The way people work is changing every single day. With every algorithm, office change, or HR meeting, people’s jobs change a little bit every day. In a recent study, nearly 88 percent of employees stated they believed they are productive at their job no matter where they work from. This is why more and more jobs allow employees to work remotely. There are countless studies that show that working remotely has huge, positive impacts on productivity, as well as employee happiness.
When working remotely, there are generally two options: working from home or working from a co-working space. Working in co-working spaces have great benefits for employees and productivity. They create a community, offer great chances for networking opportunities, lead to more innovative ideas, and more. However, working from home has some major disadvantages. Read on for some of the disadvantages of working from home.
1. It’s isolating.
When you work from home, you spend a lot of time by yourself. It’s hard to maintain healthy relationships when the only “friend” at the office is your pet. Studies show that office friendships boost not only happiness, but productivity! Utilizing a co-working space allows you to do just that, while maintaining your own hours and space. Working from home also means you have no one to brainstorm with. It’s much easier to lose motivation when you don’t have peers around you motivating you to finish your work.
2. Maintaining a work/life balance is nearly impossible.
When your home is your office, maintaining a work life balance is nearly impossible. One minute you’re chugging right along in a report, and the next minute your dog is whining, begging to be taken for a walk. You come back for your walk to finish up your report, work for a solid 5 minutes, and all of a sudden you realize how filthy your floors are, so you decide to mop them. You get the idea… It’s hard to stay focused on the job, when the home has so many distractions. A co-working space allows the flexibility of working from home, while providing the focused environment and resources you need!
3. You may lack resources.
Working from a home office means that every resource you need is up to you to have on hand. A copier, scanner, printer, ink, pens, high-speed wifi, projectors, etc., all become your responsibility. These resources quickly add up. Lacking these resources can also make completing the simplest task, incredibly time consuming and frustrating. Co-working spaces have incredible resources available. High-speed wifi, copiers, printers that always work and have ink, coffee, snacks, pens, etc. are all the responsibility of the co-working space to have on hand! While this may seem small, it saves remote workers countless time and energy.
4. Innovation slows down.
Countless research studies show that people need to be surrounded by others to boost creativity and innovation. While your dog really is a good boy, he most likely isn’t brainstorming and critiquing ideas with you. When you work from home, you miss out on the chance to brainstorm and innovate with other people. Co-working spaces fix this issue, and even allow you the chance to work with others in different industries!
5. You are expected to always be “on.”
You wake up in the morning and roll over and immediately check your work and personal emails. You sit down at the table to take your lunch break and your boss is trying to connect you on a video call. You get up to take a restroom break and hear your computer ding, alerting you that you have a new message. Working from home means that you are always “on the job.” There is no relaxing feeling of walking through your door and being done with work for the day. There’s not a separation of work life from home life. Some employees that work from home often take on more than an employee working in an office setting, because they feel they have all the time in the world, and then realize it’s 8pm before they shut down work for the night. Using a co-working space provides a clear on and off switch for your day!
As the workforce continues to evolve, more and more people will find themselves with the opportunity to work remotely. While working from home sounds like a dream come true for many, it does come with its disadvantages. We believe using a coworking space is the perfect solution to combat the woes of working from home, while maintaining the flexibility that working remotely brings! Avoid the loneliness, isolation, lack of resources, need to always be on, and poor work/life balance dilemma, and use a coworking space to help boost productivity, happiness, and innovation!
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