COVID-19 – though it made us all worried and upset, lost our loved ones from our lives, it has awakened most of us and brought us all one step closer to our family. We understood that being with our family together gives us immense strength to go through such a dangerous phase.
Though the initial months with restrictions was a tough pill to swallow, it was necessary to curb the virus from spreading at a larger scale. People were affected on all accounts, health-wise, financially and even mentally. People were not able to go to work, not paid for a certain period. Out of which only the software industry was able to run its machine without going to a standstill because of the flexibility it had.
Kudos to the employees as well, who connected from their homes, kept working to meet the accepted deadlines. But working from home for a prolonged period has its pros and cons.
Let us see the bright side first
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More Time Saved!!!
Working from home has become a blessing in disguise for people working in metropolitan cities.
Travelling to the office was a major concern for many professionals as most of the firms were located in the outskirts of the cities and a lot of time was spent on travel. The traffic was reduced to a great extent and of course, it did help in conserving the fuel reserves for future generations.
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Flexible Work Time
The cliché of office timings were broken with the usage of the Work From Home process.
Employees have the flexibility of logging in late or early so that they plan their errands or needs accordingly. This helped in improving the quality of time with our families like having lunch together, bringing us closer to our loved ones.
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More Productivity
Of course, many companies have accepted that the productivity of their employees have drastically increased by working from home as there are no many distractions/other activities where the productivity might go down. Employees seem to be more focussed and driven working from home than seen at the office.
There are many more positives to working from home but just like any other process there are some serious cons that need to be looked into such as,
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Extended Working hours!!
Working from home, as easy it might sound is a very addicting process.
Most employees tend to work extended hours to complete their deliverables thinking that they are just one step away. This might be harmful to their health.
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Network Issues may ruin your day!!
Technology as attractive it may appear has its limitations. There is always a chance for issues in the network and result in affecting the productivity of the employee.
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More Meeting Time
Working from different locations, isolated physically but connected over network results in investing more time in scheduling a meeting and connecting with the team members. In the usual scenario, it would have been a simple pat on the back and discussion for 5 mins while working in an office but when working from home leads to more meeting appointments for discussions and clarifications.
Just like a coin, it has both sides, every aspect of life has positive and negative. Working from home can be a wonderful aspect of operation if we can tweak ourselves and our working routine.
Some key points that every one of us needs to look out for are,
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Plan your working hours
Even though you work from home, fix a timeframe as your working hours that would fit your team’s need as well as the one that is comfortable to yourself.
split your day with multiple short breaks to stretch a little bit, or attend meetings while walking on the terrace thereby participating in physical activity.
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Prepare a TODO list at the end of your day
Spend the last 15 mins at the end of your day to prepare a list of tasks that you need to work on the next day. It gives more clarity and focuses when starting work the next day.
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Do Not Push your timing all the time
Never extend your work hours unless and until it is necessary in cases like production issues or meeting the deadlines. To adhere to this, each one of us needs to plan our tasks, having in mind the amount of time we are asked to invest. Overpromising and working to meet unrealistic deadlines are not the right way to move forward.
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Give yourself a break
Take a walk inside/ outside the building, or take your pet for a walk, a 10 mins dance would refresh your mind, sing with Karaoke, 2 mins of meditation, etc.
