National Work From Home Day

The number of people working from garden offices and their home in general has increased by 13 per cent in the last five years, according to a new TUC analysis of official figures published today to mark National Work From Home Day, organised by WorkWise UK.

The TUC analysis of unpublished data from the Labour Force Survey shows that just over four million employees usually worked at home in 2012, a rise of 470,000 since 2007. The South East, Scotland and Wales have seen the sharpest rise in homeworking over the last five years.

While nearly two-thirds of people who work from home are male, an increasing number of women are also making this career move. According to the research, the majority of homeworking jobs created in the last five years have gone to women. The rise in female homeworking is partly due to the fact that almost nine in ten of these new jobs are part-time, says the TUC.

In addition to the four million people who usually work from home, many millions more occasionally work from home, says the TUC.

The sharp rise in homeworking in spite of the recession confirms that this new way of working has become an essential part of the UK labour market. Technological progress and the rise of the services sector, where many jobs do not require specialised machinery or face-to-face contact with colleagues or customers, have helped fuel this growth, says the TUC.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The recession may have fuelled rising unemployment and put pressure on flexible working practices, but homeworking has continued to thrive and grow. Over four million people usually work from home, while many millions more occasionally do so. The sheer scale of homeworking proves how easily it can be done but there are still too many employers who are reluctant to allow staff to work away from the office or the shop floor.

“Of course there are challenges with homeworking. It requires employers to trust staff and people can feel isolated if the relationship is not managed properly. But these issues are easily dealt with through smart employment relations, which unions can help with. With government figures showing a further 4.5 million people would like to work from home more often there is still much more that employers can do to meet this unmet demand for more flexible working.”

WorkWise UK’s chief executive Phil Flaxton said: “The best way to manage employees working from home or remotely is by encouraging independence of thought and action, and developing continuous communication, supported by regular face-to-face meetings. This can be by video/conference calls or other online tools so that experiences, ideas, and success and performance issues can still be shared. The whole management ethos has to become much more open, less hierarchical and more trusting.

“The key issues for success still surround management styles and the acceptance of change. Building a culture of information sharing and creating trust takes time and careful planning. By carefully choosing and training the virtual workforce and by structuring the organisation to make best use of its virtual employees, most organisations should be able to see an improvement in productivity of between 8 and 15 per cent.”

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

The Freedom Room

Not sure that a shedlike atmosphere inspired by the size of a prison cell is going to appeal to that many people but it's an intriguing idea, a 116-square-foot 'tiny home' designed by Aldo Cibic, Tommaso Corà and Marco Tortoioli Ricci of Cibic Workshop who also asked inmates from a high security prison in Italy for design advice. Via Huffington Post with more information and photos at Architizer.

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Artist's studio in Aberdeenshire

Dab Den have just completed an artist studio in Stathdon, Aberdeenshire, with a stunning view of the river below, definitely a room with a view. "The customer was looking for somewhere to do her artwork," explains Kat Byers from Dab Den. "There is a fantastic view down the river so the position of the Dab Den takes advantage of this. There is a Belfast sink in the built-in cupboard to allow her to do her paintings. No planning was required but building warrant was, due to the sink connecting into the existing drainage system, which means it is built to the standard of a new build house. There is also a lot of decking stretching out the front of the den, so when the bi-folding doors are fully open there is a very spacious floor area stretching out to the view beyond. The materials used are Siberian larch cladding and the doors are powder coated aluminium, with a thermal break in the frame to assist in obtaining a 1.3w/m2K u-value."

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

How will Permitted Development changes affect shedworkers? (updated)

Another great post by Shedworking's 'go to' person for details on the planning technicalities of shedworking, Lynn Fotheringham from Inside Out Buildings in which she poses (and then answers) the question, will the permitted development changes that come into force on May 30 affect people who work at home either in their house or in a garden office? Well worth a read if you're considering going down the garden office route.

And it's also worth reading Richard Grace from Garden Structures Ltd (formerly Aarco) on the subject of planning permission.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Shed Sunday: shed card

With Kraft brown fleck recycled envelope in cellophane sleeve. Available from Have a Gander on etsy. They also have some cracking tea towels.

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Sunday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Crowdfunding a beach hut

"To build a center piece for the first Teignmouth beach hut raising. The structure has been designed by a young multicultural London design practice with a history in initiating social/community projects. The installation will be manufactured while the design team are in residence in the town of Teignmouth and then will be constructed on site by the design team. It will remain for 6 months then be taken down for the winter season and stored to be reassembled for future summer seasons."

More details of this great Kickstarter project here. ----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Get voting for Shed of the Year 2013

It's time to start voting. As always there are a number of categories so make every vote count - and naturally we would encourage you to vote in particular in the Garden Office category. Overall, there are nearly 2,000 sheds up for the awards so do take your time and have a good browse. Voting shuts at midnight on May 31 but don't leave it until the last minute to vote - then the category winners voted for by the public will be discussed by the judges, Sarah Beeny, Kevin McCloud, me, the organiser of the event Uncle Wilco and  last year's winner John. The winner will be announced in National Shed Week which starts July 1. Click here to vote.

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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Garden offices at Grand Designs Live

There are numerous garden office suppliers at the Grand Designs Live show this week at ExCel Docklands. Among them is Roger Hedges from Garden Spaces.

"Many people are very interested in our concept of the indoor/outdoor space connection to make a garden room really work in our climate," he says. "People are also surprised by the amount of internal headroom we can create without compromising thermal performance due to our clever floor and ceiling structure that enables us to achieve up to 2.2m of internal headroom and still meet the 2.5m height requirement to avoid planning on most occasions."

Among others who are there this week and have blogged about the experience are Charlie Dalton from Smart Garden Offices and Mark Burton from Tiny House UK. -----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

The Politician's Husband: shedworking drama

The garden office is coming of age in BBC drama and no mistake. While David Tennant and Emily Watson are the supposed stars of the corporation's latest politico drama The Politician's Husband, what's increasingly taking centre stage is the couple's garden office. In episode one, Emily Watson's character Freya (a rising star at Westminster) is shown to be a shedworker, but in episode two the couple swap offices and her husband Aiden (a falling star at Westminster) takes over at the bottom of the garden. There are some harsh words said about shedworking and being "banished to the shed" but we'll gloss over that and simply revel in prime time television garden office coverage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning