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Why Telework (Working from home) is dangerous to cities.

Glen said:
If everyone worked from home, whom would cities like Toronto tax to death?
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In another thread, people were talking about a rise in Toronto of the "elite" class of knowledge workers, who are to take our city into the company of world-class cities such as London and New York, leaving behind the old generation of "blue collar industral workers" and the 80's-era white collar "cubicle workers".

It's exactly this new class of "elite" knowledge workers who will recieve and make use of work at home privileges. How does a company expect to attract the best in a field if they're going to force them to spend 8.5 hours per day, 5 days a week, in a stuffy highrise office building? Nowadays people want jobs which allow them to lead interesting lives outside work and maintain a healthy work/life balance. And many women (or parents, rather) want jobs where they can do their work and also be closer to their children. Even a quick glance at any "Top 100 Employers" list will show that a good number of the "elite" companies who make that list offer such privileges.

It's a bit silly that the same people who want Toronto to be world-class city with an "elite population", want our populace to work at dreary cubicle-based 9-to-5 jobs reminiscent of the robber baron era of American industrialism - just so that mass transit can be funded.

Another major fallacy in this thread is the belief that all companies are in downtown and the suburbs are nothing more than bedroom communities. That is untrue, but I won't get into it now.
Suffice to say there are plenty of downtowners with high-paying jobs at world-class companies in Markham, Mississauga or Oakville; and working from home is what allows them to enjoy staying in the city during the day rather than having to drive out to an office park in the middle of ass-nowhere.
 
Asterix said:
The implication is that transit is solely useful for people commuting to and from work, so therefore anyone working from home has no stake in the convenience of transit.

But there is a lot more to life than traveling to work and back. Everything from grocery shopping, stopping by the bank, going for coffee or to the park or to friends is influenced by the development of the neighbourhood and how convenient it is to do any of those things by foot, by bike, by transit or by car.

Having the majority of the population working from home wouldn't suddenly alleviate the benefits or even need of having more concentrated and efficient development.
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Exactly. The big problem I think will occur is that people will start to worry less about mass transit and efficient development as rush hour becomes less of a problem. As long as we're not losing billions of dollars in gridlock, there's no problem with continuing to live out in the suburbs, or at least not enough of a problem to do something about it like investing money in transit or more efficient development.
 
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Suburbs suck. I'm not moving to Toronto to only live in another suburb. If I wanted to live in one... I'd move to Waterloo.

Edit: This man is talking about America and suburbs.. Canada is a different place than America when it comes to cities. There is also the issue of most Americans dislike buying a home that isn't a new build.
 
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A little drastic, a little clueless?

It's presumptuous to think people live in the city because it's close to work?

Haven't you read that Toronto is becoming the bedroom community of the 905 companies?


Telecommuting is probably one of the most environmentally friendly policies out there. No Cars, No Smog, No congestion!
 
For starters, there will always be a need for a common office space in almost any company. There will always be a rush hour. Any suggestion that this will change due to technology is flat out wrong.

What may change however is the format of a typical office. Some businesses may do away with the concept of dedicated offices and cubicles, and instead opt for common workstations that anyone can log into if they happen to be in that day. Whereas today there might be one workstation per worker, some offices may have 3 workstations per 5 employees, knowing that some work from home on occasion.

And as for teleworking degrading the quality of transit, that's another myth. Even if I did work from home, I wouldn't live anywhere else but in my high rise apartment in the city where I choose not to own a car. I'm a 9-5 worker, and like most, I use the TTC for more non work trips than I do for commuting to work. I'd say that I'm fairly typical of the majority of people who live in the central city.
 
I must have been jumping to conclusions, sorry. Honestly after reading the article I was scared all day of seeing our beautiful downtown dead and empty during the day......logically there will always need to be office space, but some telework can be useful to bring down costs etc. Perhaps it's better not to have everyone working 9 to 5. I however still like working in an office, I find it too distracting to work right at home. Maybe a library instead! :)
 
that is a very old article but many employers allow their employees to work from home now. This is why the rush hour is now all day and traffic is heavy at all times with slightly heavier loads during peaks.
 
nfitz said:
Slightly heavier load at peaks? Peak traffic is much heavier!
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Depends where you are in the city I suspect. For the Gardiner, yeah I think there's a big difference between peak and non-peak.

For the 401 across etobicoke and north york - not so much! I basically try to stay away from it between 7am to 7pm M-F. If I need to go to the west end for anything (I live in NY) I try to do so after 7:00 or on the weekend.
 
yea exactly. The 401 is now congested all day on weekdays but also the traffic is quite heavy on weekends as people do their shopping and weekend errands.
 
lead82 said:
yea exactly. The 401 is now congested all day on weekdays but also the traffic is quite heavy on weekends as people do their shopping and weekend errands.
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Mid-day on a weekend often seems worse than mid-day on a weekday ... though none seem as bad as rush-hour on a weekday.
 
yes the amount of traffic on the weekend is insane and seems as high as a weekday and that is surprising as they far fewer trucks as well.
 
I agree. Telework may not create dense cities with great transit, but it significantly reduces the need for transportation of all forms. The only reason to live in the suburb is to be close to the city but far enough from the city to be able to afford it. With Telework there would be no reason to live in new suburban developments because you could live in small villages with far more character. Suburbs have been created because mergers and mass production have pulled the work into the cities... telework could allow small town Ontario to thrive. There need not be vast suburbs at all. No, it won't be transit friendly... but the distance each person travels each day would be far less. Many small towns are quite walkable.
 
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