Until recently if you had an office job it was generally presumed that you would work from there. It’s easy to see why, in the days before the rise of home computing and the internet (to those who are younger, yes that was a thing!) in order to do your job you had to go to the office. If you worked from home you were either a small business or you had some other extenuating circumstance. Now though, a lot of people and businesses have had to adapt and found that employees are as productive at home as they were in the office, sometimes even more so. What does this mean for the future? What are the benefits of working from home? And what are some of the downsides? Let’s look into them shall we?
Working from Home?
One of the first things that people seem to think is that offices will close and people will be able to work from home all the time. I have to disagree there. Office buildings will always be a thing and there are people who find they work better in an office environment. I think the far more likely thing is that there will be more flexibility between working from home and in the office than there was before. The offices may get smaller, but they will always be a part of our work lives.
The Benefits
Well for a start there is no commute, so you’re saving money there. If you’re in your home office then you can focus up and not worry about disturbing too many people. You can clock on and off in the comfort of your own home and you already know what food is around. On a slightly more serious note it means that employees have more autonomy and they are able to take more ownership of what they are doing.
The Downsides
The saying goes that humans are social animals and working from home you don’t get a lot of interactions with others. During the lockdown in the UK depression cases went up by 19.2% between March and July in 2020. That is no coincidence. Before, by going to the office people could socialise and put a distinction between home and work lives since they were separated by location. By working from home people might be in the same room for days on end and not interact with anyone. Also being at home means that you’re near your creature comforts and it is just as easy to get distracted as in the office, if you aren’t disciplined.
What have we learnt?
Working from home can be great, really allow you to lock into your work and may be how in the financial troubles ahead we might save money. We do however; need to keep the following in mind:
- Just like in the office take breaks, get up and move around.
- Try and make distinct areas between work and home so that you don’t get burnt out.
- Reach out to colleagues or friends for a chat so that you don’t get lonely
- If you feel low, ask for help. If you are in need of help just use this link it’s full of resources.
With that it brings us to the end of this week’s article. If you want more articles like this one then why don’t you check out our Blog page? We publish articles every week so it’s worthwhile following us on Facebook or checking back in with us regularly.
