5 min read
Many employees are currently doing their jobs from home: the alarm clock rings later, lunch does not come from the canteen kitchen and childcare is sorted too. The advantages of working from home are tempting. On the other hand, there are clear disadvantages, including for your career. With cautious hope that the pandemic will soon be over, the fundamental questions about the pros and cons of working from home are now back in focus. Here is an overview once again.
The main advantages of working from home
Advantage #1: Time
The main argument for working from home is certainly the general saving of time. Before the pandemic, every second commuter needed between 30 and 60 minutes to get to work each day. (The nerves that a packed underground train, an unexpected traffic jam or the endless search for a parking space cost you are, sadly, hard to quantify.) People working from home can sleep in and calmly enjoy their first cup of coffee before the morning meeting. It makes sense, though, to use the extra time consciously. Instead of scrolling through social media in bed after waking up, it is worth going for a jog in the park or walking to the bakery, making up for the lack of exercise.
Advantage #2: Productivity
Speaking of more time: do you remember the chatty colleague who always stopped at your desk on the way to the coffee kitchen to give you a lengthy account of her weekend escapades? Or the new team member who always wanted to check one more time, even over trifles? Of course, socialising at work is part of the job. It is even essential for a pleasant atmosphere and trust within the team. Short interruptions, however, often pull you out of your workflow or do not allow the phases of concentration in which pending matters could be dealt with efficiently. And so, towards the end of the day in the office, things that still need to be done before the end of work often pile up. The idea that long office days equal diligence and efficiency, while working from home equals slacking, early finishes and unproductivity, turns out to be a myth. Contrary to the fears of many employers, productivity at one in five companies increased over the last two years with the introduction of working from home.
Advantage #3: Flexibility
Who does not know the annoying note in the letterbox announcing a visit from the heating meter reader, scheduled for, say, Tuesday between 9:30 and 14:00? Or the parcel with the coffee bean delivery that you cannot wait a day longer for, because the sorry remainder in your grinder promises to yield just one, at most two, vital cups of coffee the next morning. The flexibility we have become so used to over the last two years of pandemic-related working from home is, for many, impossible to do without now. This is especially true for the really important appointments and obligations that crash into the working day, such as a visit to the fully booked specialist, or your daughter's school play, the preparation for which has kept the rest of the family on their toes for weeks. 70% of all German employees demand to be able to keep this flexibility in future under statutory rules on working from home.
Advantage #4: Work-life balance
It is simply nicer to sit at the sunny window seat of the co-working café than in the dreary open-plan office, and the coffee tastes better too. Lunch with a partner who is also working from home adds an hour of togetherness every day. And the cat finally gets its regular strokes and, above all, its regular meals. Working from home makes it possible to reconcile employees' individual wishes and obligations better with their working day. The keyword: work-life balance. Of course, it also presupposes that there is enough peace and space at home for concentrated work. After all, if the pandemic-related obligation to work from home and the closure of schools and nurseries have taught us anything, it is that living on top of each other can have a negative effect on domestic harmony and productivity.
Now for the disadvantages of working from home in brief:
Disadvantage #1: Communication
No more chance meetings at the coffee machine, quick catch-ups with colleagues are held over long email threads rather than across the desk, and the often underestimated office grapevine disappears too. Less communication means not only fewer distractions but also a harder flow of information. Above all, though, the lack of contact with colleagues carries the risk of isolation, which in turn, it is a vicious circle, can have a negative effect on productivity. Experts therefore advise limiting working from home to two to three days a week.
Disadvantage #2: Visibility
When the favourite colleague who pulls you along is missing, when working on your own means you can barely see the results of your work because you lose sight of the big picture, and when it seems increasingly unimportant when something gets done, motivation fades. Constant visibility to bosses and colleagues can be tiring, but it can also be motivating. Not to be underestimated either: a lack of visibility can mean that colleagues who work from home are often overlooked for pay rises and promotions.
Disadvantage #3: Distractions
The screaming child, ringing parcel couriers, the untidy kitchen and the depths of the World Wide Web: there are distractions aplenty at the home desk. Clear rules and self-discipline are indispensable, otherwise productivity quickly suffers. That means setting times and sticking to them, putting acquaintances off every now and then, and making it clear to the neighbour that you are happy to accept a parcel now and then, but do not want to replace the parcel lockers.
Disadvantage #4: Blurring of work and private life
Stumbling from bed straight to the desk, work equipment always within reach, quickly checking emails again during the adverts at the TV evening. Anyone who works from home finds it hard to set clear boundaries with others and, above all, with themselves. Work and private life increasingly flow into each other. Home workers above all need fixed working hours and separate work areas.
