Teleworking is a great idea – provided it is not taken to be synonymous with working from home, at least not for those married with families: a report by the UK Economic & Social Research Council finds that it can be intensely disruptive of family life, with disputes over the telephone, one case where the husband spent most of his working time playing video games while his wife did all the domestic work, working days that stretch into the evening; the necessary support equipment, such as facsimile machines and copiers will either be hideously expensive or inadequate, and it seems incontrovertible that the ideal is local, fully equipped and wired shared work centres in residential areas where companies rent space for one or more employees and people can combine the benefit of a brisk walk to and from the office with those of getting out of the house, and interacting with people that are not family.
