Post by Admin on Nov 10, 2015 10:05:10 GMT
Nowadays many people work part-time or full-time from home. What are the implications of this for society? Is it a positive or negative development?
Advances in communications have made it possible for many people to work from home. While this can sometimes lead to isolation and lack of innovation in the workplace, I believe its financial, environmental and practical advantages make it a positive development.
At work, people interact with each other, often working in teams to cultivate ideas or provide innovative solutions to problems. The synergy created when working with others has a real benefit which is lost when people work from home. The workplace is also a place for ordinary social interaction, with colleagues becoming friends with whom to share problems or discuss events. Without such support structures, those who work from home become isolated and may suffer from depression, even developing an inability to communicate with the rest of society. A recent study in Australia indicated that home-based staff-members were 27% more likely to suffer depression than their office-based colleagues.
On the other hand, there are real benefits to working from home. From a financial point of view, companies reduce their overheads, allowing them to expand and employ more workers. Employees also gain as they spend less money on expensive business attire and travelling to and from work. This also has an environmental advantage, since fewer commuters means less pollution, benefitting society as a whole. Furthermore, there are practical advantages, too. Home-workers do not have to spend time travelling to work, and take less time off work to attend to personal or family matters. For example, when my nephew was sick, my sister-in-law, who works from home, was able to take care of him and do her job at the same time.
Overall, I think the potential problems of working from home can be mitigated, and that the monetary, environmental and practical benefits to society are clearly positive.
[297]
Note: this one one approach, but there are others. How would you answer this question?
The essay is mostly K3 BNC-COCA, with some 'less common' words:
K4 - commuters, cultivate, innovative, monetary, overheads
K5 - mitigated
K8 - attire
K10 -synergy
Advances in communications have made it possible for many people to work from home. While this can sometimes lead to isolation and lack of innovation in the workplace, I believe its financial, environmental and practical advantages make it a positive development.
At work, people interact with each other, often working in teams to cultivate ideas or provide innovative solutions to problems. The synergy created when working with others has a real benefit which is lost when people work from home. The workplace is also a place for ordinary social interaction, with colleagues becoming friends with whom to share problems or discuss events. Without such support structures, those who work from home become isolated and may suffer from depression, even developing an inability to communicate with the rest of society. A recent study in Australia indicated that home-based staff-members were 27% more likely to suffer depression than their office-based colleagues.
On the other hand, there are real benefits to working from home. From a financial point of view, companies reduce their overheads, allowing them to expand and employ more workers. Employees also gain as they spend less money on expensive business attire and travelling to and from work. This also has an environmental advantage, since fewer commuters means less pollution, benefitting society as a whole. Furthermore, there are practical advantages, too. Home-workers do not have to spend time travelling to work, and take less time off work to attend to personal or family matters. For example, when my nephew was sick, my sister-in-law, who works from home, was able to take care of him and do her job at the same time.
Overall, I think the potential problems of working from home can be mitigated, and that the monetary, environmental and practical benefits to society are clearly positive.
[297]
Note: this one one approach, but there are others. How would you answer this question?
The essay is mostly K3 BNC-COCA, with some 'less common' words:
K4 - commuters, cultivate, innovative, monetary, overheads
K5 - mitigated
K8 - attire
K10 -synergy