswich, in south-east England. Lloyd, 56, is a self-employed chartered accountant. As a homeworker, he is also one of around three million people in the UK, nearly 12 per cent of the labour force, who regularly work away from a central office. “I used to commute an hour and 45 minutes each way, every day on the train,” Lloyd says. “Now it’s a few seconds! That obviously gives me a lot more time in the day.”