Increasing risk of spreading COVID-19 epidemic made many companies shut down itself or change the style of work of their employees. Many people were sent home to work remotely as a part of the telecommuting. In Poland it is known as “Home Office”. What is that? Is that a perfect style of work for everyone?
People who work from home do their duties completely remotely. They work using work laptops, sometimes with special access to company’s network. Communication takes place using e-mails, phone calls or special apps for communication. Nowadays, when whole companies are made to work from home, even larger meetings with 20+ participants are carried out using Skype, Microsoft Teams or Zoom. At first glance, we can see only cons of this solution. Every employee can save time used to travel to and from work. Also, it is easier to deal with an unexpected problem, because it is easier to ask an employee to log in for a few moments regardless of the time of day. But it’s not as perfect as it seems to be.
First of all, when you work in an office you have all your colleagues nearby. There is no problem to ask for something or to talk about something. You can also immediately show something on your screen and solve problems together. When you chat using special apps or emails these things last much longer so it’s much harder to be as efficient as in an office. Another problem is that working remotely is something you have to learn to do. If you didn’t work like that before, you quickly realize that in your house there are many distractors. That’s why many people advice to avoid working in the same room where you sleep. The best option is to have a special room for working, but naturally sometimes it’s impossible. Last but not least, it’s much harder to participate in online meetings compared to face-to-face ones. Sometimes your Internet connection is poor and then you can understand every second-third word which makes it possible that you miss something important. Often, it’s also hard to participate actively, because when many people speak at the same time, it is impossible to understand anything. All voices mix so the whole conversation becomes incomprehensible.
To sum up, remote work is a perfect solution to do your duties when you can’t commute. During the epidemic many companies realized that remote work is a must for the proper operation of the company. But when everything comes back to normal I don’t think that people will prefer to work at home, because it has some flaws which make normal work harder.
- Do you work remotely? What do you think about it?
- Do you prefer remote or stationary work?
- Do you think that remote work will be the main style of work in the future?
Because I’m a software developer, in my job the remote work is common. Nowadays my whole company is working remote but before this weird situation, I used to work remotely on Fridays. I like it because I don’t waste my time on commuting, I don’t have to dress up, make hairs etc. The other thing that I like in this style of job is that I can focus more on what I’m doing because no one is disturbing, no one is laughing and telling jokes. Of course I like good atmosphere in job but sometimes I like to work in piece and I can do it on Fridays. I think that the scenario I like the most is to work less than half a week remotely and the rest stationary. I think that remote work will be more common but I don’t see it as ‘main’ style of work in future.
ReplyDeleteMe and all my household members (4 adults in total) work remotely. On the one hand, a lot of time is saved on commuting, you can eat tastier and healthier meals. On the other hand, when there is a problem with the Internet, you can't work at all and there are communication problems, especially during onboarding.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to remote work, there are pros and cons. For now, due to the fact that remote work is safer, I try not to think about it in such categories. As I think about the future - remote work - yes, but once in a while. I need to interact with people, change the environment and challenges related to it.
It seems to me that work from the office will not be crowded out. Instant messaging and video calling will not deny contact with the other human being, whom we simply need as social beings.
Do you work remotely? What do you think about it?
ReplyDeleteSince the Covid situation happened I'm working fully remotely, but even before pandemic I was working 2-3 days a week from home so I used to it. I think it depends on task and seniority as well as personal preferences. The more I'm independent at work the more I like working from home but at the other hand contact "in person" with co-workers are also necessary so I won't mind to go back to normal and visit office twice a week.
Do you prefer remote or stationary work?
I used to prefer to work stationary but since my current job I developed ability to keep focus while working from home. It gives me more freedom and save me some time while I don't have to drive/bike anywhere but at the other hand I need to spend more time on workout because sitting in front of computer for the whole day and then switching desk for couch is an easy way to 3-digit-weight-club.
Do you think that remote work will be the main style of work in the future?
I don't think that it would be a main style but at least I hope that some places that's never offered working from home will now change their politic and will allow their employees for small changes. I think it's also important from company point of view to ensure necessary training for those who needs improvement of their working culture.
Do you work remotely? What do you think about it?
ReplyDeleteI've been working remotely since the beginning of March. For me 'home office' is my favourite way of working and it's nothing new. I worked at least few days a month from home before this 'situation' with COVID-19.
Do you prefer remote or stationary work?
As I said earlier, I prefer remote work to stationary work. The biggest advantage of working from home to me is an opportunity to save a lot of time, because I don't waste it in traffic. I think that my efficency is higher too. Additional asset is that I'm in constant touch with my workmates - we do not have any problem with communiation even we talk more than in office ;)
Do you think that remote work will be the main style of work in the future?
