Pros and cons of working from home

The current situation concerning the coronavirus outbreak has forced almost everyone to sit tight at home. While many of us were unfortunate enough to lose our jobs, a sizeable chunk of the population can still work from home. However, this is a new professional setting for many, and the novices to the work-from-home dynamic would do well to know what they’re getting into. For that reason, we are going to tell you about the pros and cons of working from home.

Pros and cons of working from home: the good

Save on gas and lunch money – much of the state’s services are down. You can still hire professional movers Miami offers, and you can still rely on a handful of services, but the rest is on freeze – which likely includes your workplace.

That may sound bad, but it will actually save you more cash than you think. A lot of money goes into a daily commute and buying lunch. But now that you’re working from home, you no longer have to endure those expenses. Granted, if you’re in the middle of a move, you’ll still be working with movers Pembroke Pines or other places offer, you’ll nevertheless have to do some traveling, thereby spending more cash.

No need for professional attire – even though it looks great, business clothes aren’t always the most comfortable in the world. As soon as you move to Miami you realize that the temperature and humidity doesn’t agree with the wool-heavy garments of the professional setting.

But while working remotely, every day is casual Friday! Of course, you might need to dress up at least a tad for a video-call meeting, but you’ll mostly be able to sit back in your most comfy jammies. To be frank, this one could go into both the pros and cons of working from home depending on whether you like dressing to the nines.

Family, Flexibility

Family time – you’ll be enjoying only a scant few parts of your usual schedule. Looking for moving companies Miami Dade for your future move aside, you’ll have little else to do but work at home and stay at home.

It may sound like a bummer, but you can turn this into an advantage of working from home. This is the perfect time for getting some real family time. You’re all going to spend far more time together, after all, so you might as well make the best of it.

Great flexibility – the rigid 9-to-5 working hours make a lot of sense for on-site work. That’s because you still need to have spare time for other parts of your life: house chores, downtime, family, and the like.

One of the pros of working remotely is that the at-home working environment doesn’t really call for such a hard-set structure. You’re basically in the position to either relax or work 24/7. This means that you can create your own schedule that suits your personality (nighthawks and early birds alike). That said, your employer might nevertheless insist on strict shifts, and you should definitely check that with them.

Pros and cons of working from home: the bad

Isolation – one of the most commonly cited challenges of working remotely is that of isolation. After all, they spend most of their time on their own while at work, either at home or at a
café/library/shared office space surrounded by strangers. Depending on whether you’re introverted or not, this one could honestly belong in both the pros and cons of working from home.

All the same, this feeling of isolation may not affect you at first, but it does get more intense in time. It’s a little difficult to solve this issue, sadly. One of the things that helps, though, is staying in touch with your coworkers. Keeping up communication with your colleagues is the best way to make it far less of an issue.

Home distractions – your home is a wonderful place for you to relax (or, at least, we hope it is). But it’s also a very lively place: the TV or computer is likely on a lot of the times, you have chores to take care of, your family or flatmates go about their business, and so on.

All of this noise can be pretty distracting for you while you’re working. It’s true that the office also has its share of noise, but in terms of attention melting,  it’s not much compared to watching a movie or doing the cooking. You’ll have to juggle your professional and home responsibilities a lot, so be prepared for a hectic period before adjusting.

Communication, home office, unplugging

Sub-optimal communication with colleagues – even the average small business can contain hundreds of employees. This doesn’t normally present a problem, seeing that on-site communication runs pretty smoothly (assuming that the right infrastructure is in place).

However, the only way of communicating with remote workers is via the Internet or cell phones. This can create a line of complications when a large business transitions to a remote mode in a hurry. People might not respond in time (if at all), and explaining things clearly/efficiently can be tiresome. And you can imagine how a meeting with 50 people looks online – not to mention all the possible technical mishaps that can set back projects.

Setting up a home office – we already talked about the various distractions that working from home entails. To combat this annoyance, some people opt to carve out a little space in their homes for work. That way, they can isolate themselves from the hustle and bustle of the great indoor.

For some workers, simply choosing a quiet room is good enough. However, some professions need a little more than that. Maybe they need more equipment which needs to be transported there. Perhaps they need better lighting. Either way, these modifications to your home office will inevitably cost money.

Unplugging from work – remote work tends to blur the lines between work time and “you” time. This makes sense since most people fail to single out a slice of time devoted only to work. And that’s exactly the piece of advice for you: have a set amount of time separated for work and leave the rest for yourself.

Pros and cons of working from home summarized

Here’s a brief summary of our pros and cons of working from home.

Pros:

• Save on gas and money
• No need for professional attire
• Family time
• Great flexibility

Cons:

• Home distractions
• Isolation
• Sub-optimal communication with colleagues
• Setting up a home office
• Unplugging from work