Hi guys,
While I was writing on my Bachelor Paper I
this weekend, I realized how much more productive I am, once I have found the
perfect place to concentrate... a place where I can choose the volume of noise
in the background, the distraction amount as well as the isolation from other
people -- which brings me to the topic of home office working.
Now we all have learned the possible
advantages and disadvantages about working from home. Here some examples:
- Advantages:
- Flexibility about work location can be a motivational Feature
- allows you to recruit top People even if they are across the globe
- allows geographically isolated People to particpate
- reduce Office / Administration / commuting costs
- improve productivity if work in favorite Environment
- Disadvantages:
- Low face-to-face interaction
- Social exclusion risk - mental health suffers
- Email communication not very efficient
- Build up of social capital is lost
Now I want to know from you...do you think
this concept has a chance of success in a world where students are already
trimmed for group working and social competence is a requirement for being
hired? Is this really the future? How could a middle-path solution look like?
To me tele-work or however you want to call it looks always so promising, like a new recipe for the same cake. It often gets represented as something coming fresh from the 21st century to our books and journals. I though still remember my father working from home, or rather than that taking work home.
ReplyDeleteThis is in my opinion the starting point of the discussion, because that we take work home is anyway in many jobs the case - may it be mentally, physically or digitally.
I agree on the idea of working more productive in an environment of choice, but only with the right work respectively job.
Hence: Allows you to recruit top people even if they are across the globe
might be true, but also the best people can be the worst in the wrong job.
For a tele-work job, the job must be tailored and in the end it all comes back to relationship management, which is done best f2f. So regular stays in the office should somehow take place.
I think it depends on what kind of working person you are, because in my case, I can really work more concentrated when I am in the office and not at home. While working at home I think of so many things that come to my mind like I could take a shower, or I have to clean my room, etc. which also could come to my mind while working in an office, but there I really have to focus on my work as I am not able to do something else.
ReplyDeleteFor sure some people would appreciate working at home, as it is even more comfortable and sometimes stressless, but I also think it is good to have the difference Home vs. Work, as you can fully concentrate on your work if you're in the office, but you also have the possibility to relax more and not think again about working issuse when you are at home. I think one should really be able to differentiate between work and freetime and should also have the possibility to fully forget about certain issues at work.
I know that this is not possible every time, and therefore I think a good average should be found, to part-time work from home, but some time also have to be working at the office.
Nevertheless, some jobs require being available for the job 24/7, but also in this case I think everyone should have the possibility to relax and have some free time without thinking of the job.
I agree with Eva, some people are better working in the office and others prefer to work from home. I think especially for people with children or people taking care of some person (elderly or disabled) at home, being able to work from home is very important. Thus I would really appreciate if my company offered me the possibility if I had children for instance.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of spending a part of my worklife at home (e.g. two days a week) and going to the office during the rest of the days. I definitely think that an office day is important because interactions among co-workers are vital for a company's success. That is the problem of tele-working across the globe, in my opinino. It is so much more difficult to work with people you have never met and you might never meet, and many people might actually get really lonely if they are isolated in their homes all day.