Finding a Balance: Work / Life and Remote Access / Productivity

This is a neat Cisco posting about the general direction I believe will be a reality of the future work environment. I believe there will be a shift toward more home office environments as audio-video connectivity and faster residential broadband connections. I think we'll also see a resurgence of mid-sized towns, likely 30 - 100,000 people gaining greater momentum as becoming towns unto themselves with fewer commuters. I also suspect there will be a degree of continuing falling real estate values in bedroom communities around the country as fuel prices and increasing value on personal time and work-life balance continues to shift.

The Cisco post touches on some elements of this but does go to show that it's becoming increasingly easy for people to carry out their job responsibilities from remote locations.

Finding a Balance: Work / Life and Remote Access / Productivity: "

Posted by: Molly Ford, PR

Imagine a life with no morning rush-hour traffic on the way to work, having time to coach your daughter’s soccer game in the evenings and crossing more things off of that despised ‘to-do’ list. Today, Cisco introduced Cisco Virtual Office solution, aimed at providing a secure and collaborative environment for the remote or distributed workforce.'

The Cisco Virtual Office has helped a countless number of employees obtain a satisfying work life balance, while helping the company to consistently rank in the top ten on Fortune Magazine’s ‘Best Places to Work’ list.

Before this product was launched to Cisco customers, it was used internally for year, we like to refer to this as sipping our won champagne.' Currently, Cisco has 12,000 remote workers in 70 different countries using the Cisco Virtual Office solution to enhance productivity by accessing the same communication and collaboration technologies available to their office-based counterparts.

Employees who use the Cisco Virtual Office solution, typically work three full days at home, and say they are 47% more productive working at home, rather than at an office. The average employee also gains almost three hours each week, in the past spent stuck in traffic, or relying on public transportation.

View some inspiring stories from Cisco employees that have achieved a truly satisfying work life balance by having the flexibility to work remotely.

"

(Via Clippings.)