Working from home experienced a real boom during Corona and is more popular than ever. No wonder, working from home offers many advantages for both employees and employers. But you should also be aware of the disadvantages. We have listed the most important pros and cons:
Home office definition – what exactly is meant?
The term home office is familiar to almost everyone today and describes working within your own four walls. In order to be able to do the work at home as well as in the office, companies often provide their employees with VPN access, cloud applications or collaboration tools . If the work is not only done at home, but also in a café or on the train, this is also referred to as remote work.
The benefits of working from home
Work when and where you want. What will forever remain a dream for some people has become a reality for many office workers during Corona and, according to experts, will probably become more common in the future. Because for many employees, working from home is simply part of a modern workplace these days. They hope for more freedom and greater self-determination. And indeed, working from home has many advantages:
Saving of time: commuting time is eliminated
Workers sometimes spend hours standing in traffic during rush hour or waiting for late trains. According to the Federal Employment Agency, 13 million employees 1 even commute to work in another district within Germany. Time that could definitely be used more effectively. By working in the home office, employees can be spared the long commute and thus a lot of stress . In this way, the working day starts and ends much more relaxed and there is more time for free time.
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Lower costs: For employees & employers
The elimination of the commute to work also means a relief for the purse , since employees can save costs for petrol and train tickets. And that’s not all: cooking within your own walls is of course much cheaper than going out to eat with colleagues during the lunch break. The home office also offers advantages from an employer’s point of view. If more work is done from home, less office space is required at the same time. Employees can now easily share desks via hot desking and office rent can be saved.
Increase in productivity thanks to lower noise levels
Whether productivity is interpreted as an advantage or disadvantage depends heavily on personal circumstances. However, the noise level is particularly high in open-plan offices. An annoying phone call from colleagues here, a chat there… Somehow one is always distracted, which allows many to work more concentrated in their own home.
Improving the work-life balance
Balancing work and free time is not always easy. The home office helps here and enables a better work-life balance. Working hours can often be divided relatively freely and thus provide more flexibility . It doesn’t matter whether it’s a visit to the doctor, a visit from the technician or a walk during the lunch break – as long as there are no clearly defined working hours or there are no online meetings to the contrary, it can all be easily combined with work. The home office offers advantages especially for employees with children , as they can spend more time with the family .
Increasing attractiveness as an employer
A flexible solution of home office and office : According to our LinkedIn survey, this is what the majority (77.7%) of employees want . In the fight for top talent, employers should therefore remain open to flexible working models in the future in order to bind employees to the company in the long term.
Disadvantages of working from home
Of course, everything also has its downside – including working within your own four walls. We have summarized the disadvantages of the home office for you:
Difficult separation of work and private life
Especially for employees who do not have their own office at home, but instead work at the kitchen table, for example, it is often difficult to switch off after work. The boundaries between work and everyday life are becoming increasingly blurred and overtime is often pre-programmed. For this reason, it is important to always keep an eye on working hours, even when working from home.
High self-discipline required
Even if the noise level at home is often lower, there are still many distractions lurking in the home office: emptying the dishwasher, picking up the kids from kindergarten or making yourself comfortable on the terrace. Anyone who works from home definitely needs a high degree of self-discipline and good time management in order to be able to concentrate on their work.
Fewer social contacts
Chat and video conferencing tools now provide excellent opportunities to stay in touch with colleagues while working from home and to improve internal communication . But let’s be honest: It’s just not the same as seeing your colleagues in the office – without having lunch together or the usual hallway radio. For this reason, the reduced social contact with colleagues can often cause loneliness , which may have a negative effect on the psyche in the long term.
Difficult opportunities for advancement
For supervisors, working from home means a certain loss of control because they no longer have a constant eye on their employees. For employees, this lack of visibility can have a negative impact, especially in terms of promotion opportunities. Someone who works exclusively from home office may not have their manager on the radar for the next pay round and he or she is therefore more easily passed over for salary increases.
Conclusion
Working from home has both advantages and disadvantages and is not equally suitable for every employee. It is important that employees have a high degree of self-discipline and that supervisors trust their employees. A flexible solution of home office and office will become more and more important in the future. In this way, the advantages of working from home can be used and all disadvantages eliminated.
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