Work From Home Is Not The Problem

It is an overloaded and saturated topic, but I just wanted to share an opinion outside of the noise of LinkedIn. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the corporate work expectations and habits forever. Companies and employees alike adapted to hybrid work hours (most commonly 3 days in office, 2 days at home), and some even started working fully remotely. Recently, it has been a topic of heated debate, where many employees expect hybrid work hours, or search for fully remote jobs, while the tendency from corporations is to Return To Office (RTO). Companies are now shifting towards 4 days in office hybrid schedules or fully committing to 5 days in office, with the expectations of promoting much needed ‘collaboration and teamwork’ that can only be achieved through in-person work, meetings and events. Most times, the decisions are not made based on numerical data on enhanced productivity and efficiency, but rather following the industry trends of other companies. ‘We saw this NextDayShipping Company return to office, so we are going to do it too’ is all the reasoning and proof that executives need to make the same decision for their respective companies.

For many of us, working a hybrid schedule is quite often beneficial and provides balanced work hours. The biggest reason for this is the ability to have flexible work hours, specially during those work from home days. Unless company culture and managers encourage flexible hours on a normal basis, it is unlikely that that some errands will easily get done if we are working 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. We have grown accustomed to being able to quickly hit the dentist, the post office, or the bank for an hour on our WFH days, yet still perfectly being able to manage all of the work required. It is this flexibility of not requiring to often waste 1 to 2 hours commuting each day that enhances our eases our anxiety for things that we NEED to get done, or providing us with the extra hour of much needed sleep to perform better. The days in the office already provide much of the quick help, constructive interactions and collaborations that help foster a welcoming and tightly knit team. Working from home for a day or two is not taking away from the benefits of face-to-face interactions, on the contrary, it helps balance work and life, and sometimes even helps replenish some of that social battery that gets drained.

That being said, there are many people that believe working from home justifies what this guy above is doing. This often leads to company managers, directors and executives to believe this too. WFH is by no means taking the day off. Remote work is based off trust and giving employees the responsibility to handle tasks, deadlines and deliverables by themselves, while allowing for balancing real life tasks alongside them. The problem is that these people really do exist, and I am sure that social media and TikTok videos bragging about their ‘at home office and work from home day’ haven’t helped the cause much for the ones that are actually being productive at home. Companies are reducing their remote hours or fully returning to office 5 days a week in hopes to increase productivity. The biggest problem here is that the people like Steve upstairs having a blast on their work from home day, can just show up in the office and touch their b***s all day and still boast about a productive day of work. More often than not, companies are afraid to directly tackle the problem and fire them. Managers are either too blind to see, or not prepared to handle hard but necessary conversations and decisions. Indiscriminate layoffs are unfortunate for everyone, but seems that it is the only way to get rid of deadweight at this point given that middle-management does not step up to handle these problems. At the end of the day, even though it is the adult corporate world, it still seems like a children’s classroom, where everyone pays the price for a couple of kids doing dumb things.