The Wonders and Pitfalls of Working from Home

Why work on the office if you could have the same work while staying at your own home? In this day and age, lots of career-oriented individuals are slowly shifting paradigms when it comes to their chosen jobs. Employees are now drawn into working from the comforts of their own home as it promises the same benefit with as little hassle.

One common dilemma that most employers had to deal with is retaining their employees. This is often made more challenging when even the best staff had to leave in order to attend some really important duty at home.

With an opportunity to work at home, there is better retention of employees. Employees who want to opt of the traditional work set up may now do so while at home. This spares the employer the burden of having to look for another competent individual to fill a slot.

Working at home also paves the way for a bigger pool of potential employees. There are so many competent and qualified candidates who easily get put off by the inconvenience of having to work in the office. These competent individuals may even include the disabled who cannot afford to travel and commute.

The work-from-home set up also maximizes employees’ efficiency as they deal with less stress that usually comes from having to commute from home to work and back. Yet another beauty to working from home is the promise of an extra income. Since employees need not commute anymore, they could maximize the time to double the work especially if compensation is commensurate to how a home-based employee delivers. This is a win-win situation for both employer and employee.

In working from home, you avoid the traffic, you spend little or none with clothes (no specific rules unless the nature of the job requires so as in telemarketing) and commuting, and you save more time and money!

But it is not all rainbows and butterflies:

Working from home also poses a few setbacks. For one, working from home may cause a person to feel isolated. While it is true that working home allows as much convenience as possible, working from home takes away the beauty of having an immediate support system.

Distractions may yet be the biggest disadvantage to working from home as this affects almost everyone, especially the parents – Working moms usually had to put up with distractions caused by their little kids. One moment they had to change diapers, next moment they had to breastfeed them, the next moment they are lost in the online word, playing free online bingo – which is not that bad for a little relaxation from being stressed out from their work.

Before you know it, they missed the deadline. This shows working from home to be very difficult in terms of monitoring the employees by the hour. By virtue of domino effect, poor monitoring may also result in poor performance and decreased efficiency on the part of the employee.

Perhaps one of the most obvious pitfall is the increase in almost every costs—telecommunication, training, staff development, etc. It may also be harder to maintain team spirit. Most of all, working from home is not suitable for all types of jobs.

It is truly a promising paradigm. But before one finally decides to leave the traditional work set up, it is best to arm oneself of the truth that working from home is not always “happy ever-after.”

AUTHOR BIO: Apple is a clayist, freelance writer, band vocalist and OPM enthusiast. Also likes art, tattoos, online games and photography – learned some of it. She’s also planning to have her own online store.