Working from home - yes or no?

I recently read a post asking about the necessity of being able to work from home as a work perk and it surprised me the number of people who felt it was unnecessary.

Personally, from experience I would prefer to work in the office five days a week – I find the work environment tends to motivate you more, and when working from home you often miss the social factors of the office. The post however surprised me. I thought I was in a minority wanting to be in the office so I was shocked by the sheer amount of people not fazed by being given the option.

On a daily basis I read an article on LI about how important flexible working is and how having the option to work from home is seen as an attractive perk that all employers should offer, so why this sudden change of heart? The number of people working from home has increased by a fifth in the last ten years with the likes of HSBC and Virgin currently encouraging their employees to work from home more, but is this what we actually want?

A recent survey has suggested that when working from home nearly half of UK workers spend their time doing personal tasks and 60% of workers do not even make it out of their pyjamas.

Procrastination seems to be at its highest when working from home, with 64% of people choosing to do household chores over work, 64% also get distracted by chatting to friends and family. Getting distracted in the office by talking to friends and family is a lot less likely as workers tend to feel that glare from their boss if they’ve been on their phone too long, but at home there is no one to judge or to criticise. As long as the work gets done, what is the issue?

Why are we working from home more?

People are keen to work remotely mainly to escape the workplace and avoid their commute. Unsurprising when you consider that rail fares have increased heavily in the last couple of years.

Almost a quarter of people opt to work from home so they can take a break whenever they feel like it with one in ten taking advantage of a longer lunch break. As a result of this, 14% of women and 9% of men express guilt about working from home.

So why the hype about working from home?

Wanting to work from home is completely a personal preference and is impacted by your work style and personality. If you often lack motivation and enjoy the social aspects of the office you most probably shy away from working remotely. However, if you are more productive in a quieter environment and dread your daily commute, working from home may be for you.

Working from home also offers your more flexibility and help with the work life balance (and the opposite!). It allows you to do more around your working day – household chores when you’d usually be commuting, walking the dog in your lunch hour or picking the kids up from school. It can however make it trickier to switch off. If you’re bringing your work home with you and making your living room your office it can be difficult to switch off at the end of the day and have that all important work free time. If you are regularly working from home it would be a good idea to have a separate office space that you are able to enter and leave at the of each day.

Companies are beginning to offer the option to work from home more and more. It is a tricky one for employers because they’re having to offer it to compete with other employers and it can boost productivity for some members of the team, whilst decreasing for others. With strict guidelines and expectations, it can be a great perk. A perk that can be seen as attractive by employees – but probably taken advantage of a lot less that you’d think.

Like with all new hypes – the excitement is at the beginning and then once they lose the social aspects and the team spirt of the office they’ll all come running back!

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