Well, show me an employee who doesn’t want comfort and cushion in work? One? Two? Ten? Am sure, you can bring a few in front of me; even I know handsome of people who prefer daily hustle and bustles without any distress. But the number is minimum. Self-experience reminisces an incident where five senior-level employees were reluctant to avail Saturday Off due to reasons those can’t even be marked as “silly”. For them, conceptualize Work from Home is similar to finding the distance from Mars to Uranus.
Still, Work from Home prevails and it prevails in well solidarity amidst a handful of people who think to go to the office, working in an office and coming back from office is the only criteria in support of their working status. Alas, Poor fellow!!! You are derived from the essence of “Kasturi”. To a section of people, Work from Home is nothing but that very “Golden Deer” of Ramayana which keep them eluding years after years without any visible advantages. So sad; if you can’t reap the benefit out of anything, better to be in RIP mode.
Too many altercations, a few harsh words and continuous crisscross will lead to nothing. Better, let’s check what can be extracted from the concept of Work from Home.
Great. If I say, Work from Home is not a new concept; will you agree? Yes, am talking about India where you have born, brought up and will die eventually one day. Am not refereeing so-called “Foreign Countries” where so many things either prevailed before us or they have started after us but continuing till the end. There was Work from Home concept in India and it still has. Surprised? OK; go and check to that lady who after his husband’s death started to stitch clothes using a sewing machine. Is she not working from home? Is she not earning to feed her only son who goes to school? Or, take an example of that very grocer who started a small shop a couple of years ago in his garage only to find it grow over time. He goes back to upstairs at 2 PM for lunch duly prepared by his homemaker wife and again resumes his work in the evening after a short nap. Isn’t he doing Work from Home? Yes. The grocer, that lady all are doing Work from Home ever before you, I was born. They have thought much before of us. We are still thinking about whether to go for it or be silent.
Lots of people treat Work from Home in their perspective. To someone, it’s an extension of holiday and to some people, it only works, work and work keeping horse’s blinder on eyes. But, is Work from Home is so extreme? There is no such thing that you can relish? Isn’t there any single feature that your counterpart can put stress into? All the answer is YES. Work from Home is probably the only item that can unite Employee, Employer and all other beings. Thinking how? Well, Let’s dive into it.
Employee Must Be Ecstatic
Forget your one or two hours of hectic journey from home to office. If you are in metro cities and need to have a break journey (or even not), then include the agony of reaching office in time due to lesser number of public transport or due to extreme traffic (Ufff, Bangalore!!!) Add some more hours of pre-preparational activities in the morning done by you and your wife/mother. You can now sleep off late at night, can get ready 15 minutes before your designated login time and sit relax with a cup of coffee. Save your precious time. Your life partner gets a rest at least for some hours due to you only. Don’t want to please her? This is the golden chance.
Remember, when you got this job you fought with HR to raise the CTC a bit as you come from a distance and on regular basis the petrol/diesel price increases resulting upward trend of the bus, auto and taxi fares. Forget crowds and traffic. Think how much you can save if you don’t need to go office for certain days in a week. Calculate the total cost and you will find it enough to pay the bill in a mid-level restaurant. Moreover, want to forget the dress code? Your Three Quarter or Bermuda is welcome at home.
Have you ever measured the energy you put while going to and coming from office? Perhaps not. Try with a meter and you will be astonished to find so much of energy you had in doing so! Channelize those in other good works while you are at home and working for your office. You had your car wash pending for a long time. Call that guy; let he does his work and you concentrate on yours. Check once it finished.
Who said, you have to work mandatory for 8 long hours sitting at home and you can’t relax? Don’t you leave your seat after 2 hours for a coffee break? Never you went to the big glass window to see the sun setting in the west just behind the lake? You can do the same also while you Work from Home. Yes, you can. If you are from that school that teaches you to leave your station only for lunch and toilet, then you are living in a fool’s world. It will eventually down your potentiality. Even none told you to work beyond office hours unless any specific assignment is there. Be it 8 hours or more or even less, ultimately your work matters. Take short breaks of 5-10 minutes and stretch yourself. Your boss won’t mind unless you extend the same from minutes to hours. (Even, go and see, he is also taking power breaks; LOL).
