According to Stanford, the concept of remote working increases employees’ productivity by 13%. Whereas Steelcase’s reports suggest, the Covid-19 fallout has resulted in a 41% decrease in productivity of employees who aren’t working from the office.
So far, contradictory, isn’t it?
Let’s start all over again!
Despite uncertainty about Covid-19’s third wave, employers are paying close attention to employees’ working patterns, which is putting them in a bind. Some employers, like India’s biggest private recruiter TCS, are planning to bring their workforce back to the offices by the end of 2021. Whereas, firms like Dropbox, will let their employees work from home permanently. Lack of unanimity among decisions and changing circumstances is still fuelling the debate of Work from home vs Work from office!
WORK FROM HOME – “The new office”
Due to the pandemic, working remotely came as the only solution for the service sector. For the past one and half years, the majority of employees have been working from home. Some are consistent with this method because of their company’s guidelines, while some chose the model for their personal preference.
When it comes to convenience and easement, The prime reason for certain employees preferring to work from home is the comfort they get into when they settle in a familiar setup. Employees here have the advantage of structuring their work routine by themselves, which includes accomplishing their personal commitments as well. Working remotely is highly flexible as employees do not have to work by rigid office timings. As a result, they feel more at ease. Moreover, they feel relaxed as they are no longer micromanaged by their superiors.
Come to talk about expenses, how many credit card swipes or how much money do employees spend on unnecessary munching at the canteen, vehicle maintenance, and formal attire when they travel to work? Work from home gives the flexibility to save costs as they are at their homes, working, without incurring any extra expenses. There are examples where an employee moved to a new region because the job required them to. Having the ability to work remotely saved them considerable amounts in rental fees and commute costs.
Having family centered working wasn’t an option earlier, due to the long hours and professional commitments of employees during a 9-to-5 job, which made it difficult to spend time with families. Work from home is an easier situation for employees as they can be around their families and be present with them during necessities. There are several cases where absenteeism has decreased because employees are at their homes 24×7 and, as a result, the practice of taking leave due to personal obligations has declined.
Speaking of employee retention rate these days, we all have come across people who tend to leave their job for family reasons and commitments. Employees found it difficult to keep up with a job because of its hectic schedule and long working hours, which made their personal life unmanageable. Working from home is a boon to those employees, especially women, as the arrangement allows them to easily manage household chores and meet their childcare needs. This allows employees to stay with that particular organization for longer.
WORK FROM OFFICE – “Need of the hour”
Those are my thoughts regarding the benefits of the ‘new normal.’ However, I feel that working from the office is the ‘need of the hour?’ Take a read of my opinions to understand why I am in favor of working from an office.
No commute, no monitoring, flexibility, and at ease all day! That’s what remote working has come down to at present.
While looking at work quality and distractions, work from home is a comfort for every employee, but comfort rarely contributes to productivity. Working remotely invites distractions, which could be family, friends, or even your favorite show, resulting in creating a poor working environment all around. Besides, employees feel allowed to get distracted as there is an absence of physical monitoring, which leads to the southbound movement of the performance. An employee, specifically the newbies, need to realize that if they wish to grow in their career, they need to be managed, and that too physically.
With a focus on communication levels and burnouts , remote working leads to uneven performance, among other factors, one is “burnout.” Working remotely has not only isolated people but also made them feel emotionally exhausted. In a remote setup, there is no face-to-face communication and no brainstorming sessions. Eventually, it leads to a decline in the communication flow. Adding to it, not being able to express emotions to peers and missing targets due to lack of communication, results in burnouts where they reach their emotional or physical capacity. This directly translates into poor productivity and lower outputs. Interestingly, from a manager to an individual contributor, irrespective of roles and designations, all have become victims of “burnouts” over the last one and half years.
While understanding that ‘Workplace matters’, the issues we touched on previously are not docile but are surely manageable when tackled individually. However, as a team, they are untenable. Infrequent online motivational classes, or assurance of being around, or visits to psychologists will not straighten this knot. The transition, being different, will require a composite outlook. As queer as it may sound, if a “new normal” has forced us to take a hard look at our working pattern, then the reverse is the way to go when we are getting back to the normalcy we are familiar with. From an organization’s standpoint, if we have to start thinking about efficiency, productivity, and deliverability, we have to get back to the workplace. On the other hand, from an employee’s standpoint, if we have to start thinking about peer connect, idea bounce, and resolution huddles, getting back to the workplace is again the resolution we have to choose.
Moving forward with work-life balance and career retention, employees feel a sense of relaxation as they were able to manage their personal life while working remotely, but can they manage their professional life with equal deftness? They may spend time with their families but that puts professional commitment at the stake. Currently, companies are focusing more on employees’ mental & physical well-being. With the need to manage personal and office life, companies are also coming up with a ‘hybrid’ working model, which allows employees to work from the office on certain days and from home on the remaining ones. This may initiate a balance and establish a proper working environment.
The Final Cut
Coming across the ways to get back to offices, we are midway in the transition. There will be questions – what’s the right course of action to deal with this scenario, how safe is it to go out, is my workplace following C-19 protocols? Well, considering the increasing pace of vaccine jabs and precautions taken, workplaces are all set to accommodate employees who took their 2nd dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Even though working remotely is still our present, working tirelessly without any productivity isn’t what we want in the bargain!
Hopefully, with precautions and, keeping in mind the ease of employees, work from the office will be a successful model despite the presence of Covid-19. While safe-distancing and masked faces will be prevalent on the production floors, it will at least bring out the isolated souls from the other side of Zoom screens. It will finally restart the productive hustles that are necessary for one’s growth and add up to the growth of an organization.
Cloverbites By Rupesh Sanghavi 
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