Nowadays, even before pandemic, a lot of corporations encourage their workers to work from home. I think that remote work will gain popularity in Poland and I hope that belief of 'remote working is not workig' will disappear. But we need to understand that a lot of jobs can't be remote - for example shops in malls, restaurants, etc.
I heve worked remotley before pandemia - once at week minimum. And it's really nice, that my corporation is so flexible in that case. I really enjoy working from home, I have mor time for me and I'm more productive. I can't say I prefer office or home office, cause both of this works have advantages and disadvantages. Don't you think? I really appreciate spending time with coworkers and in my office.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that in near future we will work 90% remotley, so get used to it, if you're not ;)
I have been working remotely for a year and at the moment I cannot imagine a different lifestyle. Of course, I meet with clients to discuss projects, but these are sporadic situations and depend on whether the client has such a need. I think that remote work has a lot of advantages. I think that we are at a time in history when remote work systems will be of great importance and will develop.
ReplyDeleteLike Justyna, I hope that the conviction of employers that "remote work reduces productivity" will change. I read about research carried out in several European companies where employers gave employees the opportunity to work remotely and their productivity increased significantly. In addition, they had more time for private life and health care.
From my experience I can agree that you must learn how to work from home. There are many distractions and after such a long period it's sometimes hard to find motivation to be productive and work with the same pace as in the office. The environment has impact on my performance and it can be either good or bad. At first, I was very happy and productive, it's nice to change some factors, I appreciated I could work from bed or balcony. But then I started to miss office atmosphere, thought exchange with colleagues and this division between work and leisure. Now I'm somewhere between work and leisure all the time. Maybe if remote work was an option not an obligation connected with other restriction , it would be more sustainable but who knows... I don't have any strong opinion on the efficiency and benefits of permanent home office, but I believe it could be a future way of work.
ReplyDelete1.When it comes to my job, I do not work remotely at all. Funny thing is that my actual job can be easily done remotely, but my boss has mixed feelings about home office. Taking ongoing world situation into consideration it would be a wise move to send people home to do their duties. Moreover, all of my responsibilities can be easily done via PC and phone.
ReplyDelete2.I have never worked remotely so I cannot tell either I like it or not.
3.Thinking about the future, number of people working remotely will increase, but will it be main working style? Time will tell.
I know that some bosses has some negative feelings about home working. Do you think that there is any solution to convince your boss to change his/her mind?
DeleteDue to the announcement of the epidemic status in Poland, my company also adopted a remote work model. At first, it may seem very comfortable, but unfortunately, it is not without flaws. Above all, it is much more difficult to separate work from private life, especially if you use the same computer for both. For this reason, I think having a business computer is a must-have. I prefer stationary work because when working from home I lack interpersonal contacts. It's hard to say what the work of the future will look like. At the moment, the trend is that more and more things go online. However, it is difficult to completely replace contact with a real person.
ReplyDeleteSo, your problem with seperating work from private life means that you work too much or feel distracted all the time?
DeleteI've started to work remotely few weeks before whole pandemic started in Poland. By default I'm working remotely only one or two days a week and got used to it. Since I've started new project I'm working with developers from NY and Mediolan so when I was in office I've already felt like working remotely because I was the only one in Polish office on this project, so moving to working from home only changed my desk and helped me avoiding traffic in the morning what is pretty satysfying.
ReplyDeleteRegarding choice - remote or office, it's hard to decide. I think it depends on project and people involved in it. Sometimes it's much easier to just sit at home and write code from your bed but sometimes you feel like you need to get more engaged in project, have some internal discussions, draw some diagrams and it cannot be done while working from home in most cases.
I don't really think that in future we will switch to fully remote work. Of course it's possible that a lot of companies may move employees to work remotely. There are a lot of pros of this solution - less office space for rent for sure, but it's harder to monitor employees which is necessary in some jobs. Not every job is possible to be done at home despite fact it's done only on computer.
You are right, for example, in my work, despite the work on site, I had many meetings online, so working from home did not change much. On the other hand, it is difficult to replace some features of office work.
DeleteYes, I am. From the beginning remote work was very difficult for me. Nowadays I have to learn spend time on my own. In the current situation, I prefer to work remotely. Now I can give you few solution to work better at home.
ReplyDeleteSince I started wear like I would actually go to work - I work more productively. My time spent at work has become much more beneficial. When I finish work I change into casual clothes and go for a very, very long walk and to the grocery store, (of course, wearing mask and gloves - so required these days). If I have awful day at work, I take one longer break, which helps me return into good mood at work later. Oh .. Future it's very hard to say so but I'm pretty well prepared :)
In my job we don't have any formal dress-code, so I can say my clothes are similar to office ones . I also try to go running as often as I can after work to change my position from sitting after many hours.
