More cons than pros of work from home

double edged

At some point in life, all professionals desire the liberty of working from home. The comfort of not travelling to and from office, and at the same time finishing targets as per one’s own preferred timings, lures employees, especially women with families.

Many Indian and multi-national companies like Micro-soft, IBM, HP and Cisco allow their employees to work from home. Besides letting the employees work at their pace, the policy helps these companies reduce some infrastructure cost.

It might work in the favour the employer, but according to a recent study, employees who work from home toil harder than their office peers who commute on a daily basis. The study says that employees who work from home slog away for at least seven hours a week longer than those in office.

Metrolife interacts with some young professionals who work from home to find out whether the option of not going to office is a boon or a bane.

Nishca Arora, whose office is in Gurgaon and who stays in south Delhi, says she tends to ‘overdo’ in order to prove to her office that she is actually working and not having fun. Her office lets her work from home as and when she wants.

“The good thing is that I don’t need to necessarily work on a chair-table. I can work lying in my bed. It saves the time I would spend on commuting and dressing up. But since I don’t want people out there in office to think that I am having fun at home, I put in extra hours. The amount of labour, however, remains the same as I would put in office,” she shares.

“Since one works in a non-official environment at home, the distractions are many. One also dabbles in multiple things, and if you have husband and children then the working hours are bound to continue till late evening,” adds Nishca.

Sanchita Guha, who shifted from office to work from home few days ago agrees. She says the working hours are definitely longer.

“When you work from home, people tend to assume that you are on duty the whole day. Then, the calls from office and official acquaintances never stop coming. I stay alone and don’t do multiple things but I can understand that family doesn’t leave you alone. They somehow don’t understand that you are working when at home,” she says.

Then there are those who have the option of working from home but hardly exercise it. They feel that besides adding to the working hours, it lessens the scope to get social with their office peers.

“It is a good option but going to office is also a way to socialise. I know many people who have the option of not going to office everyday but they don’t enjoy it,” says Amit Sharma, an IT professional.