Post date: Jul 29, 2012 10:38:50 AM
UK-Traffic/Olympics -- Londoners dodge traffic by working from home
CCTV BEIJING - To ease traffic congestion during the 2012 Games, London's Olympic committee has encouraged companies located in the downtown core to adopt more flexible work schedules and modes of operation.
According to data, beyond the 7.5 million London residents, around 600,000 tourists are expected to come to London for the Olympics --further clogging already-busy roadways.
Demos, a think-tank near the London Bridge railway station, will close their office during the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, their employees will work from home.
The company has 15 full-time employees and more than 10 interns working during business hours Monday to Friday. The employees live in different parts of London, and some spend a long time commuting even when the Olympics aren't in town.
"We came to the conclusion after canvassing opinion from people about how their journeys are going to be affected coming into work," said Josephine Brady, office manager. "We came to the conclusion that it would be best to shut the office. I just don't think it can be helped given our proximity to London Bridge, which is just going to be a disaster I think."
Given the nature of business at the company, all work can be done from home with a broadband connection.
"So we actually are interviewing a candidate for a job on the Tuesday morning, and we'll just be interviewing them through conference calls essentially," said Ralph Scott, publicity manager. "I think obviously before we offer the job we'll have to meet them. But technology does enable work to take place remotely now."
However, for some employees it will take some time to adapt to working from home.
"It's going to be different. I'm not used to working from home, I normally come into the office everyday," said Jo Salter, a researcher. "It'll take a little while to get used to that I think."
"I am going to try to make it as much like work as possible -- have a desk, have a routine, stick to the same times that I normally would come into work and go home," she said.
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