We explain to you what it is home officeits history and benefits. Also, recommendations to do it productively and efficiently.
What is the home office?
Home office (from English “home office”“, literally) is a term from English that refers to office work done from home, that is, to teleworking or remote work that is done from home, generally through computer tools and telecommunications (ICT). Like all Anglicisms or loanwords from English, home office It should always be written in italics.
Throughout the 20th century, the home office It was a rarity, since there was a tendency to centralize a company's processes in its offices or headquarters. However, the progress towards a decentralized productive model, typical of the global era and The incorporation of the Internet into working life allowed the emergence of remote work or teleworking, whether from home or other locations.
This trend was key during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, in which numerous national and regional quarantines occurred, and this forced us to rethink the work dynamic. He home office It was the provisional solution to face this context.
Benefits of home office
Among the benefits and virtues of home officeare found:
- Allows maintaining work dynamics in extraordinary situations, as long as workers have a stable internet service.
- Saves workers time and money by not having to travel from home to the office, nor having to eat on the street. This time can be invested in leisure, family moments, studies or attending to other obligations.
- Saves the employer from paying rent and services since the worker does not need a physical job.
- Provides greater autonomy and independence to the worker as you can organize your work life and structure your day more flexibly.
- Improvement in quality of life of workers brings with it an increase in their productivity.
Challenges of home office
Just as it has clear virtues, the home office It also implies certain challenges, such as:
- Requires furniture, infrastructure and often quality internet service that not all workers have or can afford.
- Forces the worker to structure his day on his own which requires self-discipline and certain strategies to separate work from home life.
- May involve an investment in physical and digital tools by the worker and/or the employer, such as laptops or remote management programs.
- The company must have the necessary procedures and systems to organize and monitor the work made.
- Promotes isolation and employee disengagement, which can go against their sense of organizational belonging.
- Expose the work to all kinds of family and home distractions.
- The work dynamic can invade the living spaces of the home so very clearly established limits are required. That makes, for example, overtime difficult to calculate.
Recommendations for a good home office
To achieve a dynamic home office healthy, productive and effective, it is worth taking into account the following tips:
- Create a workspace. This means that you should create an office inside your home, an exclusive space to dedicate yourself to work, isolated as much as possible from the rest of the areas of the home. It is not convenient to work at the same table where you eat or in bed, but in a place where work matters are contained. This environment must, however, be as pleasant as possible: good lighting, comfortable surroundings, and must have the essential work tools.
- Apply ergonomics. There is a reason why companies invest in chairs, tables and other equipment for their employees: ergonomics. An ordinary chair will never be a true replacement for an office chair, and that is why it may be a good idea to invest in the appropriate implements and furniture so as not to harm the body or deplete the available energy so quickly.
- Invest in good internet service. If the digital connection will be the main source of income, it is logical to invest in a stable, reliable and fast connection, which will not let us down at key moments such as a video conference or a high-level meeting. It is also a good idea to invest in a suitable computer and the necessary work implements.
- Respect work hours. Even if there is no formal schedule, it is advisable to set an “in” and “out” time for work, to structure the work day and prevent office matters from invading your private life. At the end of the day, working at home doesn't mean turning your home into a full-time office. But this cannot be an excuse for irresponsibility or tardiness either.
- Do not abandon physical exercise. The fact that the office is inside the home can make us forget that we are spending hours sitting in the same place. This poses a severe health risk. So every hour of work we must stop, walk a little, do certain stretches and, at the end of the day, go for a jog or do some physical activity to strengthen the body.
- Maintain communication with the work team. Isolation and loneliness are major drawbacks of home officeso communication dynamics between employees, bosses and colleagues must be maintained to sustain motivation. Likewise, workers should encourage their social life, since spending the entire day working at home can bring with it feelings of loneliness, irrelevance, and abandonment.
Home office and teleworking
Although similar, teleworking and home office They are not necessarily the same thing. Both consist of carrying out work tasks outside the office, but in the specific case of home officethese are done at home. It could be said, thus, that he home office It is a type of teleworking, like there are others.
In fact, a trend among digital workers is what is known as the digital nomadismthat is, the possibility of working via the Internet while being in places very far away and different from the office: a beach in the Maldives, a hotel in the United States or a cafeteria in Finland.
Continue with: Workaholic
References
- “Teleworking” on Wikipedia.
- “Home Office. “Working at home and the New Normal” (video) on TV UNAM (Mexico).
- “How are productivity and home office related in the brain? Expert explains the pros and cons of working at home” in Infobae (Argentina).
