Working from Home... Is it Working?
How we're adapting, what we're learning, and how to do it better
“Our bias against working from home has been completely exploded.”
- Dan Spaulding, Zillow’s chief people officer
The Upside ⇡
Working remotely is not only necessary right now; in some cases, it’s working better than before. An Oxford study found that working from home increased productivity by 13%. It also eliminates unnecessary travel time, which reduces carbon emissions, and inane office chit-chat, which is why everyone wears headphones at work now. The sudden push into remote work is also leading companies to experiment with different workday structures, like the 4 day work week, which was shown to increase sales by 40% in a Microsoft trial, and flexible work hours, which allow employees to work at their peak productivity times, be that 10am or 2am. Remote work may be just the ticket for companies to hit their triple bottom line, a prioritization of profit, people and planet, which is considered the trifecta of an optimal work environment.
The Downside ⇣
Sure, you might be able to grind on work tasks a bit better without your boss breathing down your neck. Still, is sitting in your pajamas conducive to creativity and innovation? Perhaps not. Homes, and even public spots like coffee shops (remember those?) are susceptible to spotty wifi, frequent interruptions, and a Pandora’s box of distraction. Zoom meetings can be just as tedious as in-office meetings (queue the new term, “zoom fatigue”), but they’re also left exposed to hackers and porn-armed zoom-bombers. Working parents are struggling to balance managing their child’s education and remaining present at work. Since there’s no separation between work and home life, many workers are finding themselves sucked into 12-15 hour work days in a mad dash to prove they were being productive. Sure, it may be the new frontier, but it’s also chaotic.
The Future ⇢
Working from home is not going away anytime soon. Google and Facebook announced that many of their employees will stay remote until 2021, while Twitter announced its employees can work remotely for good. As companies learn which roles remain unaffected by remote work, they will likely allow their employees to stay remote by choice at least some of the time, reducing costs of having a full staff in the physical office space. Think you can spend the day browsing Reddit instead of working? Think again: employee surveillance will only grow stronger, as companies experiment with tracking their employees computer actions, monitoring their GPS location, and even taking screenshots of their browser activity.
What’s Hot: Virtual gyms, coworking spaces, happy hours and inviting goats to meetings.
What’s Not: Physical offices. On average, companies in New York City spend over $17,000 per employee annually on office space. High prices and fears of high-density disease spreading may drive both employees and companies away from major metropolitan areas.
Optimize it:
To Mute or not to Mute? Check out a quick guide to proper Zoom etiquette
Is your manager ghosting you or just busy? Here’s how to manage remote coworker relationships
Toolbox:
Prevent getting sucked into another Twitter black hole by blocking websites on your computer
Don’t want your coworkers to see your shoebox apartment? Here’s a bank of visually appealing virtual backgrounds
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Nice job, Alyssa! Keep this up.
Love it, great read! I often find myself sucked into a 15 hour work day black hole, I also find my productivity in those hours not so great.