Busting the myths of working from home (well, maybe)
Sotoday, Friday 17th May, is National Work from Home Day,an initiative that’s been run by not-for-profit Work Wise UK since 2006 topromote modern, ‘smarter’ working practices.
Ilike to think that at Wildfire we’re already on the right road to supportingour team with flexible ways to work. And so we should be, as we represent many tech clientsthat enable more collaborative, productive ways of working regardless of whereemployees are based.
Wedo believe it’s important to bring our team of 28 people together, in person,at least some of the time every week, but this is balanced with work from homeoptions, desk space in a shared London office and spending time at clients’offices.
Forme, working from home a day or so a week ‘works’. It cuts down on a 30-milecommute, allows me to focus on tasks that need real concentration, and itbrings that all-important work-life balance.
However,I do find myself having to brush off some preconceived ideas — usually fromthose who aren’t in an ‘office-type’ job. My Mum thinks it’s perfectlyacceptable to call me when I’m working from home as I’m not really ‘at work’.While my sister believes I spend the day watching back-to-back Homes Under theHammer.
Oh,if they only knew. Here are a few assumptions that people typically make abouthome working and my personal experience of what it’s really like:
- We have loads of extra time. Admittedly, the‘commute’ from my bed to the home office isn’t a long one but clocking on at9:00am and closing the laptop at 5:15pm is rare, as the discipline of knowingwhen to ‘down tools’ is missing.
- We work in our PJs. Well, I prefer to refer to my more casualattire as ‘lounge wear’. But yes, ok, sometimes I find myself wearing loosetrousers and an old t-shirt all day.
- We don’t do very much. The reason I tend to find myself in‘comfy clothes’ all day is that I throw these on when I get up at 7am, make acup of tea, open the laptop to check my email and three hours later I realiseI’ve barely moved.
- We over-communicate to prove we’re working. The thing about beingin the office is that everyone can literally see you. At home, sending messagesand emails are the way to be visible when you are not physically present— at a frequency that is rare when actually in the office.
- We get our washing done, so we don’t have to do it at theweekend.Ok, this one is true. But let’s be honest, filling a washing machine with a‘full load’, throwing in a laundry capsule and pressing the ‘on’ button takesabout as much time as it does to make a cup of tea when in the office.
WhileI’m lucky enough to work in a company that supports work-life balance, I know manybusinesses remain sceptical about flexible working. But the evidence of thebenefits, such as better employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity, ismounting.
Sowhile working from home isn’t something that suits everyone (and for some it’ssimply not possible), Work from Home Day seems an apt time for every businessto consider new ways of working.