Posted by Vince Nicita on Sunday, October 18, 2009
These days everyone is talking about work-like balance but is anything really changing?
Two years ago I would have believed the answer was no. I was running a successful business based in the Sydney CBD. Our 25 or so staff all travelled to the office each day. We worked 8:30 to 5:30 - reality was I left home at 6:30am to beat the traffic and didn't leave the office until 6:30pm. Yes, you guessed it - to avoid the traffic. Even so, I would leave the office full of energy and get home thirty kilometres later tired and irritable.
Something had to change and it did - I sold the business.
I took a year off and with my time researched work practices here and overseas. There had to be a better way that works. It was from this that I devised my ideal online solutions business. It had to have flexible working hours and locations for myself and my staff. It had to cut down on travel time - reducing cost, traffic and our impact on the environment. It had to allow time for family, friends and hobbies. Most importantly it had to be fun!
By utilising online technologies - the kind that we develop and sell - we are able to run our projects completely virtual. We have an office in the city which we only use when we have meetings with clients. Otherwise we work from home. I'm still doing as many productive hours per week as before but now it's in my own time. I may work a couple of hours at night once the kids are in bed or get up early. But I'm not wasting time in traffic and I can walk the kids to school if I like.
We are fortunate that the software design and development industry lends itself to this type of work. When managed properly and responsibly it may also work for many others. The two most important factors that we couldn't compromise were customer service and quality of product. If this is maintained, and we still make a profit then the benefits of flexible working environments are enormous.
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