Have you ever thought of getting rid of the large serviced office space, you are paying a premium for? And, allowing your employees the freedom of working from home, away from the hustle and bustle of your serviced office.
Before, you decide to allow any of your employees the luxury of working from home. You must make sure that everyone knows what exactly is involved.
Working from home is not as great as I thought that it would be and I would argue against, the so called fact, people work better from home.
A main issue I find myself confronting on a daily basis is, myself, slipping into slackness. Since there is no pressure to start work at a certain time, or dress a certain way, it is very easy to delay the start of work. Productivity can seriously decrease under such circumstances and great self discipline must be maintained at all times.
Another issue I have found is those pressing personal chores you have at home. When you are in the office, it is easy to forget about the washing you need to do back at home. Personal chores are extremely difficult to avoid, when one is sat right next to them. The tasks can be overwhelming and can very easily get in the way of your work. Tasks that would otherwise take only fifteen minutes can end up taking up a lot more time.
A major disadvantage of working from home is the lack of human interaction. Colleagues and peers help in keeping the competitive spirit alive and enhance productivity. Going to the office is a great way to get away from the stress at home and vice versa, but if the office is at home, then there may be no escaping the stress.
There are no co-workers or opportunities for office socialisation. If you like your own company all the time, that’s great, but if you thrive on being around others, professional camaraderie and practical joking now and again, this is going to be difficult for you to handle.
Probably the biggest challenge in working from home is communication. When humans communicate, a lot of information is conveyed via body language and that is lost when communicating via phone or Skype. This can be particularly challenging for creative types and during brainstorming sessions.
When working away from the office, you are judged and compensated, solely on your productivity. The fact that you work until midnight every night won’t be noticed by the boss. Your diligence will go unnoticed. Only your final product will determine your success or failure.
Regular, drier things like status updates and simple informational conversations are not a problem, but the activities that require passion and a blackboard are still better done in person.
I have now found that I hate working from home, I want my office back and I have decided that I can’t stand my cat.
