Goodbye Forever, Darling, I’m Working From Home

Love is in the air for Valentine’s Day – but being able to work at home might trump flowers and candy, according to the results of a recent US survey,

If your significant other is really hell-bent on telecommuting –beware. Five percent of the respondents in the survey said they would be willing to “give up their spouses” for the chance to telecommute.

Valentine’s Day massacre

The survey of 2,630 adults, conducted by Harris Interactive for TeamViewer – a developer of high-end products for online communication and collaboration – found that these results were fairly consistent across age and gender.

Regions, however, varied a bit when it came to ditching the wife or husband for the opportunity to work in pyjamas. Seven percent of those in the western states said they would dump their spouse if they could work at home, while only two percent of midwesterners said they would.

Holger Felgner, general manager at TeamViewer, believes that there’s method in this madness: “While the results of this survey may seem amusing, these findings show that telecommuting will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.”

But the love of a good man or woman is not the only thing that respondents would sacrifice if they were able to telecommute. For instance, 12 percent said they would give up on daily showers – perhaps yet another way to make the significant other disappear. Other things that would be given up to work from home: social media (34 percent); texting (30 percent); chocolate (20 percent); smartphone (25 percent); and salary increase (17 percent). At least all of these come before divorce.

The survey also makes it clear that more people than ever want the option to telecommute (62 percent), and an overwhelming percentage (83 percent) believing that telecommuting is on the rise.

Specifically, the survey found that these particular Americans believe that:

• Smartphones and tablets are increasing the use of telecommuting (53 percent)
• Access to telecommuting is increasing (49 percent)
• Telecommuting is getting easier (49 percent)

There’s no doubt that telecommuting is increasing in companies all over the world. As for its connection to divorce, well, it’s entirely possible that the five percent could get their wish if they actually do get the opportunity to work from home. According to some reports, divorce could be merely one more “conference call” or “request to wash the floors” away.

Eric Doyle, ChannelBiz

Eric is a veteran British tech journalist, currently editing ChannelBiz for NetMediaEurope. With expertise in security, the channel, and Britain's startup culture, through his TechBritannia initiative

View Comments

  • I wonder if that 5% is a reflection of how badly these individuals want to telecommute, or how easily they'd give up their spouses. Either way, telecommuting is clearly on the rise, and it will be interesting to see if it becomes much more widely adopted in 2012. Telecommuting could revolutionize the workplace.

    Sarah
    Mosaic Technology
    http://www.mosaictec.com

Recent Posts

Northvolt Files For Bankruptcy Protection In US

Northvolt files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, to help it restructure…

9 mins ago

UK’s CMA Readies Cloud Sector “Behavioural” Remedies – Report

Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector

15 hours ago

Former Policy Boss At X Nick Pickles, Joins Sam Altman Venture

Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…

18 hours ago

Bitcoin Rises Above $96,000 Amid Trump Optimism

Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…

19 hours ago

FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Spared Prison

Judge Kaplan praises former FTX CTO Gary Wang for his co-operation against Sam Bankman-Fried during…

20 hours ago