The up to date surveys shows that productivity has increased significantly in the weeks since offices were closed due to lockdown and everyone was working from home. This is since the way each employee has judged whether he has fulfilled his obligations has changed.
More specifically, these surveys showed that when an employee works in his office, all his time is attributed to the business. However, this does not mean that this time is productive, nor is it easy to determine the total employment time.
By Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
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On the other hand, when the employee works from home, he gives his time only when he produces work. This is quantified by the fact that the employee at the end of the day, will judge himself from the work produced and not from the total employment time as done at work by the office.
The Causes of Increased Productivity from Work at Home
There are other reasons why working from home can be more productive. More specifically:
1. The employee has more time and energy available overall, as there is no inconvenience of moving from home to the office and vice versa. This improves his work performance and family life, as he is close to his family all day.
2. Teleworking, computers, teleconferencing from home allow for seamless and fast-paced collaboration over long distances, as digital documents and data processing are much easier than printing. This finding shows that productivity is increasing.
3. The employee can work without having to follow a specific dress code in the office, which can bind him psychologically and physically.
4. Teleconferencing is proving to have a better dialogue flow and less gap than traditional meetings and meetings with third parties and partners.
5. The digital tools provided can provide amazingly effective employer supervision over the employer’s previous traditional physical supervision of the employee.
Whatever the type of computer work, it is recorded immediately and evaluated just as effectively. Of course, not all jobs have the same degree of employer control and evaluation, respectively, due to the nature of the job.
The benefits of working in the office
1. Many employees prefer to go and work in the office rather than stay at home. The reasons are varied as they may live in a small house, there may be noise in the house either because of children or an exuberant spouse’s behavior but also because they want to live a distinct life between work and personal life.
2. Office work enables employees to acquire coherence and homogeneous corporate culture. This corporate culture requires a long-term physical presence in the office.
3. Office work allows new partners to be trained.
4. The office is a social meeting place, as 8 hours a day is dedicated to sleeping at home while 10-12
hours are the presence of the employee in the office. Many people in the office make important personal acquaintances, make friends, and get to know their spouses and partners.
The future of work from home
Last month, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facebook announced that the company will permanently adopt the employment status from home and within five to ten years from today, half of the company’s staff will be working from home.
The CEO of Twitter announced that the company’s employees will have the opportunity to choose to work from home forever.
These decisions are because working from home gives businesses the opportunity to reduce their operating costs (building-office rents, labor costs and other related expenses).
Surely, today’s open-minded employer to increase the productivity of his business should further explore the possibilities of technology and listen carefully to what his employees want. Perhaps the choice and combination of both options should be available at the same time. Work from home and work in the office.
