Working from home

The world is in a precarious state right now. People are advised not to go out, even for work. In consequence to this, many companies are allowing their employees to work from home. This has been difficult for some people to adapt, the learning curve may be a bit too steep for them. Working at home is possible thanks to many tools, like emails and Zoom. However, working from home doesn’t go the same for everyone. On one hand, some people feel like they are more productive when working from home, they are more concentrated and have more time to do other activities. But, on the other hand, some people can’t help getting distracted when working at home. You don’t have people constantly keeping an eye on them, so people have less pressure and tend to slack off. Also, at home there are more distractions, no one is looking at what you are doing, you can watch videos on the side, play video games, etc.

Working from home doesn’t have to be detrimental for your performance. Many tips for working from home are given here. One advantage is that you can generally get work done faster. If you work 40 hours a week, if you are productive, you can probably get that work done in less hours, giving you more free time. The key is removing distractions so you can fully focus on your work, but you can take breaks. It’s not about sitting on your computer for 8 hours straight, it’s remote work, you can get up and take a break whenever you want. Taking breaks can increase your work’s quality. Also, since you work through the internet, you have access to everyone on the internet, not just people in your office. Asynchronous communication lets you work at your own place, but for more complex problems a Zoom call is preferred. There are even more advantages of working from home.  You can wear the clothes you like, so you are more comfortable. You can also set up your work environment more freely. Saving money is easier when you cook at home instead of buying lunch at a restaurant. Finally, there’s no commuting, a lot of time can be saved by not going to work physically.

However, working from home is not perfect, if that were the case, it would have been more common previous to the current situation. There are disadvantages to working from home. It’s easier to get bored at home. Also, maybe your work provides you with a better setup that you don’t have at home, such as a second monitor. Moreover, if you are doing video calls constantly you will need good Wi-Fi. If 2 other people are watching Netflix in the house, your experience won’t be ideal. Additionally, video calling has its own set of problems.

Something that can often be overlooked is the security when video conferencing. The first thing you must worry about is what’s behind you. Everyone will be able to see this so you must ensure that you are not showing anything inappropriate. Although I have only used Zoom for school purposes, when using it for work, there are more things you have to worry about. For example, having a whiteboard behind you with confidential information from previous meetings. Something else is controlling the access to the video call, this is essential and can be solved by forcing users to sign in, using a password or having someone approve anyone who wants to join. Also, when working from home, it may be required to send a file to someone else, you must ensure that this transfer is encrypted so no third party can have access to it. Also, similar to what’s behind you, when you share your screen, don’t show anything inappropriate or confident.

As for my personal experience, as I mentioned before, I haven’t worked from home, but I have had classes from home. And I can say that right now I prefer classes inside a physical classroom. I feel like teachers haven’t adapted fully yet. I think I can learn more when taking classes at home when teachers learn to take advantage of the various benefits that come with this. I feel like just putting some slides on the screen and talking is not as effective. Something else that really bothers me are the times at which classes take place. Sure, classes are recorded, but I feel like I would learn more by being there and asking questions when I don’t understand something instead of watching a video and asking a question and then having to wait for the teacher to answer. In my cases, due to time zones, I will have some classes at 5 am, which is not pleasant. I’m not sure if I will even be able to put the required attention while being half asleep.

Overall, working from home and having classes from home is something that’s needed right now. We need to get used to this. At first, the performance might be lower, but if you know how to take advantage of the situation, you can be even more productive than before.