Work at Home Pros and Cons

Work cultures are evolving with plenty of room for innovative models to emerge, fuelled by technological advances, cost consciousness and work-life balance considerations. One such advancement in the field of work culture is ‘work at home’. Work from home is a work arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, instead work from their own place for the welfare of a particular company. They tend to work on their respective job for a particular company without going to office; rather they complete their assigned duties from their own place and get paid for the job done. Work from home culture has become popular in the past few years because of the benefits associated with this practice. Other than some obvious benefits like saving travelling time and cost, there are many long-term benefits associated with this practice. Also working from home, one can perform better as the person himself is in charge of everything and can plan well for his time and resource.

It is also evident that nothing comes without some limitations. So is the case of home working. There are many advantages related to home working but at the same time, there are certain limitations and disadvantages too. While home working comes with an advantage of saving time and money for commuting, it also has a limitation in that you tend to become non-social. Human is a social being and cannot live without interacting with other humans. While people working from home enjoy the fact that no one will disturb them during work hours, on the other hand, they tend to be losing some quality advice of their senior co-workers in the office. This topic is quite debatable and the list of factors associated with this topic is also very long.

How it Works
Work from home is not a recent concept. It has been followed for a long time, but during recent years a lot of companies have turned their focus towards this concept. With technological advancements and development of more and more outsourcing companies, this concept has seen new reforms during recent times. The main reasons for more and more companies opting for partial or complete work from home culture cannot be attributed to a single factor, but it is a combined effect of large numbers of factors. Since technology has advanced so much and has also become really affordable, it has provided means like telecommuting and video conferencing through which people sitting around the globe can have interaction as if they are sitting right next to one another. Another main reason can be attributed to the high priced commercial spaces. These days every reputed company wants an office in the top business centre of the modern cities, and since space in these centres is limited, companies cannot adjust their whole staff in these lavish office spaces and often opt for home-working for their experienced employees.

In a work at home set up, the employees are given proper training about their respective job and are provided with the adequate knowledge and support to efficiently complete their jobs by themselves. It is really difficult for the starters to manage their work and schedule all by themselves, but for experienced people, it is something that saves a lot of travelling time and also provides flexible work hours. Most commonly working from home involves internet based jobs, but these days even some reputed companies like Yahoo and many others in the market are considering an option of home-working. For the internet-based jobs also, a lot of people are working from their home, where they pick up some freelancing job or freelance projects and once they complete their work, get paid for it by any of the money transfer mode or through check. Home-working provides an opportunity to earn maximum according to the potential of an individual, and a person can take any number of projects according to his potential and can earn money accordingly, once he completes the projects undertaken. Hence along with the flexibility of working hours, work from home also provides an opportunity for unlimited growth.

Advantages of Work From Home

Although remote workers tend to complicate a manager’s job, it is also evident that a highly distributed workplace has too many potential advantages to dismiss. For most of the organizations, the feasibility of working from home is determined largely by the structure of the employer and the motivation of the employee. Even the type of work an employee needs to do also determine the fact; you cannot expect a person responsible for operating a manufacturing machine in an industry to work from home. Most commonly this option is available for the administrative job only.  In such situations, employers that can be flexible about work location may reap several rewards. The most common feature of this process is Flexibility that also enlarges the applicant pool. Being open to physically handicapped or geographically isolated workers, home-working can improve the prospects for finding a highly qualified candidate. Some of the other advantages may include:

