The year 2020 has been the most tumultuous year for most countries including India. With already falling global economy, China giving the gift of Covid-19 to the entire world has just added to the woes. As the cases of the Pandemic rose, the world saw the adoption of a new work culture – Work from Home.
Though this concept existed much before the rise of the global Pandemic and was already in practice in some organizations to some degree particularly in the IT sector, it wasn’t until Covid-19 came knocking on our doorsteps that this became more publicized and practiced. For those who do not know or are perhaps unable to guess the concept from its obvious name, Work from Home is a practice where the employees work remotely from their homes, meaning they need not come physically to the Organization’s premises and can simply ‘Log in’ from their homes and work on the same stuff that they did when they were in office. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, it is and it is not.
While it is much better for the companies and in some respect for the employees, it has certain big disadvantages that cannot be ignored which are much damaging for the companies in the long run. Work from Home situation is great in the short term for both the companies and the employees increasing the productivity and profit, but it should NOT be adopted as a permanent practice for running a business and I will give you the reasons for declaring so.
- ‘No time to play’
While it is much easier and comfortable for people to be at home, but it is best for just that – being comfortable and relaxed. Home is generally a place of ease, of comfort – a safe space, where a person can forget about the trials and tribulations he has faced during the day, where his mind automatically relaxes from thinking about the many worries that has lined his face during the day. But, with work from home nothing of the sort happens. The employee has to be on their toes, working and being in that ‘corporate mode’ throughout. The work comes through their managers at odd hours with the reminder that they are at home. - ‘Stressing out’
This is partly explained in the above point. The employee has to be constantly alert having his mind occupied with the same work stress which may have possessed his mind if he was in the office during the day. Needless to say, this has an adverse affect on the mental health of the person. Not to mention the resentment the employee feels towards their work leading to gradual disinterest to indifference towards their work/business. As human capital is the most important resource for any organization to earn money, this has major implications which will negatively affect the organization and their business in the most adverse way.
And this makes it the biggest disadvantage of WFH concept. - ‘Enough!’
Stressing out because of the point mentioned above eventually leads to complete indifference towards work. “Let the business suffer, I don’t care” – this will become the prominent thought that constantly comes in the mind whenever the employee is given a directive to perform some task. But since the employee has to keep working to earn their salary anyhow, they work with half the interest and dedication. Needless to say, this affects the regular output of the employee, and the work will see half the efficiency with which it gets done. The final blunt is sustained by organization in terms of productivity, meeting customer’s requirement and achieving customer satisfaction.
The above are the big 3 reasons that are big disadvantages to any company. The organization must morph their HR employee policies so that the employee does not face any additional stress due to WFH scenario as in the long run this will lead to huge employee dissatisfaction. The WFH will show you an increased attrition rate in the organization which needless to say, is not good for any organization’s image and finances.
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