Working In The Home Office - Challenges For Employees And Their Bosses

In the past, the world of work was organized simply and clearly. As an employee, you made your way to the office in the morning from Monday ...

In the past, the world of work was organized simply and clearly. As an employee, you made your way to the office in the morning from Monday to Friday and then drove home again in the evening. The times were clearly defined and the place of work was clearly separated from the private environment. After work, you could sit back and relax, since work didn't have to interest you until the next day.

However, for a number of years, these structures have been undergoing a process of change that was slow at first but is now accelerating. In the beginning, there were still things like flexitime models, today many only work from their home office and theoretically wouldn’t need to leave the house at all. And this is exactly what the following is about. Is working from home really as relaxed and nice as you might imagine, or are there also disadvantages and challenges? We would like to take a closer look at this below and find answers.

What exactly does "working from home" actually mean?

Giving an exact definition is not that easy when it comes to a topic like working from home, as there are countless variants and individual aspects. In general, however, one can say that the point is that an employee no longer has to be present in a company, but can work from home or from a café. Nevertheless, conferences for coordination continue to take place and team and project work still has to be mastered.

What are the challenges for companies?

Previously, all workers could always be found at a specific place at specific times and could therefore be reached quickly and easily and asked about possible problems. Now every worker has to be asked by phone or digitally and may not have all the documents to hand at the moment. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to make all data accessible to all data subjects from anywhere. For example, cloud or on-premises solutions from Gdata are conceivable for this.

Efficient home office work is only possible in the long term if everyone has access to the information and also has the appropriate technical equipment with the appropriate workplace.

challenges for workers

But working from home is not only a change for companies. Some changes are also needed for workers. Because even if the home office appears at first glance to be more relaxed and in the end maybe even less work, this is usually not the case.

Although there is no need to commute to work, you sometimes work at unusual times and sometimes even longer to complete a specific job. In the office, this would be postponed to the next day. The separation between work and private life, which is so important, is also much more difficult to maintain in the home office. However, in order to be able to work successfully in the home office in the long term, there must be a clear separation. Therefore, always stick to fixed working hours and create a “real” job for yourself. Do not work on the sofa or in bed, but in a defined place, which can then be left alone after work!