Working from Home Advantages / Disadvantagesfor Employees and Companies
Since COVID-19 came into our lives, different advantages and disadvantages affected companies around the world that had to adapt to working from home, the new working style imposed by the governments, to comply with new specific rules in relation to cleaning (disinfection) and social distancing to avoid virus transmission and keep all of us safe.
Working from home is now more the way to go for those who can, and companies started already to get organized in this matter.
We looked into the positive and negative results of these changes, for both employees and employers, and we will enumerate below the ones we found most obvious.
Employees
The advantages of working from home
- Less time spent in traffic and no more passing through crowded areas
- Smaller costs with transportation or with eating in the town, specifically at lunchtime
- Less noise for those working in large offices with many colleagues around talking on the phone, having stand-up meetings, or free discussions
- An increased level of focus if nobody else is disturbing the work
- More flexible hours where possible (people on support for example must work on the exact hours when a software developer can work even overnight if this is what he want and is allowed)
Disadvantages of working from home
- A less organized program while many times the person working from home will need to take care of things related to home and family in the same way somebody will take care of the office when work is done from the office (washing a kettle, wiping the dust from the computer and working desk, taking deliveries, fixing a technical problem).
- Investing in better broadband for those who do not have a good internet connection because working from home will mean, many times, virtual meetings (with video streaming which take a lot of bandwidth)
- Less communication with colleagues can result in relation distancing;
- Loneliness on own home;
- A decrease in productivity because of all other negative points
- The risk of obesity and a bad lifestyle because of the lack of moving
- The frustration of understanding people on chat meetings while talking with headphones. In groups of more than 2 people, talking over somebody else can happen many times because of network lag or simply because you can’t see the other people’s faces and facial movements. Unlike to face to face meeting where a language of gestures exist and people understand when somebody wants to get engaged in discussion, on virtual calls is no such thing and over-talking is a very common problem.
- Nobody will see how much you struggle with your work when you have difficult problems to solve and you might not be appreciated enough
- Hard to give support to juniors when needed or to watch the work they do
- Hard to ask for help because the person you might need will not see chat notifications for many hours
A healthy work from home lifestyle must be built on discipline which will include:
- the will of waking up on time;
- avoidance of spending time doing other things than working, like watching TV, using social platforms, spending time on long chats with other family members, cooking, or going out for shopping;
- avoidance on working fewer hours per day than the contract it saying just because nobody sees you;
This discipline though, if it is too strict applied can easily bring people into the situation of overworking. How this can be possible when working from home?
People that have kids and need to take care of them in the working time, will usually add more time to the working hours and stay until late to compensate the time when the kids need attention, or the time spent with other important problems that came over the day.
Is important to do not forget that in a modern working environment, where increased productivity is one of the targets, employees are advised to take a few minutes brake per worked hour, which means, getting up from the desk or the computer and do other things which can be: taking a coffee or tea, getting involved in a chat with a mate (work or not work-related) stretch, if they have a static type of work or sit if they work most from standing.
Company
The advantages of a company when the employees are working from home
- Reduced costs with rent, electricity, water and gas, internet, and other suppliers
- Not having to pay for cleaners, security people, or the services provided by other companies in relation to the same things
- Not having to pay for stationery, coffee, tea, fruits, filtered water
The disadvantages of employees working from home for a company
- Transparency inside company activity
- A close relationship within its people
- Productivity in some cases
- The image in relation with its customers
If it will be to put in balance the earnings of a company against its employees from working from home, at the first view the company has a big win.
Most of the costs an employer had with an office disappeared when the office was closed and employees have been relocated with work at their own homes or to other offices (with other teams of in smaller places). All the costs the company had were mostly split between employees, because a person working from home will use more electricity (for computer, light, air conditioning) and gas (for heating).
At the same time is well known that the person relocated to work from home will have no time spent into the traffic and no costs with transportation for work (excepting when kids still need to be taken to school, close to the office), new clothes, or a special food budget for lunch.
It is off course a different case for each individual but in the end, we consider this situation, for the moment, as a win-win between companies and employees.
As a result of the COVID-19, many offices have been closed and many people lost their jobs or have been relocated to work from home. We all had to adapt and this live style might become a new normal in the next years, or not, and will return to how it was if things will not go well.
Each country’s economy has been affected by the current situation. Fewer people to travel means less income into the public transport system. The sales of all types reduced a lot, shops were closed, to comply with the new rules, and people couldn’t go out to have reasons to spend more money.
If working from home will bring into the future more advantages or disadvantages, we will see into the next years.