The pandemic has forced a lot of employers to change the way their company operates so that their employees can work safely from home.
An article in thehomeofficelife.com states that those working exclusively from home rose “from 5.7% of workers in January/February 2020 to 43.1% in April 2020.” Then going on to explain that 50 of the biggest employers in the Uk have “no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future.”
The staff members of Whitten & Co have been working from home for the last 8 months to maintain a Covid safe working environment, but like many others, working from home has cause a love-hate relationship with the working week.
“I love the freedom that working from gives! However I find myself getting easily distracted and allow myself to be lazy.” Explains Chloe, Whitten & Co’s social media and website administrator.
“I love working somewhere so comfortable but life distracts me; it’s either the washing or TV or postman. My housemate also works from home so when we’re both at home we can often find ourselves distracting one another.”
With that said, how many home-workers are in the same position? Whitten & Co set out to find out if working from home was genuinely affective for the industries currently relying on it. We asked a focus group if they found working from home improved their productivity and a massive 72% said no, with 78% of the group going on to say they believe working from home can encourage laziness.
Estate agent Josh thinks that splitting his time between home and the office is the most effective work strategy for him.
“If I worked from home the whole time I wouldn’t get a whole lot done, I think it depends on the line of work. I personally feel like I do more at work because that’s the only thing I have to focus on, it’s harder to get distracted at work.” Josh told us.
“Having said that, I do prefer working from home, it’s certainly less hectic!”
Perhaps one of the only positives the pandemic has brought to the working work is the freedom and opportunity marginalised employees now have. Disabled and housebound people have now been given the same access to work tools as their fellow able bodied colleagues, perhaps meaning that working from home could be the way forward for many companies. 83% of the focus group agreed that working from home will be the way forward for many office based jobs.
Hannah, who works in project management and consultancy, has said that working from home has provided her with a lifeline as she has had to travel much less than normal.
“Working from home has meant I am more rested due to less early mornings and time spent travelling and bettering my work-life balance.”
Yet for some lines of work, working from home can be trickier than others. Teaching being the first line of work that springs to mind. Teacher of 18 years, Deborah, believes that working from home should be the last resort for her line of work.
“I really hate working from home. it’s too isolating; I don’t have enough structure, I need structure. It’s not good for your mental health if you’re home all day, every day.”
Deborah who has explained that keeping the attention of 30 students via Microsoft Teams has been incredibly challenging when compared with face to face learning.
“If you’re working from home intermittently that is fine, but if you’re being made to work from home it’s just not something we [teachers] can do long-term.”
The opinions gathered in this research provide some great arguments for and against working from home. It is difficult to form a definitive answer to the question “does working from home improve productivity?” without seeing the long term effects on the country’s different job sectors. Yet, whether you love it or hate it, it’s fair to say that working from home has made the job market more inclusive for disabled members of the community that could not enter the work place.
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