Working remotely breeds productivity: survey

Flexible work schedule chief attraction to working away from the office

The trend towards working from home is likely to breed a more productive and liberated international workforce, according to a recent survey.

The survey of 941 remote and mobile workers from Canada, the United States, Australia, Asia Pacific, Japan and Europe, found that 76 per cent of employees believe that working remotely aids productivity and 61 per cent think their managers agree with them.

Respondents said the chief attraction of working remotely was the ability to maintain a flexible schedule. For some, this included eating and drinking outside of standard times (35 per cent) listening to music (45 per cent) and watching TV (28 per cent). Only 21 per cent admitted to sneaking in an afternoon nap.

The laid-back approach helps keep tempers on an even keel, with more than 80 per cent of respondents saying they have never lost their temper with support staff trying to help them fix a problem.

Only 22 per cent of workers used a cell phone or PDA to work from home, but respondents said they expected to take advantage of these technologies in the coming year.

Security is a problem for remote workers, the survey found. Eight-eight per cent of respondents admitted to storing passwords in easily discovered locations and only 12 per cent used encrypted files to store and manage login data.

The survey was conducted by online marketing firm Insight Express and Internet security company SonicWALL.

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