The Advent of “Work From Home” (WFM) Culture: A Discussion

The Advent of the “Work From Home” (WFM) Culture: A Discussion

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a lasting impact on the overall lifestyle of mankind and has enforced certain rules over the entire humanity. These rules seem to be totally unavoidable with no chance of escape. Work from Home may be counted as one of the measures being undertaken by both government and private sector to prevent the spread of this pandemic.

Work from Home (WFH)- Initially these three words sound very interesting. What would be more enchanting for an office goer than this facility where he does not require to go to office on regular basis but can perform his work from the convenience of his home or in fact from anywhere. But all is not so hunky dory regarding this WFM culture. While this certainly has certain advantages over regular office routine, but there are also many disadvantages which disturb an individual’s rather relax life which he usually enjoyed during regular office and on the weekend holidays.

Let us analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the Work From Home (WFH) culture.

ADVANTAGES:-

1. You don’t have to worry about getting up early, take bath, dress up, have breakfast and rush with the public conveyance or your private vehicle to reach office on time.
2. You don’t require taking a prepared food for lunch or relying on the same canteen food which is served in office and makes you fed up with the same taste.
3. You do not require being in your office cabin all the time thinking that all your necessary documents are available there itself. Now e-offices are there to rescue you. All your necessary documents are available at the click of your cursor.
4. You can attend meetings on Video Conference or Teleconference without having to be physically present in the office.
5. You don’t have to worry about facing your boss in person for every small issue where he is stuck up.
6. You do not have to worry about maintaining your freshness and looks throughout the day or during your office hours.
7. You have least disturbance from your co-workers some of whom constantly irritate you with their ways of office working. Your work is more defined, your task is very clear and your output is on record. It’s difficult for anyone to take credit of your hard work as the work/job history is traceable by superior officers to quite a good extent.
8. You don’t have to take time from your boss to meet and discuss on various issues. If you require to do so, you can simply put an e-mail and the boss is now the action owner. He has to revert to you or else cannot blame you for any delays for which he is himself responsible.
9. All work is transparent in e-offices. No one can delay the work submitted by you on time as your senior management is apprised automatically that the work is pending from your boss’s end and you are clear of it.
10. Assessment of work will become easier for higher management because the data for all the work performed by different employees can be compared and the hard worker and sincere guy is highlighted. The appraisals are self explanatory and proofs are available online. It’s difficult for your boss to sideline your work and give value or credit to someone else for your work.

 

DISADVANTAGES:-

1. During WFH, because you don’t have to follow a definite schedule, you tend to become lazy, your lifestyle becomes casual. You tend to work late at night and wake up late in morning. You don’t take breakfast on time. Therefore, you will miss the regular schedule of activities to attend office on time. It goes without saying that remaining in schedule and discipline helps a person lead a healthy life.
2. You may not take proper diet at home since you are not tied to a fixed schedule. Even if you wake up late, you have to complete your online office task on time. As a result, being at home you tend to delay your bathing, breakfast and even don’t take proper breakfast at times thinking that being at home, if you feel hungry, food is accessible anytime. So, this is not the proper lifestyle.
3. Although you avoid being in office cabin or office work place, however you always miss the overall work environment in the office when you have easy access to colleagues, juniors and seniors for any immediate consultation or advice. During WFH, you may try to call a person but availability or access of the person is dependent on various factors life telephone connectivity, net connectivity, the person being busy with someone else etc. So, you have to wait for the said person to be free and it becomes difficult to have call conference & meeting very frequently.
4. When attending a Video Conference during WFH, you have to change your clothes and dress up properly even if sometimes you have not taken bath and are not feeling fresh.
5. Although you avoid face to face interaction with your boss during WFH but physical interaction is more genuine and you are taken at face value. In virtual meetings, any claim from your side is mostly looked in suspicion especially if it is not going as per the though process or will of the manager.
6. When you go to regular office, you are properly dressed up. Proper dress up creates sense of smartness in you and that generates a positive energy but during WFH you often work in your casual wear, night suites etc. as you are not so conscious about your dress up. This may sometime lead to feeling your work as a burden on you and generates lack of interest in work.
7. During WFH, you are all alone while doing your job. Being surrounded by colleagues and co-workers helps to create a good atmosphere as you can get quite good consultation from them. Even difficult task becomes easy & smooth when we work in team and maintain a light atmosphere all around us.
8. When you WFH, you have to be accessible all the time. No excuses of being stuck in a traffic jam can come to your rescue. You have your laptop, palmtop, mobile etc. at access everywhere so you can’t take excuse of it easily. During normal office routine, you confidently take excuse of being with family or friends at off office hours and normally the boss is also hesitant to disturb you. You always have the option of telling that you will complete the assignment the next working day you report to office and have access to documents and team.
9. Once you have submitted your work to your higher management, you cannot make changes after that, whereas during normal office working you always have the flexibility of making revisions in your work and taking some extra time to fix any last minute error you or your team has spotted.
10. When work assessment is available online with artifacts, is easy for higher management to compare your online work output with others. So, all the black sheep have to be very cautious regarding their work which is under direct scrutiny. Now you cannot hide your in-capabilities or your lack of know-how by maintaining good relations with your team mates or your boss. Every piece of work done by you is an evidence of the type of professional you are and hence you have to be very alert as any shortcoming can easily be highlighted as the work done by you is easy accessible and available for reference.

 

Concluding Remarks:

Working in a Physical Office and Working in a Virtual Office/e-office (Work from Home) are two different experiences for the same goal but they can be compared in many ways. It is a matter of adaptability with changing times that actually makes you perform well at both professional and personal front. When circumstances force us, change in many aspects of life is inevitable. But we must try to maintain a balance between physical and mental fitness in all such changes and evolve ourselves according to the demand or situation.

Written By- Sameer