After the two-year long pandemic, we saw society change. Work cultures have changed. Many companies see advantages to remote work. However, many employers also see the disadvantages of not being in the office along with their employees. Read on for the advantages and disadvantages for working remotely.
Pros of a Home Office
If you’re a working mom or dad, you can skip this section! Having more time was the number one reason parents gave for working from home. I’m talking about parents of small children, care givers to elderly family members, and having more time for yourself. No commuting to work or dressing up, gives you more time in the morning. Remote work saves us all time since we are on Zoom meetings all day from home.
Time and energy are saved by working remotely for most employees. They love the convenience and life-work balance it’s created. Meta has even taken it to the extreme, but results have not been fully evaluated as of this publication date. But, I’d love to work from a laptop in Hawaii or Europe!
Cons of Remote Work
However, with saving time does come a downside to never returning to the office. The lack of in person networking has seen some workers questioning promotions. The day-to-day social interaction is not there at home. Finally, the isolation you feel being along all day, even with a pet, is real for many workers. So is there a compromise?
Hybrid Working
A work model that’s popular is the hybrid model or splitting your time between your home office and the company’s location. Hybrid work solves the issue of being in the office to socialize and network. However, depending upon the company’s culture, employees might never see one another due to the days selected in the office.
To help ease the transition, many employers are allowing the employee to determine days of the week or total days monthly in the office. If the organization is large, the times, days and hours of work can vary. Leading us back to the issue of no more birthday celebrations, victory lunches or water cooler chats with our colleagues.
What is the answer? The jury is out on this one. Workers and employers are still dealing with this even today as Covid cases are lower and masks disappeared. Everyone agrees that when you provide a perk to workers, it’s very hard to back track and take it away. This is a dilemma we will be talking about for a while. Let me know your thoughts on remote working and your situation.
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