When working from home does not work

The concept of working from home initially began in the late eighties which continues till date, although scattered and very specific. The first to kickoff working from home was IBM that too with just 5 employees. It was termed as telecommuting then. Between the year 1980 and 1985, nearly 2000 IBMers were working remotely, rather say, working at home.  And by 2009, 40% of IBMers worldwide were working remotely.

The ideation was to ease the logjam at the office initially. IBM saw an increase in productivity. The company eventually realised it could save a lot of money by selling office buildings. IBM sold out over 50 million square feet of office space and gained nearly $2 billion. Work from home concept was successful, but none of the employees ever thought they would be recalled to work in actual, physical offices.

Relax. We aren't going to bore you with the IBM story. Based on IBM's example, in this article, we are going to talk about how work-from-home usually doesn't deliver the desired results.

Commoners view work from home as part-time employment which can include anything from data entry to online form filling or it has been glamorized as a solution to employment problems or childcare problems.

With the advent of technology at work space, numerous graphic artists, bloggers, software designers, web developers, people employed in sales & marketing, and many other professionals have chosen to work from home instead of occupying an office. While this mostly applies to freelancers, very few organisations in India have offered the option to work from home.  

Do you think people working from home complete their tasks on time? If you say, the chances are 50:50, you are fairly correct. 50% will be able to, but the other 50% cannot. Here's why working from home does not work for them.

• Lack of space: No matter how professionally done, a home office always lacks the space as opposed to a traditional office. Shortage of space hinders the quality of work and consumes more time.
• Overheads: Working from home is assumed to save money, but in reality, the cost of managing a home office is higher. Overheads include furniture & fixtures, electricity, internet, telephone, etc.
• Lack of focus: Working from home has more cons compared to the pros. Focusing on work gets affected due to noisy surroundings in and around the home. Family and personal time rob focus and affect completing the assignments.
• Independence: Not having a boss or manager around is wonderful, but self-discipline is way more difficult. Poor time management disturbs the workflow which increases the time of assignments.
• No socializing: Working from home takes away all the opportunities of socializing. No colleagues to speak to or discuss project work makes life lonely and depressing.
• Limitations: Working from home imposes limitations on sleep or rest time, pursuing a passion, etc. A home office is always on. The absence of proper sleep or rejuvenation activities affects work.

Apart from the above factors, there can be other elements which influence work from home notion. It feels successful initially but as the workload increases, it gets tough to manage; however, freelancers or employees working from home should think about shifting from the home office to a coworking space or shared office.

Wondering what a coworking space or shared office is? To know more, call us on 22-4050 9200 or 022-4077 9100.