No place like home (Nature)

On Twitter Karen Kaplan (Editor at the Nature journal) asked researchers for their experiences about tele-commuting, to which I replied that I had something to add. A few days later we talked on the phone, which resulted in a Feature piece in Nature in the Careers section (behind Paywall). In it my experience with the tourists on the road in the summer is mentioned, together with a comment on how you miss out on vital information (visitors, project/employment applications, ministries and the university) which is usually shared informally at coffee breaks and other informal gatherings. If you're not there, this information almost never reaches you. This is also something that we notice within our institute, where our research groups are spread out over the Faculty and the Science Park: news from the Faculty barely reaches the Science Park and vice versa.

Also in the Feature piece is my good friend Ferdinand Grozema who talks about the side-effects of having a telecommuting policy, which may compete with paternity leave unintentionally. The good thing of telecommuting is nicely summarized by him: "It's not unpleasant to be at a bit of distance", and adds that "you don't have to be less productive".

Telecommuting: No place like home

• Karen Kaplan

Nature

 

506,

 

121–123

 

(06 February 2014)

 

doi:10.1038/nj7486-121a

Published online

 

05 February 2014

(Feature is behind Paywall, contact me if you don't have access)