DeleteI have never have experience with remote working before quarantine, but I really enjoy the whole process of working from home. First of all, now I don't spend time for get to office, I just need to wake up and go to another room 🙂 The same thing is with returning to home after day in office. Before I spend 2 hours for that, so I'm happy that I have more time for relaxing or try something new.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that if you have good time managment skill it's not a problem to manage your time properly and do all thing that you are usually doing in the office or even more.
And now I so used to working in my home that it's hard to imagine to return to the office.
I work in the same room where I sleep so sometimes I am in my pyjamas when I start working so I understand you :) So you don't have a problem that you can talk with co-workers about problems but you must call them all the time?
DeleteI work remotely and I think this is the best that happened. I have more time for everything, because before this all pandemic my way from home to work was 1hour in one way so in total 2h by day lost. I know that most of people have famillies and it's hard to focus on work but we always talk that we don't have a time. Now we have and we should use it. What about future, I think it's depend of coronavirus. If this situation will be all the time, I think home office will be the safest.
ReplyDeleteI understand, because my first job was 1.5 hour away from my home. Do you think that it is possible to reconcile work and the presence of household members?
DeleteTo be honest I didn't have much problem with transition to home work, I save more time, finally I can make myself a proper dinner during a day which is something I really missed about while eating semi-good sandwich from "Mr Sandwich". I also didn't like the area of my workplace and the building itself which were placed in Wierzbno and since I live on Żoliborz, the choice is quite obvious. I can catch a half an hour walk next to groove and go back to work, also my workout routine has become much better. Closed gym has forced me to learing a lot of home workouts which was really good for me. To sum it up, the pandemic situation haven't stroke me as much as it good, I'm happy that I still have job and can make money thanks to internet.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you found a way to be active even when most of your daily routines can be done at home. Don't you miss face-to-face contact with your work colleagues?
DeleteYes, for the past 2 months I have been working remotely. At first, it was hard to get used to it, but later my company allowed me to take some of my equipment home (for example a second monitor) and I really appreciate it now. On the one hand, when working remotely you don’t waste your time commuting and you can work in more comfortable clothes. On the other hand, video-calls will never replace face-to-face meetings when discussing some specific problems. Personally, I feel much less efficient working from home, because there are many more things that can distract me. Also every day I or someone from my team have a problem with an Internet connection, equipment, or software.
ReplyDeleteI prefer stationary work but I think that optimally I would like to work 2 days a week remotely.
In my opinion, remote work will strongly rise in popularity in the coming years, but I don’t think it will ever fully replace stationary workstyle
Yes, second monitor is a must-have when you work from home :)
DeleteWhat mainly distracts you while you work?
As a graphic designer it is very familiar for me to work remotely since there is no need to sit in the office to do projects I can do everywhere actually. I think it is a good option but not always. For me it became boring and I started not paying attention to work which i was doing since there was a lot of distractions in my home. After a while it also started to be really boring, going into the office is also a kind of a social life, so when you live alone it might be hard to sit 8 hours and not to see and talk to anyone.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to say if in the future it would be the main style of work since there still a lot of companies who won't allow people to work from home. Considering that this virus that we have right now pressured a very big amount of companies to work remotely and they see that it is working sometimes even more efficient than stationery work it might happen.
Yes, at the beginningof the epidemic I was working remotely, but now I went back to the office. I think it will be of the few positive results of the current crisis, we will notice a development in the field of remote work solutions, many companies will get accustomed and convinced about way of working. I don’t think it will replace
ReplyDeletestationery work, but rather in the future we will be observing a combination of both. We cannot deny the advantages of remote work, it eco-friendly people save time not having to commute between home and work, as well as companies save resources not having to facilite office space. However face to face contact with other people is valuable. A Skype meeting cannot replace real contact.
I am a software developer so I'm familiar with remote work. Now according to covid I'm working remotely too. I think it's best solution for companies nowadays. I can do my job every moment I want but sometimes it's spreading time to much. When I am at work I am more focused because I have to do what I have to and then go back home. Maybe there's no distractors like in home and this is it.
ReplyDeleteFifty-fifty cause work at company is necessary very often according to need to be in direct touch with participants of a team. A lot of companies will use remote more than earlier because pandemic covid-19 made the companies primed for this situation. In the future it should be possible to use remote work simpler and more often.
At the moment, I'm working completely remotely and this isn't the first time I've had a home office. As for me, working remotely is pleasant, because I have no children, I am alone in the apartment and have total silence, that’s why I can be more efficient.
ReplyDeleteI definitely prefer to work remotely, because I don't spend a lot of time to get to my work and in the meantime I can also develop my interests by reading interesting articles.
It seems, that remote working will never replace stationary work, because not all processes can be done at home, some office professions need to be in the office. I think most people can work remotely as well and such big office buildings are not needed for companies to generate huge cost.