Recently there has been some speculation that working in an office could be a thing of the past, however people are certainly feeling the effects from working at home on an ongoing basis and burnout is on the rise.
As we know a full return to work for everyone is not possible but in order to make working from home a better and more enjoyable experience for employees there must be a balance. To help strike a balance, businesses could introduce sensible working practises, homeworking and flexible hours where possible. It is vital to strike a balance to ensure you can get the most from your team, just like when you build any team a good balance of skill set and experience is crucial.
There is definitely aspects you miss when working from home, for example you may not feel as positive because you cannot relay your ideas to more experienced colleagues, there may be tensions at home with family and partners who are also working from home, lack of human contact and lack of office banter. All these factors above have a vital part to play in a person’s productivity and creativity when it comes to creating or working on a piece of work.
Glenn Dutcher a professor at Ohio University who has studied the effects of telecommuting on creativity and productivity and he has said –
“Productivity can also suffer, but not for the reasons you might think. When a team works from home, everyone contributes less (even those in the office), simply because they believe they’re going to be less productive. He also sees a sort of “free rider” affect: Nobody wants to be the one person still performing while others try to coast on their hard work.”
A recent study from CNBC has shown that there are definitely pro’s to working from home like flexible working, less expenses and more independence however working from home is a completely different environment from an office and it can take some training and experience to get used to.
There are certain factors that can affect the way you work from home, for example working in pyjamas, working from your bed or couch, neglecting mental and physical health and not creating a structure or boundaries. These factors definitely affect our productivity because they are normal tasks we carry out day to day when working in the office without thinking of them. However to create productivity you could get dressed as normal, create a home office to suit your needs, definitely include physical exercise and try to communicate with as many people as possible within your day as working from home can become quite lonely.
I have been working from home since March 2020 and I have realised this can be a great tool for employees like myself however it must be balanced. Working from home five days a week can lead to bad habits and become very stressful in my opinion.
Personally I would benefit from the best of both worlds as this would allow me to have contact with work friends and more experienced staff to share my new ideas and it would also give me independence and flexibility which would allow me to work at my very best.
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