The WFH Paradigm

Hello Reader! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week. As you might be aware, the present pandemic situation has rendered several complications in many working-class sectors. Every sector came up with its own way to tackle these complications, one such industry that underwent monumental changes to support the regular work regime being the IT industry. Enabling the employees in most sectors to work from home was probably the most crucial step taken to tackle this pandemic, ensure the safety of employee’s and their families and pillar the regular business operations. I am an IT employee and I have been working from home for almost 6 months now. I will be sharing few facts about WFH in this post.    

In light of COVID-19, WFH appears to be the “buzz topic” but in reality, it isn’t any new concept. Remote workers weren’t born overnight when the World Wide Web (WWW) was first invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN. Before the Industrial Revolution, many skilled blacksmiths, carpenters, potters and leather workers set up shops in their residences and sold their goods from there. The trend continued from “longhouses” to “top-shops” to “sweat-shops” during the Industrial Revolution. After the Industrial Revolution however, there came a need for automation and creation of large workspace centers termed as factories. Huge machines and large-scale productions required employees to be present in-house to complete their work. This also led people to commute to designated “office spaces.”

As the economy of many countries strengthened, there was a rise in corporate headquarters, large office-spaces, and aisles of drab cubicles. WFH was presented as a choice or an incentive for most employees even before the pandemic. It was considered to be a relaxation from the regular office atmosphere and confined cubicle space.

In wake of the pandemic, many companies were forced to migrate to a remote working model to keep companies running and cater to client needs. According to recent studies and surveys many employees felt that they were able to maintain a better work-life balance, increase productivity and better focus in their work, feel less stressful and more importantly avoid the daily strenuous routine of commuting to their offices. There are also employees who feel differently. So, the main question arises here, whether we should work from home or work from the office? To better answer this question, let us list out the pros and cons of WFH.

Pros –

• Few people are not comfortable with the idea of having to wear formals to office every day. For such people, WFH provides a considerable amount of relaxation from this regime. They can continue working in casuals or whichever clothing they feel comfortable in (as long as there is no Video Connect sessions with their team or client’s).
• It is easier for people to maintain a flexible schedule, they can take a break at any moment, have lunch at any time they wish to, etc.
• Many people prefer to have their own custom environment to work. Someone might prefer listening to pop music while working, and someone might want to dance a little while their code is compiling, and WFH offers this flexibility to people.
• Many people might not be interested in office gossips or a colleague’s banter about their weekend plans but are forced to participate in such conversation’s. WFH helps us to avoid such unwanted banter and focus on our job and the task at hand.
• Most people (including me) would be joyful to avoid the daily commuting, the crowds, traffic and pollution by WFH. This may be considered as one of the key points.
• For people who stay away from their homes to work or those who have to spend a lot on fuel or transport to commute to office daily, WFH certainly offers some downsizing on their expenses and they get to save a considerable portion from their salaries (provided they do not do online shopping like my sisters do).
• Another most important advantage of WFH is that we get to spend time with our loved ones. More often our strenuous work and daily commuting consumes a lot of time in a day and we do not get to spend time with our families or friends. WFH has certainly brought many loved ones together and they are able to spend some quality time with each other irrespective of the work nature.

Cons –

• We might lose focus from our work easily. Netflix might be launching a new series and we might not be able to control our temptation to watch it during work hours.
• While WFH, we might be lacking a regular routine and this might result in several irresponsibility’s on our behalf.
• Many people have the habit of taking power naps in between their work. It helps to increase their work efficiency. But if the same were to be applied while WFH, and accidentally the power nap lasts for more than an hour then they could get into a lot of trouble. They might miss important calls or pings from a team member or the client during that period.
• While working from office, it is much easier to reach out to a fellow team member or our peers about anything (be it a trivial doubt or a major issue), but WFH might make it difficult for us to reach out to them.
• Due to data security or consumer confidentiality protection concerns, we may not be having access to complete resources while WFH.
• Another major concern for many people (especially those in remote areas) is the Internet Bandwidth and Connectivity Issues. It is very frustrating for many people to continue working with a poor network. Other issues like VDI connectivity, system slowness, etc might hinder the progress of the work at hand.
• Many people with children (specially the young and naughty ones) are finding it impossible to work around them.
• Sometimes the pressure and tensions in work might rub off on our loved ones and it may lead to disputes. WFH might not help to separate the professional and personal life altogether.

As the saying goes, “The grass is always greener on the other side.”, when we are working from office, nothing sounds more amazing than working from home lying on our favorite part of the couch and when we are working from home, we miss working with our colleague’s, coffee machines and office gossip. Either way, it is important to choose the environment in we can work more efficiently. Every person has their own unique experience with remote working and what works best for one person might prove disastrous for another. It is important that we adapt to the present situation and try to bring the best version of ourselves with whatever limited resources available to us.

I would be thrilled to learn about your WFH story and what all you’ve tried during this period. Please do share your story and tips with me. Thank You Reader!