The Home Office
For a while now the home office has become the new normal for many. Despite everyone's incredible achievements adapting to this new style of work, working full time at home is simply not sustainable, and here's why.
Loss of Culture
The biggest shortcoming of working from the home approach is the huge barrier it creates to creating a company culture. It is clear that the company culture is created and grows through meetings and getting together. Working from home often results in disjointed teams and impeded workflow. Not only this but having a good company culture boosts employee satisfaction and retention rates as well as improving productivity. Hence, a good culture is directly associated with profitable businesses. This loss of culture is normally of great concern for those moving to work-at-home format.
Lack of Employee to Employee Relationships
Working from home also robs employees of building deeper connections. Communicating by just email and phone calls places a significant restriction on the depth of the relationships that can be achieved. This is an issue for three reasons:
- The daily interaction of coworkers creates an expectation-setting.
- Exposure to other workers allows newer employees to understand the standards for both performance and communication.
- Creates a greater feeling of workplace satisfaction.
Feelings of Isolation
Whilst it appears that working from home allows you to skip the traffic and get an extra hour of sleep, it is important to understand the significance of these tasks. Commuting is a time where our brains switch off, creating a significant signal to us that we can relax. This process is known as transitioning and allows us to effectively recognize when we must be in the work mindset and when we are able to switch off at the end of the day. The importance of this should not be underestimated, it is a pivotal part of a healthy well-balanced life style. Additionally, the feelings of isolation can be detrimental to the mental health of employees and hence their productivity. Humans are by nature, social creatures. Without a feeling of connection, we are robbed of a basic human need.
Loss of Accountability
When people don't know their teams and don't make connections with them it is far easier for them to become disconnected from their accountability. It is also far harder to manage people who are working from home. This results in a further reduction in productivity.
Conclusion
Being social creatures, we need social interactions. These social interactions help to form a sense of community, foster accountability, and improve productivity. Whilst working at home does have its benefits, it is not a sustainable solution to the traditional offices. An alternative to both traditional offices and home offices is a combination of both. Becoming a flexible member of a flex space may just be the perfect solution allowing for balance and retaining the benefits of both options.
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