Work from Home – New way of working in 21st century

Preamble

Work from home – a popular or I can say a trending topic during the coronavirus pandemic among the professional community. As we all are aware that time teaches us the several lessons through the circumstances and their consequences. This coronavirus pandemic has also taught us the several lessons.

One such lesson for the professional community is to work from home. However, this is not like that we have not heard about this work culture in one or other way before this pandemic. Yes, we have heard about this before, even, some of us might have worked in this way. But in general, most of us were not familiar with this culture, in a way, we are now. So, let’s have a look over the topic – “Work from Home – A new normal for professional community”.

Questions moving around

Now starting with those questions which are becoming the topic of the social talks. These questions are like – Is working from home results in improved productivity? Is working from home a good work culture to be adopted even after the pandemic? Is work from home a new normal for professional work places? If yes, then what are its consequences? and in case of no, again what are the consequences? What are the effects of this work culture over the organizational objectives? and many more……

Work from Home

So, before answering these questions one by one, let’s start with the understanding of the meaning of work from home first. So, work from home is a way of working in an organization, in which you are performing your job role even being at your home. In this way, you are not required to be physically present at your organizational work place. Important is that the organizational objectives should not get hampered.

In this case, this could be understood as a win-win situation for both organizations and the employees as well. It means that the organizations are getting their work done even without the physical presence of their employees at their workplace. and the employee side, they are working from the comfort of their homes. In other way, this could also be related with the remote work, freelancing etc.

Productivity

Now coming to the point that how this culture helps in the improved productivity of the work? Here, there is the need to first understand that what is productivity? In simple words, productivity is a way to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of any work. So, now how it can be measured?

If you will notice, I have said that productivity is the combination of efficiency and effectiveness. In these two terms – efficiency and effectiveness – efficiency is simply a mathematical measure of the ratio of quantity of the output and the input resources used in any work. While, effectiveness is measured in a subjective way. So, effectiveness is about getting the work done in a way to have the desired outcome not only in terms of quantity but in terms of quality as well.

Efficiency and Effectiveness through example

Let’s try to understand both of these terms through an example. Now, I hope, you all are going through lots of posts / messages over the social media regarding the webinars. Even this is the time, when most of the community is trying to deliver their thoughts through webinars.

Now, if you want to understand the efficiency and effectiveness or in general the productivity with this case of webinars. So, understand that for an individual, efficiency may be simply the number of the webinars he / she has delivered / attended. On the other hand, the effectiveness is that how much value has been added to the individual while delivering / attending those webinars.

In simple words, how much one has learnt and going to implement the skills learnt through these webinars is a measure of effectiveness. Here the matter is not of the number of webinars he / she has attended / delivered. So, simply, the productivity is the combination of the efficiency and effectiveness. Here, the important part is that whether there is a case of an individual or an organization, both matters.

Work from Home & Productivity

So, coming back to the question – how this culture helps in the improved productivity of the work? Now, when you are much clear about the term productivity. So, understand that, this productivity increases when you work in a relaxed and calm environment. As the relaxed and calm environment helps you in generating the relevant thoughts and working effectively.

Even, you might have noticed that in this way, your work even gets completed in a lesser time.  In most of the cases, you feel this environment at your home. However, this may not be the case with everyone. Moreover, as every task also requires to work with certain timelines. Therefore, it demands to work with a proper schedule. So as long as you are working from your home with proper schedule of work and in an effective manner. It is going to help in improving productivity.

Now, as we all know that every project / task also requires to collaborate with other team members as well. So, with the advancement of the technology, this could also be possible even by working from home.

Another perspective

Now, coming over to another question – Is working from home a good work culture to be adopted even after the pandemic? So, in my opinion, the answer is yes as long as the work is not getting hampered. Now, if we are going to understand this work from home culture as a new normal. So, with the current scenario of coronavirus pandemic and its impact, the situation may be to work with this culture as per the government guidelines and the safety of employees as well. Even, if you are not willing to adopt this.

Conclusive Remarks

From the organizational point of view, there are several expenses which also needs to be done, when employees arrive at the workplace. These expenses could be like transportation, electricity and many other general expenses as well. So, if the work of the organization is getting done with work from home, I think, this is a good practice to be adopted even after the lockdown as well.

So, this is how the work from home will help in increasing the overall effectiveness of the work?

Thanks

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Disclaimer: The views presented in this article are the author’s own views. The views are presented here just for the purpose of information. These views are not meant to harm any one’s belief / thoughts.