To Office or Not To Office
To Office or Not To Office

As Covid is slowly retreating in some countries many of us lucky enough to have been working remotely will be perhaps able return to the office, most likely under some flexible or hybrid arrangements. Should we though? Or should we just stay working from home?

Here’s 10 reasons to stay at home, and 10 reasons to get back to that office.

10 reasons to stay working at home

More family time. I spent 11 years working full time in a previous company that didn’t allow any working from home. I left each day about 7:40am and got back about 6:20pm, so I saw my wife and young kids for a few hours each day and at weekends. Suddenly with Covid I’ve had so much more quality time with them, and we’ve all benefited. No commute — saving time and money. I’ve been saving about 2.5 hours a day and probably a couple of grand a year in train tickets. Healthier food. Let’s be honest, working in the office = McDonalds Tuesday, Thursday, Friday … I’ve been trying at home to vary my lunches, though they do sometime end up like this:

4. Less micro-management — remote working has led to workers getting more autonomy, even just by the fact their managers aren’t sitting in a desk in the corner looking over at them all day.

Which has of course raised the question … do we really need all those managers in the first place?

5. Performance based on performance, not being present in the office. It’s hard to judge someone’s performance mainly on their being present in the office, or coming in early and staying late, when there is no office. Instead, performance has to be now judged on … actual performance.

6. More comfortable place to work. My awesome company let us buy home ‘office equipment’ so of course I bought the largest bean bag I could find …

7. Easier to change job in a remote first world. Employers are realising that all of a sudden they can hire people that don’t live close to their offices — which is win-win for companies and employees, and should theoretically lead to more choices to change jobs more often.

8. Flexibility — the traditional 9 to 5 is out the window, and the “work whichever hours during the day suits you, as long as the work gets done” is in.

9. More inclusive teams and meetings — maybe. This one really depends on what’s going on in your own company, but I’ve seen more efforts to include people in meetings now that we’re all remote, whereas in the “olden days” .. . of last year before Covid … it was actually more likely some people wouldn’t even be asked for their opinion in in-person meetings.

10. Able to watch Loki as soon as it comes out. Have you seen episode 4?! There’s no way I’m waiting until ‘after work’ when the next ones come out.

10 reasons to get back to that office

Some of which are remarkably similar to the stay at home reasons! Which shows why none of this is simple!
["Andy O'Sullivan"]
['Work', 'Technology', 'Startup', 'Remote Working']