The Planning Inspectorate- Wales

Archive - Self Assessment Questionnaire 1998

A = no problem

B = some problems

C = significant problems

Working alone

Working at home can often mean working in isolation. You may have to go through your whole working day without seeing another person ( A/B/C ). However, you will need to deal extensively and skilfully with people at e.g. hearings, inquiries and site visits.

There are positive sides to this: your boss will not be looking over your shoulder and you will not be bothered by petty irritations from colleagues ( A/B/C ). However, you will also have to work in isolation, without their support ( A/B/C ). You may not have anyone at hand to ask advice of ( A/B/C ), to look over your work ( A/B/C ), or chat over issues with( A/B/C ). You may be used to getting regular face to face feedback on your work and there is likely to be far less of this when working from home ( A/B/C ). Similarly there may be no-one there to take an interest in your work ( A/B/C ), joke about events with ( A/B/C ), and neither your boss nor your colleagues will be there to see how well you have managed a problem ( A/B/C ), except at a distance. At the end of a particularly trying piece of work you may just lack someone to relax with and chat to, face to face ( A/B/C ). All of this can be very isolating.

Further, many people make friendships at their place of work, and their social life will sometimes develop around the people they spend their days with. You are far less likely to be able to do this ( A/B/C ). You will probably develop networks with your professional colleagues, but you may need to develop these relationships by phone, rather than face to face ( A/B/C ).

Keeping work and home life separate

In most jobs work and home life can be kept apart, simply because the workplace is physically separate from home. Obviously, when working from home, the situation is different. Indeed, one of the great benefits that many people expect from homeworking is that they will see more of their family and home-based social circle ( A/B/C ). This can produce some pressures of its own. Families often find it hard to leave you in isolation, and if there is some task around the house that you could do more quickly than any of them the temptation to disturb you is great ( A/B/C ). You will need to make it clear that you are at home to work ( A/B/C ), and establishing or upholding this can create tensions ( A/B/C ). The same is true of friends who may wish to pop in for a few minutes ( A/B/C ). You are entitled to a lunch break and a few minutes off here and there just like any office worker, and the job may mean you can share your lunch or tea breaks with your family and friends. However, while you will have greater flexibility on your hours than many workers, it can be hard telling someone they have to go now or that you can't spare five minutes ( A/B/C ).

Motivating yourself

Just as you need to signal your working structure to those around you, you will need to manage your time and work without the support of an office environment ( A/B/C ). Many see this as one of the greatest benefits of homeworking; that they can organise their own time, environment and routine ( A/B/C ). Others find it hard to get themselves started ( A/B/C ) or to focus on their work if they are not supported by such a routine ( A/B/C ). You may also find that you miss the ability to delegate unpleasant or routine tasks to others ( A/B/C ).

Within the Planning Inspectorate, some Inspectors have made the point that one thing which does help in their motivation is that the work is in distinct blocks; once they've finished writing up a case they can put it behind them and then move onto the next piece of work ( A/B/C ). They also find that a career as a Planning Inspector means that they move away from the administration and people management that usually come with career advancement ( A/B/C ) and have a greater opportunity to apply their technical knowledge and skills ( A/B/C ).

The freedom and flexibility of working from home can be a great boon, but you do need to discipline yourself as to when you do it and how much you do. Just as many others may find it hard to put in sufficient effort without management or office structure ( A/B/C ), many others find it hard to stop for lunch or at the end of the day ( A/B/C ). Without noticing it you could overwork yourself with many of the consequent health hazards ( A/B/C ).

Office politics

Few people would say they really enjoy 'office politics', and working from home allows you to distance yourself from involvement in them ( A/B/C ). However, some people feel they would rather be around to see what is being said, what the issues are and to have a more direct impact on them, particularly where these issues affect them personally ( A/B/C ). There may also be a need to build relationships with other Planning Inspectorate staff, particularly those responsible for your work allocations, and this will often have to be done over the telephone( A/B/C ). It is easy to feel cut off from the decisions that are made at HQ when your visits are so infrequent ( A/B/C ).

Being your own office manager

People have mixed feelings about the lack of management responsibility that goes with homeworking ( A/B/C ). One of the more conspicuous aspects of this is the lack of administrative support ( A/B/C ); you will have to be your own filing clerk ( A/B/C ), your own stationery manager ( A/B/C ) and your own cleaner ( A/B/C ).

As well as carrying out all your `office housekeeping' work, you will also have to supply your own office space ( A/B/C ). While the Planning Inspectorate provides much of the equipment you need, you have to supply the accommodation at your own expense ( A/B/C ). The Inspectorate recommends an area at least 2.5 metres by 2.6 metres( A/B/C ), adequately lit ( A/B/C ) and ventilated ( A/B/C ), free from noise and other distractions. If you cannot arrange this, your ability to carry out your job may be seriously affected. Workspace guidelines are explained here.

Travel

One area in which most homeworkers agree that they have an advantage is that they do not have to commute to and from work every day ( A/B/C ). While the job does require travel to different locations for site inspections, hearings and inquiries, for the days you are working at home there can be sizeable savings in time as well as in money, quite apart from avoiding the stress of commuting in the rush hour. On the other hand, you may find that travelling to and from work can help you 'switch on' and 'switch off' from work, and having your office in your home may make it hard to do either ( A/B/C ). Even if you can stop working at the appropriate time, can you stop thinking about work when all your papers are so close to you ( A/B/C )?

Thinking about your responses

This description of the pros and cons of homeworking may have helped make you more aware of some of the issues involved. Now, to get an overview, add up the number of A's, B's and C's that you have put after each statement, and enter them in the boxes below.

If your responses are almost entirely A's then you should consider thinking about the issues again. It is rare for a person to be so comfortable with this number of potential problems. However, it may just be that you are very suited to home work.

If you have mainly A's and B's then it seems you might well be comfortable with homeworking, but do consider the issues and think seriously about whether it will suit you.

If you have any C's then you should consider these aspects seriously and decide whether the problems can be overcome and if so how. Just because you have a few C's it doesn't mean that homeworking won't suit you, but it does signal that there are some serious issues to be resolved before you commit yourself to a job which will require a lot of home work.

If you have more than three or four C's then you really should consider whether you will be able to work at home, or if you will be comfortable working at home. Again, this does not necessarily signal that homeworking is not an option, but you need to put some serious thought into how appropriate it will be for you.