Let’s Talk Numbers

The debate between; working from home vs working at the office, is taking place more often since the pandemic. All offices had to shut down – to reduce the spreading of the deadly disease.

Initially, it was temporary but, two weeks turned into a month, a month turned into two months, and we are still here, working from home. However, offices have been allowed to reopen under strict regulations; the most important being vaccination.

Who is more productive?productive

On average, employees working from home spend more than 10 minutes being more productive when compared to office workers. They work more, and at the same time as office space employees, and have been 47% more productive!

Stanford university surveyed to get numbers on the productivity of both employee statuses. The reduced remote employees to be 13% more productive.

Another survey by ConnectSolution shows the result of a blended system (some days work from home, some days work at the office) 77% of employees showed more productivity in this system. 24% did more work in the same period, and 30% completed their work in less time.

When it comes to one of the significant industries: the Tech industry, since COVID 19 till now 77% employees have said to feel more productive, and function better working at home, and only 17% felt less prolific at home.

A Quick Comparisonwork, jobs

Even before the pandemic, people were working from home; they would take their work home. A survey conducted by The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 82% of employees completed all (or a part of) their tasks at their workplace. And 24% of employees preferred taking their work home. But when working full time, employees that only worked from home were 70% less productive.

The at-home employees improved when the pandemic began. Prodoscope show that their productivity increased by 47% or more!

Another survey by Stanford showed that 65% of the people have internet fast enough for official use where urgency and efficiency is a grave requirement, a majority if they preferred working from home. The rest fancied working at the office due to not having or having poor internet.

Related: A Look at the Sources of Jobs in Pakistan by Those Trying Hard To Get Employed

Here are a few aspects to consider when discussing work-from-home vs work-at-the-officework, jobs,

Commute

When discussing commuting to and from work in Pakistan, we need to consider it with and without traffic. Without traffic, it can cost up to 2 hours on average. It means you’re spending 8% of your entire day in your vehicle. And this with traffic can increase to 4 hours.

Consider the amount of time you waste away from your family, just wanting to get to work and home. The time; can be spent doing more work, helping people out, spending time with family, indulging in a hobby and more.

The feeling with a 9-to-5 with a 2-hour commute is depressing – it’s natural to feel as if you don’t have a life outside of work.

A financial save

Running an office is expensive; going to an office is expensive. The employee spends money on commuting, clothes, lunch, office wear and other necessities. The employer contributes money on constantly increasing bills due to; increasing employees and up to date technology. Since the beginning of the pandemic energy wastage, has been lowered by almost 10%.

The technology required for you to work from home involves wifi, a desk, a chair and a computer with a camera; it is safe to say that these amenities are available in most homes.

Productivity

Productivity is a complicated topic when it comes to working from home. When considering you have more time, more flexibility and more time to spend on hobbies. However, this effort can become counterproductive.

As easy as it is to focus in your home; your comfortable solace, it’s just as easy to get distracted. Working alone can become quite lonely and even make your creative mind wither.

Your productivity can also increase! A study done by Stanford University concluded that work-from-home employees are proven to be 13% more productive. An average office employee gets distracted every 2 mins, and it takes them another 35 minutes to get back to work.

Employees that work from home have logged in longer hours than their office buds. All aspects considered working from home is more productive than working at an office.

Flexibility

When you spend almost half of your day at work, and have to eat, shower and get enough sleep, it gets difficult to accept that there is life outside of work. With stringent schedules and rules at the office, people burn out faster.

Too much of everything is a bad thing; including the prep that goes into going to work, the travel, the unwinding, it’s all work work work.

Many companies authorized employees to work remotely before the pandemic, which differed by performing better and more efficiently. As of the pandemic, there has been an increase in employee productivity.

You can wake up late (how late depends on your previous commute), decide your lunch hours, pet your cat and choose when to close your computer. It’s less of a strain on your physical and mental health.

Communication

Face-to-face conversations and real-life meetings; are preferred by both employers and employees, as asserted in the 2020 State of Business Communication Report.

Nothing can rival the relationships built in an office space; just the right amount of friendly and focus.

Nothing can beat the small talk and bonding with your colleagues like when you’re standing in line waiting for your turn to print or when you’re going out for lunch or when getting chai etc.

The interactions got replaced by slack messages, zoom calls, google meets; since the pandemic, zoom has recorded their daily participants being 300 million.

An advantage of remote working; is being able to work from anywhere. You can attend calls, meetings and even update your files; all you require is a stable internet. Sometimes, you don’t even need a laptop; you can easily use your phone and connect to your online workspace..

Reduce carbon footprint

A reduced carbon footprint entails less air pollution, which reduces sickness and more productive time.

When there are barely any vehicles on the road, the organizations are not using generators or air conditioners and an overall decrease in electricity usage is observed. The carbon emissions are reduced; this ensures a better and healthier environment.

Management

As a manager during the pandemic, you went through a phase searching for the best tool, application, web-space to manage your team. Before the trend of working from home, managers would pop by their employees’ desks to ask questions, get updates, request edits or assign. Now it involves sending a message then calling to ensure they received the message. That is unless you’re working with a great leader and powerful tools such as Slack, Monday, Asana and even google doc has upped their game when it comes to task management.

The manager wants their employees to perform the best, and it’s their job to ensure that they reach that point. Working from home requires the manager to put a significant amount of trust and suppress their need to constantly check-up.

Organizational growth

While working at an office space, your hours are fixed, along with your commute.

Consider your company were to take on a new project. The sales team has not forwarded the tasks to the writers and designers yet. So they wait for their assignments; this becomes a waste of time.

While working from home, most companies designate specific hours a person has to work along with their tasks. The person then starts working when they want to finish before the deadline. This way, if the sales team decides to allot tasks at 1 pm, the writers/designers will start working at 1 pm instead of 9 am along with the entire office.

When you work from home, it adds more structure to your life as well. You don’t find yourself as tired or drained compared to working at an office space. Now you have more time to pet your cat and plant some tomatoes!

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