No More Offices

Doing office work from home has the obvious benefit of convenience for the employee and potential benefits of reduced costs to employers, but employers need assurance of productivity.

The most Orwellian, but simplest, solution is to set up a web cam in the employee's home work area, with similar expectations of attendance and privacy as would be expected in the office environment.

The ideal arrangement would be simply that the employee's supervisor is aware of the employee's performance and no special monitoring is required, except perhaps for maintenance by the employee of a progress log.

Alternatively, a schedule of assignments would be maintained, with priorities among the assignments made by the employer, and target completion dates negotiated between the employer and the employee. In this arrangement, compliance with modern HR policies would be essential.