The ‘New Normal’ in 2021, Work from Home and its Pros and Cons

Before the world was hit by the covid-19 pandemic, work from home seemed to be something unattainable and impractical. It is safe to say that everyone’s life has been a roller coaster ride ever since the pandemic took place. Covid-19 has brought drastic changes in probably every field of our lives and one such major change that has been instilled in us, post pandemic has to be the work from home policy.

Companies and organisations resorted to shutting down their offices in order to minimize the widespread of the virus. This is an outcome of prioritising their employee’s physical and mental health and ensuring that all safety measurements and protocols issued by the government were followed.

Recent research has shown that even after the pandemic eases, companies will still promote the work from home policy. This might be due to the fact that many corporations have invested in heavy technologies such as video conferencing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc, to ensure the smooth running of their operations even during the work from home situation.

Pros of Committing to the Work from Home Policy

Even though the work from home policy is a result of the epidemic, there are certain pros and benefits to it.

• Extra Liberty for a Person to Tend to Their Personal Needs

A very substantial and beneficial result of the work from home policy is that an employee can take care of their personal appointments and needs while still managing their job as they are not being restricted to the 9 to 5 job timing.

• Scaling Down of Daily Expenditure

Due to the work from home policy, people are saving a lot of money as they do not have to pay for taxi or any other means of transportation to reach their office.

• Minimal Wastage of Time

A lot of valuable time also gets saved as people do not have to endure long hours in the traffic anymore.

• Spending Precious Time with Family

An upside to the whole work from home situation is that people are getting more time to spend with their families. The pandemic has made people realise the true importance of family and getting to spend as much time with them as possible is definitely something that should be looked forward to.

Cons of the Work from Home Situation

Despite the aforementioned pros and benefits, the work from home policy surely entails a few cons and downsides to it too.

• Boundaries Between personal and professional life cease to exist

A major downside of the work from home situation is that there are no time bounds to the work hours. This leads to overworking in order to meet deadlines and hence an individual ends up finding themselves with zero time to entertain their personal interests.

• Absence of Teamwork and Togetherness

While working at home, alone with their computers due to the work from home policy can be ideal for some people, it surely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people find it extremely challenging to just sit alone and do their work without any form of social interaction with their co workers. Due to this reason work from home appears to be a challenge for certain people.

• Invasion of Valuable Data

Working from home not only affects the employees, but also the employers.  New instalment of technical devices can create security threats. Companies get exposed to possible violation of data or threats imposed towards global supply chains.

• Management of Office Tools and Equipments

Even though work from home might sound enthralling, it surely is not the same as working in an office. The infrastructure of an office is designed to create a professional work space with all the necessary equipments and technologies in order to ensure smooth functioning of the company. However, such equipments and advanced technologies are hard to find in a person’s home. Setting up an office like makeshift in a house, with high speed internet connectivity, printers or fax machines, etc, can be quite pricey and not very suitable for everyone. This factor might lead to the hindrance in a person’s execution of their work.

In this article we have successfully discussed some pros and cons of working from home. However, it only depends on an individual if they want to see it as a boon or a bane.

Work from home might be very ideal for some people due to the flexible hours and liberty that it offers but it might also act as a downside for others. However, due to the current pandemic, work from home seems to be the safest option to ensure everyone’s safety, hence everyone should try to look on its brighter side and hustle in order to make the best out of the current situation.