E-Topia
I suppose if I were to define the word E-Topia just by looking at it, I would assume it refers to an Electronic Utopia, which is just what William J. Mitchell describes in his E-topia. The chapter we read was Homes and Neighborhoods, and it discussed the progression of office workers towards working at home more and more because of the advancement of the internet. The internet allows workers to connect with their workplace from their computers at home, thus allowing them to essentially work from home. The evolution of the workplace has thus come full circle. In the olden days of farming and agriculture, farmers live and work from home because their farms were their homes. The family was much more central and important. Then came the days of the factory, when workers had to go to a factory to work, away from home. As the information age succeeded the industrial age, workers continued the trend of going away from home to work at a centralized location where all of a company's work was done. Instead of working hard labor though, these workers spent their days in desks in cubicles in office buildings, which led to the building of office buildings such as the Sears Tower which contains millions of square feet of floorspace for office use. However, with the advent of the digital age, employers began to realize that it was not necessary for workers to come in every day because nearly all of the work they could do from their little cubicles could also be done from their homes. Thus today, more and more workers are foregoing the daily commute to work from their "home offices." As a result, the family once again becomes more important because adults don't have to leave every day.
The idea of working from home has its advantages and disadvantages. It's good because it's safer and cleaner and more cost-efficient. Why? No longer will there be the morning and afternoon rush hours as thousands of workers pour in and out of the city to work. Thus, less chances of traffic accidents. The air will also be cleaner because there will be a lot less traffic to pollute the air. It's more cost-efficient because time is money, and workers save a lot of time not being in the car commuting, and the employers save on rent for office space. When I was in New York earlier this year, at the Empire State Building, I heard that it was having trouble staying open because a lot of it used to be office space, but now companies don't have a need for so much office space so they don't rent expensive spaces like the Empire State Building.
I think one of the main disadvantages to working at home is the possibility of distraction and laziness. At a workplace, in a work environment, workers are more likely to work than at home when there are so many distractions around. TV, kids, friends, other activities. At work, everyone around you is working, and the environment generally causes you to feel obligated to work, especially if you have a boss who constantly watches over you. At home there is no obligation to work, except for a looming deadline. I have felt this pressure myself, having to do homework in my dorm room. Often, I am forced to go to the library to do my homework because there are simply too many distractions in my room to allow me to continue my work, and the library provides an environment that fosters studying and getting work done because everyone else there is working too.
Don't get me wrong, though. I think in the future, the merging of the workplace and the home is a good thing. The advantages in this case far outweigh the possiblity of some distractions to impede work, and I agree with Mitchell that an E-topia is heading our way.
The idea of working from home has its advantages and disadvantages. It's good because it's safer and cleaner and more cost-efficient. Why? No longer will there be the morning and afternoon rush hours as thousands of workers pour in and out of the city to work. Thus, less chances of traffic accidents. The air will also be cleaner because there will be a lot less traffic to pollute the air. It's more cost-efficient because time is money, and workers save a lot of time not being in the car commuting, and the employers save on rent for office space. When I was in New York earlier this year, at the Empire State Building, I heard that it was having trouble staying open because a lot of it used to be office space, but now companies don't have a need for so much office space so they don't rent expensive spaces like the Empire State Building.
I think one of the main disadvantages to working at home is the possibility of distraction and laziness. At a workplace, in a work environment, workers are more likely to work than at home when there are so many distractions around. TV, kids, friends, other activities. At work, everyone around you is working, and the environment generally causes you to feel obligated to work, especially if you have a boss who constantly watches over you. At home there is no obligation to work, except for a looming deadline. I have felt this pressure myself, having to do homework in my dorm room. Often, I am forced to go to the library to do my homework because there are simply too many distractions in my room to allow me to continue my work, and the library provides an environment that fosters studying and getting work done because everyone else there is working too.
Don't get me wrong, though. I think in the future, the merging of the workplace and the home is a good thing. The advantages in this case far outweigh the possiblity of some distractions to impede work, and I agree with Mitchell that an E-topia is heading our way.