Working from home has been beneficial but should it be the only option?
For the last 2 years, the pandemic has brought us many things. It has brought us opposing opinions, sickness, death, vaccines, and so much more. One of the biggest things that the pandemic has brought to the career world is working from home. Working remotely has been the safest way that companies can socially distance their employees while not having to require everyone to be in the office. Working from home has been a blessing for some as it has helped them focus more, be more productive, and have the chance to do more with their lives with the time they save from not commuting.
Many people have thrived while working from home and some businesses have seen it. Many companies out there such as Twitter, Facebook, and Spotify have made working from home a permanent thing for all their employees. There are still many companies out there who still have their employees who have worked from an office while other companies are doing a hybrid approach with some employees in the office and some working from home.
The aspect of working from home is pretty simple. You have a designated area where you can isolate yourself to work on your daily tasks while communicating with your employers from the comfort of your own home. There are some people out there who feel working from home should be the new normal now, while others who miss the “office social life” feel that working from home should only be an option. Sure, standing around a water cooler and chit-chatting with your friends at work is nice. You get to have a face-to-face interaction when most things are done online, and you get to see your favourite work friends.
With the unpredictable future of Covid-19, it is hard to know if the world we used to live in will ever return or if the life of social distancing will be forever our way of life. One aspect that many of us don’t realize is the mental health potential that working from home has. There are millions of people in this world who suffer from social anxiety. Social anxiety can be crippling and hard to manage but in a world where you have to be around people to work can have most people push that stress down and just deal with it in order to make a living.
The benefit of working from home leaves people who suffer from things such as social anxiety or anxiety in general in the workplace get to feel more successful by having a chance to focus better on succeeding. Without the constant flare-ups of social anxiety or any mental health issues, people can really show their worth instead of having to worry about how they are going to deal with the day-to-day in their workplace. Work stress, in general, can be a painful thing people deal with and of course, that still may happen but you’re not having to hold it in as much as sitting in a cubical.
The sheer fact that you can roll out of bed, take a few steps, and be at work is an amazing thing if you think about it. We get to work all day in comfortable clothes instead of the stiff corporate mandatory dress-coded outfits and have a chance to literally be home as soon as we leave our home office. You can’t really get better than that. There are also people out there who are using working from home to better their health on their work breaks, getting much-needed things done around the house on their work breaks, and even enjoying a homemade meal for lunch.
Working from home to some of us is a bit of a blessing in disguise. There have been so many people out there quitting their current jobs when working from home is no longer an option. They do this out of wanting to feel safe, as well as not going back to an environment they are less comfortable with. We are creatures of habit, so when the time comes for change to happen 90% of the time, we are not going to be happy about it. No one wants to uproot an environment we have been comfortable in for over 2 years.
When it comes time to return to our offices of the previous past, you will most likely be torn. Do you want to continue to work from home or go back to the office environment? I am sure 9 out of 10 people would choose to stay home. It is too convenient and motivating to want to go back to the way things were. As mentioned earlier, mental health issues in the workplace have seemed to dwindle down (depending on the person and type of work). Personally, I have been working from home for almost 2 years, and the fact that I can put on my noise-canceling headphones, listen to podcasts, and stay hyper-focused in a dark room while I work is heaven to me.
As someone who suffers from mental health issues in the workplace such as social anxiety and many more issues, working from home has been quite nice. When you are working from home you avoid the distractions that come with working in an office. You don’t have many people coming to your desk for a quick chat to distract you from work, the countless loud conversations, or the stress that working in an office can bring.
Most people like to put their nose to the grindstone and work for the weekend (as the catchy ’80s song mentions). The harder we work the quicker the weekend will come to us. It is just a common thing. Working from now is a common thing many of us hope that this continues to be how working experiences are going forward. Are you a person who loves working from home or is indifferent about it? Look at all the variables there are out there on both sides before deciding to make a change of environment.
