Homeworking cliches

Over-50s marketing expert Dick Stroud (who among his many accomplishments has an excellent blog ) has a marvellous article on his site where he complains that: "The media's reporting about marketing and the over 50s is bogged down in a cycle of trivial and unsubstantiated debate. Reading an article on the subject is like Bill Murray's experience in the film Groundhog Day: a ceaseless round of identical arguments, quotes, examples and unresolved questions. The mainstream and marketing media are equally as bad." I confess that I often feel the same about articles on homeworking. Today's issue of The Guardian has a piece (not yet online) in its Office Hours section called 'How to...work from hom' by Giles Morris which particularly gets my garden shed goat.

So, homeworkers stay in bed late? Check. They work in pyjamas? Check. They spend all afternoon shopping and watching television? Check. They exist in an isolated world? Check. All bosses are paranoid about homeworkers not working? Check. It's obviously supposed to be a humorous little thing and I don't want to seem like a humourless homeworking robot, but frankly what's the point in printing it? It makes The Guardian look behind the times in terms of working trends, won't encourage 'traditional' office workers to make the change, and certainly won't be welcomed by most homeworkers I know as a reflection of their lifestyles.

Strangely though it also points out that homeworking is more efficient.