COVID-19 impact on workplaces; should your company keep working remotely or move back to the office?
COVID-19 pandemic has killed the conventional workplace environment. COVID-19 impact on workplaces can not be unseen. But after the vaccination, there is great hope to get the physical workplaces active again. Is it as simple as described? Probably, not the reality is far complicated. Experts consider that we cannot lead a normal life for decades after this pandemic. Rather our daily routines may move us towards a more precautionary lifestyle.
A greater number of businesses were shut down while others were being operated remotely as an effect of COVID-19. Should you move back to Office or continue working remotely after the pandemic ends? There are mixed voices in the favor of remote work and office-based work.
You can take the right decision after going into the details of both types of the working environment. This article is going to describe to you the positive and negative impacts of remote working and office-based working.
Remote Working environment
During the pandemic of the COVID-19, tech companies improved the apps and technology. The purpose was to help the workers and owners to keep the communication alive. To work remotely from home or online was a new style of working for the majority of businesses globally.
How does remote working facilitate the workers?
You can work remotely by sitting in the drawing-room or at any place in your home. It sounds good to work from home in relaxation but practically it proved an inefficient act. Some consider that it is better to continue working remotely instead of shutting down the offices for a longer time.
Martec group is a research and marketing firm that conducted a popular survey in the pandemic to know what the employees are behaving and thinking about back to work. The survey included 1200 employees nationwide. It listed four types of employees as under:
- Thriving employees
Thriving employees included mostly women and introverted personalities. Female employees were more motivated and satisfied with the job as they could easily manage their home life as well. During the pandemic, company satisfaction also got better.
- Hopeful employees
Hopeful employees, no doubt, have been working from home but searching for productivity as well. This type of employee shows optimism about the job and company to resettle at the previous physical workplace.
- Discouraged employees
Discouraged employees are more extroverted and bearing a decline in mental health and job satisfaction.
- Trapped employees
Traped employees are extroverted employees who miss socializing and office gatherings. This type of employee suffered more mental stress and upset emotions during a pandemic.
However, remote working is based on connectivity. The more worker is connected to the upper-line managers and executives, the better job satisfaction and performance. On the other hand, the employees that lack regular communication with the management lose productivity.
COVID-19 has made our lifestyle more digital and tech-based. To get social, you need to have a smartphone and internet connection.
Hold on a minute and tell; Are you satisfied with your job, keeping your phone camera on, doing work, and presenting your assignment in the group or individually to the executive person?
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Office-based working environment
Do you miss the morning time, when you used to get up early and got ready for office in hurry? An Office-based working environment has its positive impact on the people. Have a look:
- Interpersonal skills are more improved while working in the physical place. Communicating to seniors and guiding the juniors become easier and comfortable as compared to talk online.
- An office promotes a learning environment. Seminars, workshops, and group projects are part of the official workplace. Active employees are missing this practical experience and are optimistic about getting back to the older workplace.
- Remote working often disturbs time management. Online employees do not care for the time-limited targets due to distractions in the surroundings while an office helps to achieve the target in a limited timeframe.
- Remote working has affected the productivity and creativity of a worker. Due to lack of sources, employees are bound to do work in limited resources that affect the performance and job satisfaction as well.
Initially, people considered the remote working relief from the stressful office environment. Later on, the drastic effects of sitting at home led to declining mental health and instigated the people to rethink the official place.
For students, teachers, and other employees in educational institutions, it was a good step to continue the study and its relevant duties online. But remote working could not extract fruitful results for the majority of employers. To take all employees instantly onboard and monitor their assignments and projects sitting at home, is a tougher one.
A study conducted by Slack found that nearly 16 million American employees have been serving the offices by doing remote work since March 2020. Remote work has affected the employees’ sense of connectivity, socializing, and belongingness to the people.
Bottom line
The majority of the people are optimistic about reopening offices and businesses as they used to be before the pandemic COVID-19. Whether you open an office or continue serving the customers remotely, you have to follow the SOP’s set by the state for running your business.
As vaccination of the COVID-19 has started protecting the masses, yet there is a great need to keep the environment and people in the surrounding safe. The age of remote working may end sooner or later. Remote working has lowered down the revenues and performances of the businesses. Millions of people lost their jobs due to low revenues globally.
Hiring and training the new employees are not possible through sitting at home. No doubt, it is a tougher part of the job to train someone as per job requirements. After the pandemic ends, executives and managers have to do work hard again to train the employees face to face. Whether you are in the favor of office reopening or not, it is the need of the hour to move back to the conventional workplace.
