With the rise of technology the dynamics of our work changes. 100 years ago almost nobody worked in an office. 10 years ago 70-80% of people worked in an office. Today we have the freedom of working remote. There is almost no job that you can do in an office that you can’t do remote. The majority of companies require the average worker to work for 8 straight hours a day. But isn’t this stupid. I mean if I have a company I want something to be done and not how long do you work. So if you work for 8 hours with breaks and everything, you could probably do all the work in 5 hours if you really focused, but you have to stay in for at least 8 hours so it doesn’t matter anyway.
Why does it matter from where I work and how long do I work?
Only a happy employee is a productive employee. Sure you can bully your employees in to working long hours and they will probably do a medium good job. But you will have a majority of employees that are probably looking for a better job, that do as much as needed and not more and so on. But they do their job right? Yes but imagine this scenario. Your employees work remotely for about 6 hours a day for the same amount of money as everybody else doing the same job somewhere else. Studies have showed that you are much more productive if you are happy and satisfied with your job, so that means that your employees do probably as much if not more as employees in other companies. You have just created a company that suddenly everyone would love to work for. Even better, because the majority of your employees work remotely, you can rent a smaller office and save some money. Your employees can move further away from business districts where they can afford a bigger house for the same price + they save time and money on commuting. If everyone would prefer your company to other companies in the same business, then suddenly you can pick the best employees and because they can work remotely they can be even from another country.
So everybody wins?
Well yes and no. Ideally you have a perfect situation, but working remotely does have its drawbacks. People have problems focusing on their tasks. If you work from home the thing is that you get easily distracted. People have problems separating work from their private life. People feel alienated from other coworkers and so on and on.
Does this mean that working remote doesn’t work?
Off course not. It just requires some adaptation to your new working environment. You have to be aware of the pitfalls and try to avoid them. You must have a certain degree of self-control. It is also good if you are well organized, self-motivated and strongly self-driven.
Working remote is obviously not for everyone. But if you like your freedom and still want to the best at what you do no matter where you live, this may be the thing you were looking for. Companies who are thinking of letting people work from home should do this very methodically. They should prepare for it, and start on by one employee for a day in a week. Your employees should have time to adapt to their new working routine. Educate them and give them some time and everybody will be happy at the end.