Skip to content

How To Elevate Work From Home (WFH) Amid Covid-19 Pandemic?

Work From Home, a phrase which normally associated with people who use internet to earn some passive income and achieve financial freedom.

Before COVID-19 Strike

Well, that was before 2020, that was before the COVID-19 pandemic created a big mind set change in people conduct their business.

Last time when you told people that you worked from home, the impression given to people was:

  • you were not having a normal job,
  • you were using internet to earn a living, or commonly known as Internet Entrepreneur.

After COVID-19 Strike

Covid-19, a pandemic which forced a lot of businesses to close their office premises or operating outlets, since one of the effective method to contain the spread of this was to curtail the movement of human.

To do that, one of the effective way was to ensure the business outlets close their offices and business outlets.

Staffs need to work from their home so as to reduce the risk of getting infected while commuting to their work place.

With the advancement of technology, office staffs can actually use  internet to do their work, after all when they are in the offices, they are also using internet to access the required information or communicate with fellow workers.

In view of this, with most of the work done online, as long as you have internet connection at home, you will be able to carry out your work from home.

Why work from home?

Work from home reduce the human interaction and thus reduce the transmission of the pandemic through close contact.

Governments encouraged people to work from home, so that the public transports and the malls would have fewer people mingling around.

The New Normal post COVID-19

Therefore, nowadays with the new normal, Work From Home is no longer the privilege of those who earn their living having their businesses online and transacted through internet.

Now if you ask a person whether he works from home, next you need to know

  • whether he is working for himself or
  • he is just another office worker who has to work from home

So for those businesses whose staffs have to work from home, or can work from home.

What are the advantages and disadvantages you can derive from working from home?

Photo by Andrea Davis from Pexels

Pros of working from home.

1. Safer for the staffs who have to work from home.

They do not need to join in the rush to commute to office,  and get infected accidentally due to close contact with people who may be the carrier of the virus, or who does not know he is sick.

2. Businesses still can continue to operate.

Staffs are still doing their work even though they are not physically in the office to work.

3. Companies need less big office space.

By having staffs to work from home, companies suddenly find out -  they do not really need such a big office space to accommodate the staffs, hence, they can reduce their rental on office spaces.

4. Companies' save on utilities bills.

With most of the staffs work from office, electricity consumption will be less since they will not need to have all the air conditions on.

5. Savings on Office supplies.

Since staffs are working from home, those companies which provide beverages and so on will save quite a lot on this.

Con of workings from home.

1. Less interaction among the staffs, may mean the rapport among the staffs may not be that good.

2. Messages and instructions from the bosses may not be conveyed promptly and clearly, any further clarification may not be possible.

3. Productivity of the staffs may not be as effective as in office due to some distraction at home, some females staffs may need to attend to house chores or issues at home or family matters such as kids' matters.

4. Meeting conducted over video conferencing may not be as effective as the physical in person meeting where ideas can be shared freely.

5. For some staffs, this may create some weight issues since less walking or movement and too comfortable for them at home.

6. For some building owners, this can be a not welcome news and development for them, since their tenants may decide to cut down their office rental space once the current tenancy is over.

There are a lot of service office facilities offering full services to cater for those who only need a room office instead of a big office space.

7. It can be bad news for staffs who are sick or medically not well, the boss may say after all you are working from home, while in between your rest, you can do some work!!!

What are the challenges we face working from home during COVID-19 pandemic?

1. Balancing between working life and family life

When both are working from home, we can face the following situation:

  • different working style or business,
  • with different works or video meeting to attend to,
  • attend to the needs of the kids at home.

This is quite a challenge for both husband and wife to work out.

2. Do you create a work environment at home?

This is something a lot of people working from home has to deal with.

If they do create a similar working environment, then:

  • they may have to face it 24 hours a day,
  • instead of just 8 hours as working in the office.

Then how to have normal family home life?

Without looking at the work?

and have your rest to recharge your energy?

3. Being cut off from co-workers

The link and cordial relationship and rapport with co-workers is not there.

If you need to talk to your co-worker:

  • either to discuss on work issue or
  • just to catch up for latest in life or whatever,
  • you can only hear the voice or via video conference.
4. Do you dress up while working from home.

A lot of people tend to dress casually at home even work from home.

If there is a need to have video conferencing, then dress up a bit.

Sometime the worker may have no choice,

Why?

The boss wants to have a video call!!!

The staff will have no choice but to dress up properly.

Can every business work from home?

There are some who can work from home, there are some businesses which require the staff to work on site.

Whether work from home is good or not,  and whether the quality of work is up to the standard or not, depends on one's own judgment.

For those who like to have colleague surrounding them, and who like instant answers and replies, work from home is definitely not his cup of tea.

At the end of the day, balancing between working life and family life in the same place for 24 hours a day, that is a big challenge and shift in mind set.

Please follow and like us:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Verified by MonsterInsights