Can WFH increase employees' work productivity?

[Nocturnal Thinker]

We are now living in the worse time of our life which was brought by the most dreaded disease, Coronavirus in this present dispensation of time. And it terrified everybody for it spreads all over the world. It becomes pandemic.

As of this writing, the world numer of cases has reached to 30,987,466 with 961,401 deaths and 22,587,048 recoveries. It's about 73% rate of recovered patients.

This inevitable dismal situation the economy is greatly affected. Imagine there are only limited number of employees who are reporting to work and others are working from home because of strict health protocols.

That means the productive work of the employees is very low and that will lead to the overall business impact to its disadvantage. Therefore working from home isn't a feasible. What do you think?

image: pixabay

 

[ewpratt]

I personally am more productive working form home than from the office. At the office I am constantly interrupted from my own work to help someone else with theirs (I actually like helping, but it does cut into productivity). At home, the interruptions are far less.

I will say that collaboration is a bit more difficult when working remotely, but not impossible. My company uses both Microsoft Teams (internal meetings) and Cisco WebEx (external meetings), in addition to Salesforce, email, Yammer, Confluence, and several other tools (for different purposes), so communications are a part of the everyday workday.

 

[Nocturnal Thinker]

I personally am more productive working form home than from the office. At the office I am constantly interrupted from my own work to help someone else with theirs (I actually like helping, but it does cut into productivity). At home, the interruptions are far less.

I will say that collaboration is a bit more difficult when working remotely, but not impossible. My company uses both Microsoft Teams (internal meetings) and Cisco WebEx (external meetings), in addition to Salesforce, email, Yammer, Confluence, and several other tools (for different purposes), so communications are a part of the everyday workday.

WFH is really very ideal for you that you have used it productively. But you are just one who said that you have proven it for there is less distraction unless in your office there were so many intervening factors.

When did you start working from home? Have you made an arrangement with your boss or the management? By the way, what kind of job you do? How do you measure work productivity?

It is but natural for WFH employee would have to communicate with his bosses via teleconferencing by the use of Zoom or whatever means of communication to report what he has accomplished.

 

[ewpratt]

WFH is really very ideal for you that you have used it productively. But you are just one who said that you have proven it for there is less distraction unless in your office there were so many intervening factors.

When did you start working from home? Have you made an arrangement with your boss or the management? By the way, what kind of job you do? How do you measure work productivity?

It is but natural for WFH employee would have to communicate with his bosses via teleconferencing by the use of Zoom or whatever means of communication to report what he has accomplished.

Odd thing is, I have 2 young children, so I do have distractions. But I also have a rule that they need to stay out of my office when the door is closed.

I started working from home a couple days a week about a year ago. Prior to that it was an occasional thing. Now, with the pandemic, it's full time, and I've gotten authorization to keep it full time even once the company starts bringing everyone back into the office.

 

[fantanoice]

People are stressed out from the pandemic. Stress has a negative effect on you regardless of whether you're in an office or not.

 

[Anuj Dhawan]

It depends on what kind of profession are you in - based on that, working from home can/can't be productive. If you are in to IT, Information Technology - it would not make much of difference between office and WFH as long as you've your work-station (laptop) with you with an internet connection. One might require VPN to securely log-in to company network but that's very much business as usual these days. In such a situation as espratt, said it's very much doable. In fact we end up doing more for the company.

On the other hand, I've one of my friend who is in to sales job - he has to visit his client to sell his products. Even if he calls up his clients - he/his-team does not get that connect to actually sell his product. Apparently, 'productivity' goes down.

 

[Claraviolet]

I do believe it can increase employees productivity.
It's just that, there should be a limit to how much work we could allocate them. Right now, I have been working more than 10 hours a day just because my manager believes WFH is easy and efficient.

I asked for a release as I just can't agree with my manager. I work in IT field and resource allocation is not always good, in this field. So, it's better to understand a few things before allocating more and more work to an employee, just because they are working from home now.

 

[Riker Slade]

I think it can be great. You can take care of your family and do work at the same time.

 

[Jeremy]

I am more productive working from home, because am working at my comfort zone. It makes me to dedicate more time to whatever task I want to do. And I get it completed withing the time frame of submission.

 

[Nocturnal Thinker]

It depends on what kind of profession are you in - based on that, working from home can/can't be productive. If you are in to IT, Information Technology - it would not make much of difference between office and WFH as long as you've your work-station (laptop) with you with an internet connection. One might require VPN to securely log-in to company network but that's very much business as usual these days. In such a situation as espratt, said it's very much doable. In fact we end up doing more for the company.

On the other hand, I've one of my friend who is in to sales job - he has to visit his client to sell his products. Even if he calls up his clients - he/his-team does not get that connect to actually sell his product. Apparently, 'productivity' goes down.

Well, based in your discussion the productivity of one's work is tied to its nature. Isn't it?

In marketing and sales department is greatly affected by their sales representatives who working outside.