Work from Home - The new normal

Waking up early, dressing up to go to the office, hurrying up, and struggling to reach the office on time has been a dream for people nowadays. Ever since Covid-19 announced its outbreak in the world, the employees are all asked to work from home. The first and the foremost norm of prevention of the outbreak of the virus is social distancing. In order to maintain social distancing, the employees have been asked to stay at home and work form their respective homes itself. This is how and when the tradition of working from home has become the new normal.

The entire world is locked down at home and the employees are trapped in the circle of working from home without any break and along with a bombardment of all household chores to perform as well. According to a recently released report, 90% of employees of the IT Sector and 70-80% of the workforce of the BPO companies are forced to work from home and those assigned with the performance of critical functions are going to the office.

There are certain pros and cons of this very tradition of working from home. While a part of the workforce is loving the idea of working from home, another major part of the workforce is grossly missing the in-office working culture, catching up with co-workers, and even more. However, the situation at present leaves us with a prediction that this culture of working from home will continue to be practiced for a few more months or maybe even longer, depending on the cases of Coronavirus throughout the world. People who are working from home during the pandemic have to be skillful so as to ensure that they can finish the assigned tasks on time and in an efficient manner and that too without much assistance, for assistance at this hour of difficulty is not to be relied upon, in a long run.

There are always two sides to a coin. Similarly, the new norm of working from home comes packed with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Let us understand the pros and cons of it.

Pros of Working from home: Work from home seems to be advantageous to a crucial part of the workforce in ways like:

1. There’s no more getting panicked with the clock ticking and rushing to the office.

2. There are no unnecessary travel expenses to bear and hence, there’s a little more to the savings.

3. Reduced worries of arrangements of what to wear and when to wear to the office.

4. No more feeding on junk out of helplessness of untimed hunger pangs during the office hours.

5. Working is now at ease of working from home in your comfort zones.

While the workforce is experiencing an advantageous work hour at home, the employers are also not away from enjoying the perks of the tradition of WFH. This is how it is advantageous for employers:

1. There are no more unnecessary holiday demands of the employees.

2. Totally keeping away from, mostly, unreasonable excuses of the employees for non-compliance of rules of the firm.

3. No expenses on travel allowance to the employees.

4. Almost everyone is forced to be on their own during this era of WFH, and this is how employers are able to analyze the true efficiency of individuals working in the organization.

5. Saved electricity bills and other office expenses.

On the other hand, there are a few disadvantages to the culture of WFH too.

Cons of Working from home: The cons of WFH are also being acknowledged by the workforce and they are:

1. Lack of proper communication in the hierarchy.

2. People missing chit-chats with their co-workers.

3. The boredom of eating, sleeping, living, and working, all at a single place i.e. home.

4. In a few cases, cut in the pay.

5. Lack of concentration to work efficiently.

6. Increased working hours and workload.

And this is not the end of the story for this still goes on until an undefined period of time. The firms need to make some tough changes for the safety of the workforce, but prima facie, it seems that the culture of work from home is here to stay for long.