Are You 'Working From Home' Or 'Living At Work'?”

Working from home has quickly become the new normal for many businesses. Employers have said they propose to continue allowing remote work or hybrid options well into the future.

Other organisations are seeking to entice, encourage, persuade, or compel staff back into the office.

People are more productive working from home than people would have expected. Some people thought that everything was just going to fall apart, and it hasn’t.

Of course, many low-paid workers don’t have the option to work from home, and even some well-paid jobs can’t be done away from the work environment.

Bus drivers, cleaners, nurses, and shop assistants can’t do their jobs from home, and some jobs, like doctors, train drivers, and other better-paid jobs, require the employee to be at their place of work rather than in the lounge, spare room, or even those elaborate garden sheds that have sprung up around the country.

However, for many, working from home has been an essential part of the work-life balance.

Remote work has its advantages, and most businesses wouldn’t have survived the COVID crisis without it, but it comes at a cost.

Employees can see the benefits, such as avoiding commuting and the cost of lunch at home rather than expensive coffee shops and snack bars in town. It can be quiet without interruption at home, but if you have family, flatmates, etc., the opposite can be true.

Some people like to come into the office for a break from home, or less experienced staff who want to get coaching and support from line managers and senior colleagues.

Working from home can mean working in isolation, which is vastly different from a bustling office. It can disturb, distract, or interfere with people, rendering them unable to perform to their usual standard. This is especially true for extroverts, who feed off each other and need other people around them to be more effective.

Employers see the benefit of having people in the office, especially for mentoring, innovation, creativity, and collaboration, which are easier in person than they are remotely.

Some of the drawbacks of remote working include the impact on personal development and career progression. If you work remotely, you are less likely to be having career conversations or socialising with colleagues, bosses, and even clients. Opportunities to train and develop can be limited, but things like mentoring, coaching, and shadowing are much better in person.

Stanford University in California has conducted research on the impact of remote working and found that the number of people playing golf mid-week has more than doubled since 2019. People used to go before or after work, as well as on weekends. The same is likely true for gyms, tennis courts, retail hairdressers, and anything else that consumers used to pack into the weekends. If this is true in the US, it could potentially be similar in the UK.

Hybrid working is one of the most popular responses to this issue. Rules like two days at home and three in the office, or vice versa, are becoming popular with both employees and employers.

Hard productivity appears not to be adversely affected by remote or hybrid working, but the soft impacts—those hard-to-measure things such as training, personal and career development, social activity, and building company culture—are challenged by remote or hybrid working.

The long-term impact of remote or hybrid working is yet to be revealed, but it’s fair to say the jury is still out.

Ian Garner is a retired Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and the Institute of Directors (FIoD).

Ian is a board member of Maggie’s Yorkshire. Maggie’s provides emotional and practical cancer support and information in centres across the UK and online, with their centre in Leeds based at St James’s Hospital.

He is the founder and director of Practical Solutions Management, a strategic consulting practice, and is skilled in developing strategy and providing strategic direction, specialising in business growth and leadership.