So many people want to work from home as it makes life easier. But what if it’s not making life easier? What if it’s making life more challenging?
To be 100% upfront and transparent, I’ve worked at home exclusively for the past 13 years. I have no plans to go back into the office. But sometimes, I miss face-to-face coworker interaction. While I do many Zoom meetings and meet friends for lunch, everything is so scheduled. There’s minimal spontaneous conversation with coworkers about work or what we’re watching on Netflix.
Working from home is an excellent thing for many people. The time saved by being able to commute down the hall rather than an hour through metropolitan traffic is a life saver for many.
Working from home allows many people more time with their family, friends, pets, and hobbies. Those are great things! Not to mention the convenience of ordering everything on the internet and being home to collect the packages, thwarting the efforts of porch pirates everywhere.
But what if it’s not sunshine and roses for everyone? What if working from home is actually bad for some people? Some researchers discovered some downsides that you should be aware of. To be perfectly clear, no study said this happened to everyone or that no one should work from home. But, it is clear that working from home isn’t the best thing for everyone.
Here are some of the problems researchers found and how you can help your employees succeed anyway.
To keep reading, hop over to Workable by clicking here: WFH depression: why it happens and what you can do
Although I don’t like to commute, I would not like to work at home full time, because my house is full of clutter, and I do not have enough space to do my job. My spouse works from home, and he saves everything. I much prefer working in a professional office, without the distractions of home.
During periods of unemployment, I have occasionally done some freelance work at home. I did not like it (except for the income I earned).
With the exception of two days, I have worked from home since the beginning of the pandemic. Because my work has always involves talking and videoconferencing with people hundreds or thousands of miles away, and not talking to anyone in my offices, WFH has been amazing and I would be thrilled to never be in an office ever again.
Before all this I would commute 45 minutes each way to locally talk to exactly nobody. It was so stupid. This is so much better.