No, I’m not talking about the TV show. That took a wrap a long time ago! I’m talking about the space you occupy during a typical working day.
In this ‘new’ world we live in of masks and hand sanitizer, does it still make sense to be leaving the comfort of our homes to do tasks that we could realistically do from our living rooms or home offices? Is it practical to sit on public transport or in vehicles that clog up motorways to make the commute to work?
As someone who has worked from home for nearly 12 months, I don’t see why businesses waste their time on office space. There is minimal reason to hold up space for your employees to trek to each day to do jobs they could potentially give more to, simply from being in the comfort of their own homes.
If we look at the more traditional workplaces, such as banks, these often receive complaints about inflexible open hours. We are all so used to getting anything we want at the touch of a button that having to do something within a set time-frame is becoming increasingly inconvenient. More and more workplaces are working around flexibility, and why shouldn’t they? Studies show us how important work-life balance is, and let’s face it, as an employee, if you’re happy and settled, you are likely to put more into your work.
I’m a perfect example of this. My previous role was stringent and structured, allowing little motion to accommodate my family and personal life. Inevitably, I walked away from this secure, well-paying job to pursue other opportunities. My priorities changed, as many peoples have since the dreaded COVID hit. Most of us are craving more flexibility, the ability to work around our families, rather than our families and life fitting in around work. Having to be at the same place for 8 hours every day for the same 8 hours, likely seeing the same people, becomes very monotonous.
Consequently, so many people are saying enough! There are droves of us packing up our lives, traveling around Australia, or wanting to work from home. At the very least, we want a better balance between the two, and there are a lot more conversations about working to live rather than living to work.
Employers often put constraints on when things must be done to control work output. If employers really wanted to get the maximum bang for their buck, they would sit down with each employee, discuss when they work best, and accommodate that within their tasks. I, for example, work best at night-time. If you try to get me to do something in the mornings, it will likely take me three times longer than if you ask me to complete the exact same task after 7 pm. It makes no sense to push myself out into an office in the mornings, knowing I won’t be productive. Similarly, it doesn’t make sense for me to be in an office by myself at all hours of the night when I can complete my job without the commute.
The best employers are the ones that provide flexibility to their staff within their hours. This puts them in the good books with said staff but is also a clever maneuver for their business. By playing to their staff’s strengths, they can maximize output and keep their staff for longer as the flexibility and enjoyment that their team get from their role increases triple fold.
I can hear you saying, ‘but it doesn’t work like that all the time,’ and of course, it won’t. But didn’t the lock-down periods prove how quickly we could pivot? When push came to shove, we accepted that so many business dealings could be done remotely. There were so many people in office jobs who were able to keep earning an income from the comfort of their own homes.
Four years ago, who would have believed that a doctor’s visit could be conducted via phone call or video link? The list of these examples goes on and on.
In my own humble opinion, the office is dead. If you are looking for more flexibility in your life, write down all the current tasks that your job entails, and think about how tasks could be done remotely. If this is something that appeals to you, approach your boss about it, you might be surprised by the answer! You may need to think outside the box for some things, but for most of you, there is no reason that you wouldn’t be able to do part or all of your role from home.