By Mohit Tater, Founder & CEO – BlackBook Investments

Did you ever imagine that your couch will be your office chair, the only way you will commute is within the boundary of your home? And your kitchen will serve you snacks throughout the day? It couldn’t get any better than this. It was a perk for people working from home before. But these days, this dream of ours has become a new reality for each of us, and we need to get adjusted to living with the novel virus.

The jobs which allow you to work from home are here to stay; companies are looking ahead at the possibilities of a hybrid workforce beyond the pandemic. But this might prove a new, highly complicated challenge for many companies to manage their workforce. The question every company is facing these days is not how to manage a remote workforce but rather manage a remote hybrid workforce.

Working from home and if this is good or bad has become a hot topic, and there have been many studies that are well underway. It has been estimated that by 2025, 70% of the workforce will be working from home for a minimum of five days per month. While 2020 saw the change of remote workforce, this is just the beginning as we will see this trend continuing in 2021 as well.

Table of Contents

• Remote Working Requires Less Office Space
• Remote Working Should Ensure More Employee Engagement
• Pros and Cons of Working from Home
• Tips for Working from Home
• Conclusion

Remote Working Requires Less Office Space

It has been predicted that working in large office spaces will be a thing of the past. The companies will be completely remote, and they will no longer form headquarters as quite a few organizations have decided to reduce their office space for a hybrid team. Some companies have concluded to forgo office entirely as they plan to cut down on cost.

We have seen many companies taking this course of direction before the outbreak; many companies want to try a hand in having a mix of remote and on-site working experience, giving rise to the hybrid model. So there might be specific days where there are in-person meetings and other collaborations, while the other days are administered for remote working.

Remote Working Should Ensure More Employee Engagement

A positive outlook and healthy relationships have always opened doors for advancements. The main disadvantage of remote working is that it has become more difficult to showcase professional achievements. In the coming years, employees need to put in an extra effort into solidifying their virtual engagement to have better success at networking, and obtain new opportunities.

In a remote setting, it becomes harder for employees to communicate with their higher-ups and for their employers to identify the cause of the problems. Employees can start by actively participating in virtual events set up by the management, being active during online meetings, and standing as leaders while working from home.

Pros and Cons of Working from Home

While we have discussed a couple of things when it comes to working from home, let us now read the pros and cons of remote working.

Pros:

• You can be more productive: so long as you are not trying to catch up on the latest episodes of your favorite tv show, you can get more work done. For one thing, you don’t have to spend time commuting between work and home.
• Stress-free: it has been found that working remotely allows you to work for an addition of 3 hours, totally free of stress.
• You are your boss: it is more than getting work done in your pajamas. You become genuinely independent and attain a level of self-motivation, focus, concentration, and self-discipline, which are the critical components for your success.

Cons:

Mohit Tater

• You may not have access to technologically advanced platforms: for most, cloud technology has made it completely easy for employees. But due to security reasons, employees might be given limited access to these databases.
• Slacking: some of your co-workers might accuse you of slacking when you can’t get to a meeting immediately. You might not have as much leeway as you did previously in the office. So the only way to get around this is to over-communicate your achievements to your peers, especially when working remotely.
• There are times when you feel out of the loop: you may not realize this until you are there. The casual discussions which you have with your colleagues, a sudden brainstorming session over lunch are a few of the things which cannot be done when you work from home.
• Forgetting to clock out: while some people believe working from home makes you work less, there are a few diligent employees whose days and nights blend into one another. The lines between work life and personal life begin to blur.

Tips for Working from Home

Here are some of the tips which you can apply when you are working remotely.

• Build a permanent workspace.
• Get comfortable office furniture.
• Set your total number of work hours.
• Try to discover your high productivity time period.
• Keep track of your to-do list every morning.
• Try sticking to one project management app, rather than having a bunch of them open on your desktop.
• Don’t work in your pajamas.
• Set a morning routine.
• Exercise and stretch daily.
• Eat healthy meals and snacks.
• Take short breaks.
• Refrain from using social media.
• Try to step outside more regularly.
• Check-in with your co-workers frequently.
• Connect with your team off work.
• Try to avoid your family, friends, and pets during work as much as you can.
• Don’t work in your living room.
• At the end of the day, shut down your work laptop and your office door and enjoy other routines and activities outside of work.

Conclusion

No matter how big or small, every change will need some time to get accustomed to – the new normality of the situation.

When you enter into the work from home situation, know beforehand, you need to put in the extra effort than you did before, but at the same time, you can enjoy some of the benefits which come along with remote working.

Companies may reserve the in-person meeting for a brainstorming session, ensuring team-building exercise, and introduction of new projects, while the remote days can be used for working individually. The companies may reorganize and redesign their offices by getting rid of cubicles and creating more collaborative meeting spaces for the employees.