Highs’s & Low’s Of Work From Home

Workplace has become a big part of social life. Ancient humans used to meet at places like shelters, fireplaces to eat and socialize. As brains grew larger and more complex, growing up took longer and expanding social networks led, eventually, to the complex social lives of modern humans. All throughout human history, work has often required a specific place or area that allowed larger numbers of people to agglomerate, developing such places into towns and cities in due course of time.

Recently, the very idea of what constitutes the workplace has changed in the past year. The outbreak of the COVID-19 has enforced companies all over the world to operate with a remote employee force in an effort to keep operations running and workers safe. What started as COVID-19 strategies may well be the norm for long-term.

Some people love the idea of working from home, others dislike it. So for some people point of view below pros comes into cons or vice versa.

HIGHS:

Increase in Productivity

A quieter environment allows the employees to be more focused on work. Time spent on travelling is now saved, and can be utilized in professional work. The concept of flexible working hours, where the employee can alter his working hours based on convenience, appeals to many an employee. It is as convenient as logging in early, late, or even on weekends. This comes as a boon for professionals working across different time zones.

Financial Benefits

Organizations can save on expenditures such as office rent, office supplies, utility bills among others. Employees save money by avoiding the long commute via public transport or means of self-commute, which translates to less fuel consumption. Employees can save money spent on public transportation, or that spent in dine out. Migrant workers can now save a lot of money.

Less Sickness Absences

Since employees are working in isolation there is less chance of infections spreading as would not be the case within an office environment.

Save Time

Time saved on commutation means employees can spend it with their near and dear. Time could also be invested in upgrading their professional skills

Increased Employee Retention

Employees Retention would increase as the flexibility of in working from remote remotely enables them employees to fit their work around their personal life.

Environment Friendly

WFH means employees do not need to commute between their homes and workplaces. And lesser vehicles on the road means lesser pollution (air, noise, water etc) traffic jams and accidents.

LOWS:

Lack of Motivation

Employee can lose motivation easily when isolated. Common goal and purpose or having a pep talk WFH means employees do not need to commute between their homes and workplaces. And lesser vehicles on the road means lesser pollution (air, noise, water etc) traffic jams and accidents.

Home Distractions

Distracted by the average cacophony in a household.

“Roughly 32% of employees say watching TV is a top distraction when working remotely, followed by 27% who say child care is a huge distraction, according to a new survey released by Glassdoor where nearly 1,000”

Bad Broadband Speeds and Power Cut

Employees work can be interrupted because of fluctuating broadband speeds or power cuts when they work from home

Loneliness and Mental Health

Employees working from home may feel a disconnect from their colleagues and office environment, finding it difficult to draw a line between the professional and personal lives.

Information security risk

Organization data Security risk increased when an employees are working from home.

Unmonitored Performance

Monitoring employee performance becomes very difficult. Some employees might often tend to laze around and take frequent breaks, resulting in longer break time and less work time and impacts the productivity. Frequent catchup calls would be required, and it can be very time-consuming, reducing productivity levels.

Less Teamwork

There is less communication among employees, which in turn may decrease the strength of the bond within the team. Some might find it difficult to spend long hours and collaborate with only a computer screen and no face to face interaction.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that remote work is on the rise. Working from home has its own benefits and drawbacks. Some employees are happy to work from home and some (like myself 😊) eagerly waiting to go back to have a face to face interaction with colleagues and sit on their favorite office chair.