The impact of Covid19 has been drastic for the whole world in various manners. Masses were scared, schools were closed and businesses were shut. Since global lockdowns came in to stop the spread of the disease, the many companies and organizations went remote.
No matter how extroverted you are, no matter how easy or hard it was for you to work from home, you were asked to stay and home. Any operation that could possibly be carried out remotely was to be carried remotely.
It’s clear that this idea of working from home was going to have some impact on our lives. Let’s look at how work from home has been hard or helpful for us as employees.
The Negative Impacts of Working from Home:
Feeling of Isolation
We all can relate to the fact that at first when we started working from home, we noticed that we’re being a lot more productive. This is because we weren’t used to doing the work from home and this sudden change made us accomplish more per day.
However, as the lockdown extended for a couple of months the majority of us are experiencing a feeling of isolation and loneliness. This is probably because this time we weren’t just working remotely. Rather working from “home” was our only option so you couldn’t even go to a Coffee shop, a restaurant, a park, or anywhere else to change your environment up, since the lockdowns were strict on each of those areas. In fact, the and even shared offices and co-working spaces were shut down as well.
Thus we started missing those short office chatters and exchanging humorous things that contributed to our feeling of loneliness on a daily basis.
Weakens Relationships
We as humans are social creatures naturally. And when we talk about relationships, both personal and professional, they’re massively dependent on socializing.
Without seeing each other for months and relying on digital platforms like Zoom or Google hangout for all the meetings we start losing that human touch which is empowered through in-person meetings.
For example, working in an office while sitting next to your colleague makes you talk to them. That’s when you share problems, ask for other’s wellness, and offer your help. Being hundreds of kilometers away, one can hardly communicate about the project they’re working on.
Less Enthusiasm
The idea of working in an office all together with your team is that it builds energy. Multiple types of research have concluded that an employee feels enthusiastic when he gets the feeling of Achievement, Power, Affiliation, Security, and Adventure. Of course, most of these things can’t be achieved without being together.
For example, one day your manager calls in a meeting. In the meeting, you’re made the head of a project putting the responsibility of leading the team.
Where would you feel more enthusiastic? In the office where you can share this good news with your team members and colleagues or your home where you can work all alone?
The latter is the right answer for most of us.
Easily Distracted
There’s no doubt that working from home has its own benefits however one specific disadvantage is that you can get easily distracted from work. It’s obvious that your offices are made for you to work and focus on one specific task/project. However, your home isn’t a place made for you to work.
The problem is even bigger when you’re living with your family. And this is because your other responsibilities are getting in your way of work. Secondly, you are used to the norm of relaxing when at home. Thus making the sudden shift of “working” doesn’t come easy to you.
You just don’t get the right vibe when you’re at home. You’re always checking your phone, checking out the fridge for some snacks, and many other things. That’s where a lot of employees struggle to get their work done.
Stuck between Professional & Personal Life
This lockdown has totally deformed both our personal and professional lives. Since the beginning employees have thought about their work and life as two entirely different things. When they’re at work, they’re out of their personal things, and when they’re at home they’re out of their work.
Since we were locked at home, we were to be managing both of our personal and professional responsibilities while being in one place; our homes. That’s when things started going uncertain.
Employees would be getting late-night texts from clients having problems and earlier they could have simply said that I am not at the office, however, now they’d think of opening up their laptop for a second which then turns into hours of work and communication. This has simply put a dent on the personal lives of employees.
Busy, Not Productive
Another major problem of working from home is that the employees have started to keep themselves busy, rather than productive. There have been many surveys conducted and hundreds of employees of various organizations interviewed where they claimed that working from home means working extra hours for them.
The reason for this is not just the lack of time and task management but the irresponsible way of the executive’s leadership as well. For example, many employees have complained that executives and leaders of their company now do longer meetings which means they have to complete their tasks afterward no matter how late it is.
Conclusion
It’s evident that the idea of working from home wasn’t as easy as most of us thought it to be. However, every organization can cope with this up to some level by taking some measures. For example, a few of the things which most of the companies should try to do is;
- Facilitate the employees with the flexibility of time
- Allow custom break time (unless that time frame is important)
- Keep the discussions targeted on the decided agenda only.
Also, it’s important to point out that remote work can be good as well since many companies have been operating remotely even pre-COVID. So it’s an established fact that remote work needs to be modified not abandoned.
