01_RemoteWorking.Rmd

# Remote Working

## What is Remote Working?
"Remote work refers to organizational work that is performed outside of the normal organizational confines of space and time. The term telecommuting refers to the substitution of communications capabilities for travel to a central work location. Office automation technology permits many office workers to be potential telecommuters in that their work can be performed remotely with computer and communications support" [@olson1983remote]

Some of the first trials of remote working date back to the eighties as reported by @olson1983remote. Since then, the spread and development of Information and Communication Technologies have brought about a significant increase in the popularity of remote work. Nowadays, it is possible to find fully remote jobs advertised particularly in IT and data science. 

The current pandemic has forced millions of workers at home, making remote work a necessity rather than an option. An early study on COVID-19 and remote work reported that in the US the  fraction  of  workers  who  switched  to  working  from  home  is  about 34.1%, while 14.6% were already working from home pre-COVID-19  [@brynjolfsson2020covid].

Not all types of work are suitable to be performed from home [@holgersen2020and],
but one of the impacts of these dramatic circumstances can be a further increase of the remote work practice.

Computationally intensive tasks can be easily approached in a remote setting by accessing computing resources through the network. This document will guide you in accessing servers located in the Geographic Data Science Lab to perform heavy computations ^[An other option which is widely implemented by companies, is the use of cloud computing infrastructures such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce’s CRM system, Microsoft Azure.].

## Advantages and Disadvantages of Remote Work

One of the most direct consequences of remote work is changes in commuting behaviours, bringing about time saving and a potential reduction in traffic congestion and air pollution. These were among the main points stressed by the early advocates for remote working, but researches in transportation studies have shown conflicting results. Although reductions in number and length of commuting trips is reported in some of the earlies studies [@Kitamura1991; @olson1983remote], more recent research shows that the expectation that home-based telework reduces travel is not so apparent [@e2018does] and time saving seems not to be a major pull factor [@bailey2002review].  

The higher flexibility afforded by remote working is mentioned as an advantage, particularly for those who would have not taken part of the workforce without such settings because of caring committments [@olson1983remote].

Higher productivity of remote workers has been reported in some studies. However, it has to be noted that productivity and concentration at home are strongly dependent from environmental conditions [@bailey2002review]. Inequality in living conditions is clearly affecting the ability to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

One of the most cited drawbacks of remote working is professional and social isolation [@bailey2002review], which can be also seen as making more difficoult collaborative work and collective workers actions. 

## Tips

Here a collection of tips that have been shared on the internet on how to avoid burn out and be effective while working from home:

* [Covid-19: How to foster healthy home working](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/apr/covid-19-how-foster-healthy-home-working)
* [Tips on working from home with children](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/tips-working-home-children#%20)
* [Working from home? Why detachment is crucial for mental health](https://theconversation.com/working-from-home-why-detachment-is-crucial-for-mental-health-135986)
* [Work Life Balance](https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/researcher/work-life-balance/)