Many people think that working from 9 to 5 is
a nightmare. Some believe that working from home is a great experience. "It's
true that a lot of people are facing many new challenges while working from
home under the current situation. These are very stressful times.
It
is quite normal to feel overwhelmed,". "We need to be very patient
during these stressful times. Working from home requires discipline, focus and
planning; these are the three pillars that keep your work-life balance intact.
If
any of these elements are missing, working from home can become very
challenging." According
to experts, under the current circumstances, the boundary between personal life
and professional life has become blurred.
As
a result of which, most people are stressed and find it very difficult to
concentrate on their work.
Work from home:
Working from home
may sound like an ideal situation – especially if we've never done
it before.
What could be
better than simply rolling out of bed and arriving at your home office in
moments, without the hassles of first making yourself presentable and then
commuting to a workplace with a boss and colleagues who may drive you crazy?
In reality,
though, just like working in an office, remote work comes with pros and cons.
Let’s have a look at some of them:
Pros and Cons of Working from Home:
Pros:
1. No work time:
Employees have to report their offices at the right
time. A person working from home can work anytime he wants.
For example, I wake up at 11 Am and sometimes, I
take a holiday on Mondays. This doesn’t mean that I’m neglecting my work. In
initial days of my school, I used to work for 12 hours a day adding my school
hours and my homework.
2. We’re the
boss:
When a person is working from home, he/she is free
from all types of working pressure. You don’t have to fill any timesheet nor do
you have to report to the office on time.
3. Learning:
A person working for himself will go through
several phases of life. He’ll/She’ll see bad as well as good days. If a person
is hard working, he/she will learn to overcome fear and failure by learning
many new things. I am a girl with knowledge of Python and Machine
Learning.
I am now aware of the importance of time
management, the value of money and hard work.
4. We have flexibility to take care of
appointments and errands:
One of the hardest things about committing to
a 9-to-5 desk job is that it prevents us from being able to handle almost
anything else that comes up in our life, whether attending a routine dentist
appointment or picking a sick kid up from school.
When we work from home, while we still have
to meet our deadlines and be available when we say we will be, we generally
have wider bandwidth to tend to other responsibilities without jeopardizing our
job.
5. There are fewer interruptions from meetings
and chitchat:
It's easier to get into a flow state of deep work when we're in our home office
without colleagues dropping by and sitting
down impromptu to talk about their weekends.
Limiting unnecessary interruptions from our
colleagues and boss is a big plus of working from home and is one reason why
many remote workers are more productive than office-based workers.
While one may need to dial in for specific
meetings, we'll likely get a break from attending several others – many of
which may be unnecessary to our role – that confront staff workers daily.
6. There is no commute time or expense:
We can save a lot of money and avoid wasting
hours that others spend simply getting to and from work when our office is
right down the hall. Avoiding traffic battles and long-distance schleps tops the list
of benefits for some of those who work from home.
"Not having to deal with commuting was a
huge plus and saved us a minimum of an hour a day that we could put to better
and more satisfying use,".
Cons:
The above points might be interesting but working
from home is a difficult job.
1. Hard work:
When we’re an employee of a company, we’ll be given
some tasks that we have to complete within some time. The tasks will be based
on our skill set. When we’re working from home, we will have to work day and
night on our goals and strategies. Earning money online is a
challenging task.
2. Boring Life:
When a user works from home, he’ll be connected only
with his family members. We’ll be in the house for most of the time. We will
start disliking Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. People will think
that we’re unemployed, and we’re wasting our parent’s money.
3. There is no physical separation between
work and leisure time:
Many who work from home lamented that they
often find themselves working around the clock, since their labour has no
definite start or end times.
As a result, they sometimes feel like they
are literally always at work, making it difficult to shift to the post-work
relaxation mode that many office workers take for granted.
The absence of an obvious division between
the personal and professional realms means some remote workers get distracted
by housework.
"It's a constant balancing act to make
sure we're taking enough time for our family and yourself,". "The
pitfall is that there's always a computer on and available, so setting
boundaries and sticking to those boundaries is pretty important."
4. It is easy to misread cues via electronic
communications:
While few who work from home expressed
feeling "lonely" as is typically assumed, many did point to the difficulty of getting the tone right in digital communication systems, such
as email, chat, social media and text.
