Is the office becoming a home away from home?

A survey commissioned by Office Angels - "UK's leading office support and secretarial recruitment consultancy" - suggests working from home is not the only way in which the work and non-work life balance becomes blurred.

The other side of the blurring between work and non-work is described as "home-ing from work", or, tasks traditionally completed at home being done in the work environment.

The poll of 1,600 people revealed the following examples of home-ing from work:

- applying make-up at work

- keeping a mini-wardrobe at work

- showering at work

- keeping breakfast and lunch food stuffs at work

- using email and IM to keep in touch with friends and family

- arranging personal chores from work, e.g. telephoning hairdresser, booking car in for MOT or servicing

Slightly more controversial aspects of home-ing from work include:

- children and pets visiting the workplace

- loud and embarrassing telephone conversations

- festering gym kits kept under desks

- colleagues being choked by perfume or deodorant

It seems that the main issue that comes from the findings is striking the right balance, i.e. between doing what you are supposed to be doing and what you're not supposed to do, and, fitting in with colleagues and annoying the hell out of them.

This fits right in with my research and highlights a grey area of management (i.e. behaviour in between normative and dysfunctional models) that rarely gets a mention in mainstream texts. I for one would like to see far more recognition of the informal aspects of organizations.

There is no direct link to the article, but People Management magazine comment on the findings here.