Is everything good and no other side effect of Work from Home? It can never happen such. You will miss the office ambience which pumps you to reach your sales target. You can’t see your team members whom you constantly bang on to give more. You will not find the espresso coffee either the smoke room (your own balcony can be an alternative). Your home will look much smaller than the office and you might feel lonely even. For someone, maintaining such specific routine at home is tough and one can easily complain that more download happened using Wi-Fi in that period of Work from Home. Self-motivation is the key to success. If you don’t have unlimited Internet? Forget about doing Work from Home in regular interval. And yes, you will miss the glare of beautiful ladies who surround you in and after office hours. Jokes apart, these weigh much lesser than what you gain and you should start enjoying this role. You are lucky. The girl at the KFC counter or the Swiggy delivery boy can’t avail this luxury. Go for it.
Video Conference, Tele Conference, Group or Individual Chat, Dashboard Update, SAP or PMP Tracker will support you in this period. Oh yes, don’t forget to show your face at least once in a day to your Boss.
Anything for Employer?
Off course, lots of things to cheer about. If you are an employer and having a good number of people working in one or two premises, then think of saving electricity if Work from Home is allowed in parts. And if you are in a co-sharing mode like any other startup, then your expenditure will be less even. You can book only those seats that demand physical attendance at any cost, rest you can put in a variable way. The cost will not only be saved but other associated expenditures will also decrease.
You need not install an Eagle’s Eye on every employee who is opting for Work from Home. Team Leaders have enough target on their shoulder to execute an operation and their juniors are bound to work to meet the deadline. You, like a Boss, just need to supervise and to make others feel that you are well aware of the situation. Whether they do it from office or from home or mixing both, no need to dig that part of the soil until you are receiving the productive output. Less hassle for you as a lesser number of people may come to your cabin for any discussion or more relief when you are expanding your manpower without really thinking of space. Taking a cue from the rotational shift, you can make a Work from Home roaster so that a healthy Work-Life Balance remains for your beloved employees.
Open the productivity meter and you will find it quite high while people were given the choice to Work from Home. A sense of relief prevails in the spine of some employees who think to go to and return from office is the most difficult task in life; yes, tougher than coding even. Some people are so introvert that their presence is not felt at all in the office. They can perform better sitting relax at home and you should also consider those poor fellows who despite not liking their Reporting Manager, have to go every day to see his dumb face. Work from Home at least gives that respite except for occasional video calls; rest remains in chats and dashboards.
It matters from what type of industry you do belong to. If you are in the service sector, too tough to allow your people for Work from Home. If you are in IT/BT, ample scopes are there as the specific task has been defined with respective TAT that needs to be followed at any cost. Once you are ready for Work from Home option, your recruitment domain automatically expands to those people also who was thinking whether to apply or not thinking the distance from home to office. Several startup companies see in another way. As any new born thing demands more time, hence one can cut short the travelling time and devote that time too in addition to the stipulated one.
As an employer, you will also find employees taking a lesser number of leaves if Work from Home is allowed for some days in a week or month. That actually significantly help in increasing of man-days in your organization and higher productivity chances are always on the cards. Off course, you will miss those sessions where employees used to chat among themselves and several new concepts arise out of that. Physical interaction is always better to reach in a conclusion and sometimes it’s best to convince people even.
Will Economy Suffer?
Yes. You will never know that the liftman’s daughter passed 10th standard with first-class marks and she will miss a chocolate bar from you. Chances are less to meet new people who can change the direction of your life. Yes, all these will happen only if you continuously do Work from Home. Else a single day might leave a small mark only. Less amount of ticket collection will be reported at a bus depot, less petrol will be consumed in the car, the auto will wait for in stands for commuters and so on. A mark will be on the socio-economy side.
On the other hand, air will be less polluted, your carbon score will be very high and people can breathe their lives. No struggling in public transport, less queue in metro ticket counter and fewer traffic blocks in the crossings. Real estate will experience downfall as the demand will be on the lower side. “Save Water & Save Electricity” movements can be on high for not wasting too much of water in office toilet and electricity in cabins.
What Next?
Western countries have already adopted more Work from Home. In India, the number will reasonably increase within 4-5 years and that day is not too far when people will offer co-working space for neighbourhood people only. Only criteria to get a seat might be to have residence within 500 meters or 1 KM maximum. These days will cut short several factors like time, cost, energy but also will decrease the personal contact, revenue in transport and real estate price. It’s up to you, which one to choose. You have some time in your hand. Think and Act.