This part of my website is now archived.
From the late 1980s until the early 2000s I researched and wrote widely on the effects of technological change on work relocation, and in particular in the issue of telework. My writings from that time remain available here for the time being.
A World on the Phone: experiences of call centre workers around the globe. A report for UNI Global Union, for call centre action month 2009.
The report The Global Mobility Revolution, written (late 2003) for Union Network International, proposes a policy and an approach for trade unions internationally facing up to the issues of 'offshoring' and the remote migration of work. PDF format. Also available in French, German, Spanish and Swedish versions.
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On the same theme, I have edited Offshore Outsourcing, a practical guide for trade unionists and employee representatives dealing with the complexity of offshore outsourcing (2006). This handbook, written by Tom De Bruyn and Monique Ramioul, is also available in French, German, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. |
This web site includes a lengthy extract from my book "Home is Where the Office is: A Practical Handbook for Teleworking from Home" (publ Hodder), examining the advantages and disadvantages of changing to teleworking. This book was the first practical guide to teleworking to be published in Britain and, although written twenty years ago, some sections of the book remain still relevant.
The booklet Working Anywhere, published by the UK government's Department of Trade and Industry, had useful case studies and practical information for British readers (2nd ed, 2000).
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I have selected a number of extracts from the book "Teleworking: Thirteen Journeys to the Future of Work", (publ Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1995). This book is now primarily of historical interest. |
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The complete text of the report Teleworking and Trade Union Strategy, is available. This report was written in 1996 for FIET, now part of UNI. Available in German: Gewerkschaften und Telearbeit. This report is now primarily of historical interest, as the first document to explore union responses to the developing trend of teleworking. |
Also written for UNI is the report Organising in Call Centres (2000). This report is also available in French, German and Spanish language versions.
From my journalism on the issues raised by teleworking and the relocation of work I have selected the following articles:
Telework: General interest- Call centres: time to get your own back (Choice, 2009)
- Flexible working: how British companies are coping (Financial Times, 2004)
- Offshoring yourself: teleworking across borders (Observer, 2004)
- Telework pioneer Ashley Dobbs battles ethical bank (Observer, 2004)
- UK Business rates and the home office (Observer, 2004)
- Henley Future Work Forum ten years on (Teleworker, 2002)
- Beginning to work from home (Choice, 2002)
- Health and safety for home-based worker (People Management, 2001)
- Working at home (Commercial client, 2001)
- Best-selling children's author teleworks from her houseboat (Teleworker magazine, 1999)
- Equipping a home-office (Sunday Business, 1999)
- An introduction to working from home (The Observer, 1999)
- Telework: are journalists heading for Honeysuckle Cottage? (The Journalist, 1993)
- How it feels to telework from home (The Observer, 1996)
- AA Teleworking (People Management, 2002)
- Surrey County Council pioneers new ways of working (Flexible Working, 2000)
- Nortel Networks develops teleworking in Britain and Europe (Flexible Working, 2000)
- Telergos, a remote word processing agency in northern England (Teleworker, 1999)
- How the Nationwide Building Society is implementing telework (Flexible Working, 1999)
- How Kent County Council is developing flexible ways of working (Flexible Working, 1999)
- Suffolk County Council's approach to Telework (Flexible Working, 1999)
- The AA develops home-working but closes a call centre (Teleworker magazine, 1999)
- Breakdown calls handled at home: how the AA is using teleworking (Teleworker magazine, 1998)
- Home-based workers fundraise for charity: Actionaid's NTT operation (Flexible Working, 1997)
- How the laptop is changing Yorkshire Water's ways of working (Flexible Working, 1998)
- Outsourcing to the Western Isles (Flexible Working, 1997)
- British local authorities and flexible working (Flexible Working, 1997)
- Leeds: Working life in Call Centre City (Flexible Working, 1996)
International
- Dell and délocalisation in Europe (Teleworker magazine, 2005)
- Outsourcing to Vietnam (Financial Times, 2003)
- Telework 2002 conference, Paris (Danish client, 2002)
- European social partners sign telework agreement (World of Work, 2002)
- ILO holds Posts and Telecoms sectoral conference (World of Work, 2002)
- Labour organisation in India's IT industry (Financial Times, 2002)
- Telework 2001 reports (Danish client, 2001)
- New ways of working and sustainable development (Danish client, 2001)
- Review: The high road towards teleworking (World of Work, 2001)
- 1999 European Telework Awards (for the European Commission)
- Telework in New South Wales (Flexible Working, 1999)
- Telecentres in Rural Australia (Teleworker magazine, 1999)
- Offshore data processing (Teleworker magazine, 1998)
- Offshore Information Processing in Barbados (Flexible Working, 1997)
- European social partners sign telework agreement (World of Work, 2002)
- ILO holds Posts and Telecoms sectoral conference (World of Work, 2002)
- Labour organisation in India's IT industry (Financial Times, 2002)
- Trade unions in Europe negotiate on telework (Teleworker, 2002)
- Teleworking: how the trade unions are responding (Teleworker, 2001)
- Trade unions & new work (Teleworker, 2001)
- German trade union launches telework helpline (Flexible Working, 1998)
- Trade unions develop call centre operations (Flexible Working 1998)
- "What about the workers? Teleworking and the trade union movement", (World Transport Policy & Practice, vol 2 number 1/2, 1996. )