The abundance of ‘work from home’ ads on the web clearly shows that’s what people want. Not everyone can do it – but why isn’t it easier for those who want to?

For a lot of people commuting is not only a stress-laden super-drag, it’s also expensive and environmentally damaging. A lot of office-based jobs could be done just as easily at home, and enlightened companies are making the most of home-based employees. (It saves on office space and facilities costs, for one thing). Modern technology already makes it possible for virtual PAs, receptionists and other workers to login at home. Security issues aren’t necessarily a huge deal, though that may depend on the work.

So why aren’t there more opportunities? Not those scam ones in your inbox; not the get-rich-quick schemes; and also not the low-paid ones (I’ve just joined an online survey agency and have spent about 6 hours on it, filling out my details and preferences for each one, only to be told in 9 out of 10 cases that I don’t fit the ‘specific requirements’. That works out to about 1c an hour).

Is the problem down to employers and companies who can’t be bothered to rethink their operations? Who like to be able to monitor their employees as if they were children?

I propose a campaign. Flexible working is essential to the peace of mind of many individuals: people fed-up with the crassness of the office environment so well-satirised by Ricky Gervais in ‘The Office’ spring to mind second, after the commuting nightmare. Okay, so some people like the social aspect of work, but home-working could be a part-time thing for those who can’t do without face-to-face office gossip. From a social perspective, people with kids, or even pets, at home could lower their anxiety levels; and people who are genetic night owls, currently forced to fit their lives around the tyranny of a 9-5 world could be freed. Disabled people could enter the workplace in droves. I bet productivity would go shooting up.

I reckon the unions should get on to it, and the sociologists, and the big software companies. And all of us who want to live a little, and not spend two to three hours a day inhaling everybody’s else’s germs on the 8.15 train. Anyone want to start an e-petition to – I don’t know, anyone got any ideas?