Working from Home (WFH) – it’s a no from me….
Working from Home (WFH) – it’s a no from me….
Can most of us work at home? Yes, of course we can. We can set up a workspace, make phone calls, send emails and use whatever programs we need to remotely. By doing so we can carry out our duties as described within our job description and fulfil our contractual obligations. We all enjoy peace and quiet and WFH takes away all the distractions that get in the way of doing our job in a busy office.
So, we can be more productive and don’t even have to get dressed and leave the house to do so. Brilliant. Everyone’s a winner right?
Not in my opinion. And I’m going to bore you with why I don’t believe WFH is a long-term alternative to working in an office.
Humans are social beings. Throughout the evolution of humankind, we have always worked in groups to achieve the best outcomes for our survival. By nature we organise ourselves and become an organisation made up of individuals with a common purpose or goal. To be successful as an organisation you need the right blend of individuals with the necessary skill sets and for those individuals to cooperate with each other.
We have spent thousands of years evolving and learning how to work together successfully through human interaction which involves reading each other’s body language, motivating each other, being able to ask each other questions and guide each other in many ways. In my humble opinion the technological revolution we have seen over the last 20 years leading us to the Zoom phenomenon has not yet rendered face to face human contact unnecessary.
This year has been really tough for many people. It has become apparent that social interaction with family and friends is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. Doing our job and following our careers takes up most of our waking hours so how could it be possible that isolating ourselves for all that time makes for a more efficient and productive human? Some of the time I’m sure it is a good thing, all of the time though? I believe that level of isolation across the whole population would make for a pretty sad group of people who don’t care whether they are productive or not.
Luckily this isn’t an academic piece of writing so I don’t need to back any of my opinions up with references to the work of much cleverer people, but I bet I could find some if I had to. So, for me I think an office provides an environment that works for both the wellbeing of the business and the wellbeing of those individuals that are the business. Beings together achieve more.
What are your thoughts?
Joe Goatley
Managing Director
Initial Recruitment Limited
