Mary, 29, has been working at her home as a freelancer for five years. Every morning, she would wake up at 7 a.m., typing fiercely in front of her computer until 3 p.m., and she would then head to a nearby orphanage to be a volunteer for a few hours.
“Working at home gives me much more freedom to my own life,” Mary says.
After the concept of home office takes root in Hong Kong, many people, especially the younger generation, are keen to work at home instead of in a rigid office in the Central Business District. For many of them, working at whatever time they want is the most important advantage for home-working. For instance, after Mary switched her job in a bank to a freelancer, she can oft for working earlier, and then visit the orphans in the early afternoon, before other volunteers come in from their workplace. If she is free from the orphanage work, she may even go for a drink with her parents. She considers all of these ‘quality time’.
Certainly, this quality time is further lengthened by the knocking off of transport time in the home workers’ daily schedule. When office workers have to queue up in a one-hundred-plus people line for the cross-harbour tunnel bus, and then squeeze like a tuna fish in a vehicle that forms part of the ‘motor-dragon’ flying over Des Voeux Road, home workers can sit down relaxingly, enjoy their freshly-brewed coffee, and then work in front of their work desk immediately. If an ordinary office worker takes a total of two hours to reach their office and back home, home workers may harvest this valuable two-hour period for something constructive instead.
Certainly, the green groups would appreciate a home office – spending so much time on public transport will mean more greenhouse gases, and it is not good for the environment.
However, working at home may bring workers valuable time, but not valuable money.
Studies have long showed that people working at home do receive a smaller portion of salary than their counterparts working in an office with similar job requirements and workload. In employers’ minds, since the home workers are not paying for the ride to work, and they have shorter working hours, they are not entitled to the same benefits as the workers in the company’s office. At the same time, since the employers are not monitoring the home workers, home workers rarely receive a chance for promotion or attending further enrichment courses. This combined factor has led to a generally lower salary than others’.
Another disadvantage of a home office is that since the home has become a workplace, it is very difficult for the worker himself to distinguish between working and resting. Some studies have already proved that home workers are prone to insomnia, because the brain cannot draw a boundary between the place to work and to sleep. Moreover, some researchers even suggest that bringing work home may increase the anxiety of a worker, because it is hard for the brain to escape from the strained work in the day.
Yet, for some people like Mary, there is no struggle between working at home or not.
“Yes, I may earn less, I may find it difficult to separate resting from working, but there is no guarantee that I may get all of these back when I return to the high-rise buildings in Admiralty. People are bringing their office work home and their salary is eaten up by the high travel expenses, clothes, and you name it.”
“You may just need your mind, your soul and your body to work at home.”