An estimated five million workers across the UK will today be avoiding the office in favour of home-working as National Work from Home Day 2008 kicks off.
The aim of the occasion is to allow people the opportunity to demonstrate that without the stress induced by the workplace environment and daily commutes people can be even more productive by regularly, or even occasionally, working from home.
According to the RAC Foundation, a supporting partner of the event, 25 million people commute to and from a fixed place of work, with 18 million of those travelling by car and seven million by other means. It is predicted that if recent trends continue congestion will waste around £22 billion worth of time in England alone by 2025.
Nearly 3.5 million people already work from home in the UK –one in eight of the working population - which is an increase of 600,000 since 1997. Many organisations already benefit from the cost saving and increased productivity benefits that smarter working brings.
Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, organisers of the Work from Home Day, commented: "Even if staff worked only an average of one day every two weeks at home, this would result in ten per cent less people commuting and travelling. Think of the impact that would have on our roads, trains and buses."
