Work from home is the new normal- True or False?

Before facing the Covid-19 epidemic situation by the world, the Work From Home (WFH) concept was not acceptable in various sectors of business. Because management was doubtful about the performance and the productivity of employees.

But after Covid-19, the way of life before and the way of working in the business have completely changed. Where WFH was just considered as an emergency option, now it becomes a new working culture in various business sectors.

The WFH concept has become tremendously successful and more than 65% of people want to continue WFH after the situation gets normal. And many people say their productivity has been increased to a great extend.

Here are some declarations of companies about WFH manifest that WFH is going to be new normal in the current year-

# FIS GLOBAL extends work from home option till June 2021 until further notice

# Amazon will keep work from home option till June 2021

# Facebook Inc will allow employees to work from home until July 2021ijjj

# Cognizant extends work from home option till June 2021 until further notice

# Twitter saying that employees can WFH permanently if they wish.

But before saying WFH is going to be the new normal, few major areas needed to be highlighted. Work From Home has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let’s discuss all the pros and cons of Work From Home.

Challenges to manage work-life balance

Initially, we were thinking only about the advantages of WFH like no travelling, flexible working hours, comfortable clothes; also you can spend time with family while working, etc.

But research shows that because of increased working hours, increased workload, calls after logout from the work; the concept of WFH is no more beneficial for employees. Instead of finding the motivation to work from home and maintain productivity, people facing challenges to maintain boundaries between work life and personal life.

By maintaining a dedicated separate workspace you can easily switch between work mode to home mode.

Establishing a proper daily routine, going out with family for a short trip, meeting family friends will help to separate out work and personal space.

Including one regular habit after work will help you switch from work mode like reading books, painting, dancing, etc

Does improper workplace affect my productivity?

Every individual has different conditions at home. So each employee couldn’t have ideal workspace arrangements like a table and comfortable chair on which he/she can sit for a whole day. Because of unavailability of proper set-up employee forced to use sofa, bed, dining table; even sometimes sit on the ground also. 

Ideally, the laptop screen should be at your eye level so that you will not bend your neck. Availability of a comfortable office chair for sitting is a must which provides proper back support and the height of the chair should be adjustable as per person’s height. Otherwise, Bad sitting posture led to many health issues such as back pain, stiff neck and shoulders, and many more major problems. Without wellness, it becomes difficult for employees to focus on work and maintain productivity.

Lack of face time and workplace disconnect

Recently research has shown that 20% of people feel lonely with all normal circumstances at WFH. When you are working from the office it is easy get help from your colleague and co-workers as you are at the same place. But while working from home it becomes difficult to get that help smoothly.

Sometimes it becomes difficult to decide priority of house hold work and office work while working at home.

During Face to Face meetings at the workplace, it is become needed to take note of body language, facial expression, voice tone. Even if traveling is really boring, dealing with office co-workers will cause a great level of mental straight.

Short tea break, lunch break at the office helps employees to discuss other than office work which acts as a great remedy for mind relaxation. But because of WFH your social interaction with your co-workers is very less, and if it is there it is over digital media. That will become the reason for not forming a strong Team.

The Pros and cons of WFH

After going through all the above discussion how we can conclude that WFH has pros or cons? Well it’s all about our own experience and views.

For me, WFH is an essential and very convenient option for the situation rather than just looking at the advantages or disadvantages. The safety of the employee is the very first priority of any business. I look at both the way, it has pros for some and cons for others.

WFH is a very effective solution for the IT sectors, Social networking companies, digital marketing but on other hand for small businesses, mini firms, manufacturing companies it is become difficult to keep it up.

WFH may have so many advantages but in long run, we cannot fully convert to WFH, as it may lead to a drain on the emotional, physical level of employees which causes a reduction in productivity. It will reduce our activeness and we will turn into a lazy person.

Isn’t this something we want to see next? What are we now?

CONCLUSION

Now we cannot deny that from now onwards WFH will be a very important part of the working culture.

But is it possible to replace our face-to-face communication with WhatsApp, Face book, or we will stop going home only because we can talk over video call with our parents, or any digital platform can replace in office work, Answer to all these questions is NO?

Advanced technologies give organizations video connectivity for all kinds of meetings and updates. But video connectivity cannot be an alternative to social disconnect and emotional disconnect.

People preferring balanced working culture like 50% WFH 50% WORK FROM OFFICE. So that it will become easy to balance work life and personal life maintaining productivity.

“Too often, the thing you want most is the one thing you can’t have,”

said Meredith Grey in the show “Grey’s Anatomy.”

So time will decide whether WFH is the new normal or not. Meanwhile, you should enjoy what you have by maintaining a work-life balance and including some healthy daily routines. Don’t you think so? You can share your thoughts with me through comments.

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