• Saves Time and Money: Working from home tends to save a lot of time as well as money. When you work at home, you save on the fuel cost or public transportation cost for your commutation from home to work and back. The time you spend travelling can be effectively utilized for other useful work.  You don't need to spend money on work attire. When working at home, you can brew your own coffee for a lot less than buying a daily cup at a coffee shop or a cafeteria at the office, which usually charge more and still fail to serve a good cup of coffee. Another saving can be in the form of money saved by eating at home rather than at a restaurant or company cafeteria. Also, the time that you save on the behalf of travelling time is also very important and can be utilized effectively.
• Flexibility: Flexibility is another advantage of home-working that comes as a great deal for the employee. Working from home allows you to take the time to take care of yourself year-round. Some people are in habit of sleeping late at night or getting up very early in the morning, such people can effectively utilize their awkward time if working from home. You cannot expect your office to remain open till midnight if you can work till late, but in the case of home working, you certainly have the advantage of working during odd hours.
  If you are in a situation where you frequently find yourself not feeling well, or if you are responsible for caring for someone at home, working from home offers you an environment to take care of yourself and others more properly than if you needed to balance life at an office. For mothers of new-born babies, this is very helpful; they can take care of their kids without compromising their work schedule.
  Working from home gives you control over your schedule. Rearrange your schedule or put in some extra hours ahead of time for: children’s activities like swimming lessons, a school play or volunteering at school. You can also go to doctor’s appointments or other little errands when it’s convenient for you.
• Early Morning Blues: Many people have a habit of getting up late in the morning or feel comfortable working during the night. It becomes quite convenient for such people to work effectively along with their own schedule. Though I do not encourage the habit of getting up late in the morning, still some people are able to concentrate more during evening time as compared to the morning times. Working at home, you tend to make your own schedule and you have to time yourself according to the work.
• Balanced Life: Work at home gives you a great opportunity to balance your work and life both side by side. If you’ve got kids and you want to be there for them and spend more time with them, then home-working provides an excellent opportunity to do both the things side by side. Working at home affords you that opportunity. Working at home, you can also occasionally tackle a household chore or two during the day. You can manage your own schedule here. If you are spending some time doing your personal work, you can easily compensate for that time at any point in time later in the day. Got an appointment with the doctor, you don’t need to take an off or a short leave if working from home. Rather you can compensate for that time later during your remaining time of the day.
• No Disturbance: Tired of some silly jokes about the person sitting next desk or tired of gossiping staff? This is something that won’t irritate you once you work at home. These elements often tend to distract other from their work and lure into some un-necessary gossiping. Also, there are many other distractions when you work in the office. Working at home you can choose from a suitable and peaceful time from your day when no one is there to disturb you and you can concentrate well on your work.
• Retaining Quality Employees: Work from home gives an opportunity to organizations for retaining some of their quality staff members, who cannot continue with the organization owing to any factor. These factors may be related to age, an employee shifting away from town or a mother who needs to take care of her new-born. In such cases work from home provides an excellent opportunity.

Disadvantages of Work from Home 

It is very clear that work at home has advantages of its own, but nothing comes without disadvantages and limitations. When there are so many advantages associated with the concept then some limitations are also obvious. One of the biggest limitations is the lack of fact to face interaction. No matter how advanced the technology has become that is making possible video conferencing or video calling, but still, face to face interaction has its own place. Management research shows that without face-to-face interaction, performance and the mental health of employees suffer. Face-to-face interaction accounts for nearly all boosts in job satisfaction, while e-mail communication has no effect. Also, the factor of non-socialization is something that proves out to be a major limitation. Human is a social being and without social interaction, we tend to become restless or we start feeling uneasy hence leading to falling in work efficiency.

Even if the technology is utilized for interaction, that too proves out to be of a little help. Now imagine if someone working from home has some doubt, he can only rely on electronic forms of communication like email etc. For example, it would take nearly half an hour to write an e-mail to explain all the nuances of your position on your company’s R&D budget. Then, people, the other person would get back to you with their positions, spending an hour going over points that you didn’t think to consider when you wrote your e-mail, and this back and forth could take days or even weeks. But if you met face to face, you could accomplish this entire discussion in an hour and come up with some quick results. Some other limitations include:

• Most co-workers & my managers all have various schedules too, so sometimes it gets really hard to connect with them.
• Being at home all the time may sound great, but after a few days, it gets really boring.
• If you’re not motivated, it would be super tough to stay on task
• Fear of loss of employer control
• There is a need for strong willpower; otherwise, you may end up delaying your work by an hour only to find out that you have wasted your entire day.
• Sometimes it becomes really difficult to find a quiet space as there can be dogs, babies, loud neighbours, workers outside, etc. in your vicinity that may distract you.
• If you’re naturally quiet and don’t get out much, this could further create an issue of isolation.

Conclusion
It is very clear that work at home has some really important advantages to support it and some limitations too. While there is no substitute for a personal interaction to derive the best output, it's also a fact that today the pace of activities and demands on time don't always permit this beautiful luxury. Work cultures these days are evolving, with plenty of room for innovative models to emerge - fuelled by technological advances, cost consciousness and work-life balance considerations. And work at home really has a bright prospect in some cases, but not useful in every field.