"Just like in relationships, it can be
easy to misconstrue tonality of someone's messages. We're often blind without
body language and facial expressions to rely on, and we assume the worst.
Therefore, there needs to be extra effort made in maintaining positive
communications,".
5. We
have to make the effort to get a change of scenery:
What can be a blessing can also become a
curse in the form of cabin fever.
Some freelancers and others who work from
home lamented that the place they work during the day is the exact same place
they'll be sitting later that evening and that getting involved in their work
often translates to spending a huge portion of the day indoors.
Many stressed the importance of scheduling
lunches and other meetings to keep them in the mix and avoid the rut of never
leaving the house.
9 to 5 job:
The first thing that comes to
our mind when we use the word ‘office’ is a region or sector where
service related to bureaucracy and commerce is carried out. It is a location of
management and organization.
Important and compulsory
duties are carried out here under the supervision of a head. Work is
distributed among the staff members and a monthly salary is attached to the job
for maintaining a decent lifestyle and standard of living.
But the bigger question here is,
Is working in an office a blessing or a
problem?
It might look very productive from one angle
but the other angle says a different story. On that note, let’s discover some
of the top advantages and disadvantages that come with working in an office
environment:
Pros and Cons of 9 to 5 job:
Pros:
1. Time Management:
One of the most wonderful and beneficial
things an office environment can teach us is time management. Offices usually have fixed hours for work,
lunch and tea break.
The minute we become a staff member in an
office, we are made to work according to the time slot. Here our mind will
slowly begin to process according to the working hours provided. This will also
help us learn about maintaining punctuality.
If we are someone who finds it extremely
difficult to discipline yourself, working in an office would definitely be
suitable for us. We will be taught how to begin and end on time.
2. Behavioural and Interpersonal skills:
A second benefit that comes with working in
an office is learning how to behave yourself in front of others. When we are
surrounded by a group of people, we automatically become alert and conscious of
ourselves.
This is also an opportunity for us to learn
about relationships with colleagues and the ways in which we can maintain them.
Our communication and interpersonal
skills are
boosted as well. These aspects are crucial not just to the environment we work
in but also to ourselves.
In order to establish our reputation, one
must learn how to behave like a professional. Proper discipline is needed so
that we can handle conversations with employers, staff and subordinates. So the
moment you step inside an office, remember to create a warm and friendly impression.
3.
Become Creative:
Working in an office environment helps us
build new ideas and expand our knowledge. Here we have the opportunity to
investigate and learn different kinds of approaches, methods, and techniques.
It will push us to pursue brilliance and to
outlive all adversities, especially in an environment that is so full of
challenges. In an office environment, we will always have the chance to explore
different fields, work on a whole variety of projects and learn a bit about
research too.
Offices are the best way to boost our creative skills.
Cons:
1. Life ‘s hard:
As a beginner, we’ll have to go through a lot of
trauma and frustration. Our salary will be low and expenses will be high. If
we’re forced to relocate, we’ll have to rent a room or house, which in turn
will increase our costs.
2. Salary:
Sometimes, people will feel that they’re being
paid less than what they deserve. If we find that a co-employee is offered a
better package, we’ll feel jealous.
3. Work Pressure:
Working in a company is not an easy job. The
seniors will always observe our performance. When our performance is no up to
the mark, we will have to face the music which in turn will make us feel
embarrassed.
4. Injuries and
Strains in eyes:
This might sound surprising to most of us but
working in an office actually makes you prone to slips and injuries. Accidents
are most likely to occur here. According to the HSC statistics, 30 % of
tripping and falling accidents are dedicated to office workers.
This is why it is very important for the
company to make sure that everyone is safe and that all facilities are provided
to workers and clients.
The effect of working in an
office is that it strains our eyes. This is because we have to look at the computer
screen throughout. This could actually damage our vision in the long run or
cause us to wear specs. No wonder so many office workers today wear contact
lenses or specs.
Conclusion:
‘Your focus is the key to
being as productive at home as you might be at the office. There may be some
equipment issues, but those can be resolved. If we are the type that likes to
work alone, working from home may be as productive, or more so.
If one has to have people
around her, are very extroverted, this can be a drawback for working at home.’
Written by – Sakshi Chauhan
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