Public telecommute centres

The Ideas Campaign, is an online drive to generate constructive ideas for the economy, which came about after Aileen O’Toole, one of the founders of The Sunday Business Post, appeared on RTE’s Prime Time to speak about ways to counteract the downturn.

Over the last few weeks thousands of suggestions have been submitted to the website and republished in filtered form in regular batches. Batch #7 included a particularly interesting suggestion regarding ‘state funded/subsidised telecommute centres at key transport and broadband  hubs in Ireland’ -

These centres would allow workers reduce the number of commuter journeys and also help distribute jobs more evenly throughout the state.

When this idea is raised, people often ask: “Why can’t’ people telecommute from home?” The answers are:

• Many people find it difficult to be disciplined enough to work effectively at home
• People like to separate their home lives from their work lives
• There may be young children at home
• People need the social contact of a workplace

Telecommute centres already work to some extent within organisations like the HSE and eircom.  But there are no public telecommute centres yet in Ireland where workers can book space to work. These centres should provide:

• A place for a worker to connect a laptop to a quick and secure Internet connection Instructions for workers and employers showing them how to establish VPN sessions and VOIP calls with their workplaces
• Heating, toilet and parking facilities
• Perhaps a privately franchised canteen facility if the location is out of town.

Needless to say, we at Nomadesk give an enthusiastic two thumbs up to this idea which is very much aligned with the coworking and hotdesking lifestyle. But the question is - why limit it to ‘key transport and broadband hubs’? Why not foster a telecommute centre in every parish in the country? Where independents, freelancers, virtual assistants and entrepreneurs can work in the community where they live.