Working from home has its pros and cons, and while it was new to Bloom at the time of writing, the remote mode is no surprise right now. Productivity from home is usually higher than in the office, but this is an individual issue that depends on the profession, personality, social status, workload, and many other factors (Bloom, 2014). During the pandemic, this issue was assessed much deeper. First, it seemed that working from home saves time on the road and the opportunity to get better sleep. On the other hand, in reality, this regime is a severe psychological test since it is more difficult for many to tune in to work at home, especially when there is a large family around or, otherwise, nobody. In my opinion, being alone, there are fewer distractions, and the home environment makes you feel more confident and calmer. All questions rest on the availability of the necessary software and hardware and uninterrupted Internet connection. Modern technology provides all of these possibilities, but the article “15 questions about remote work, answered” showed me that the range of problems is much more comprehensive.
An employee may feel lonely, distracted, and, as a result, reduced productivity. The solution lies in communication, leadership, practicality, and usually using video communication (Neeley, 2020). Most of the tips in this article are extremely important and helpful to use; however, in my opinion, there are several unexplored questions of getting the most productive from home.
Questions: first, are creative employees, or those employees whose profession is related to creating something new, really also benefit from the remote mode of work, or do they still need an office atmosphere and communication? Secondly, is the manager capable of solving his psychological problems remotely when the employee’s productivity decreases, or is necessary to delegate this process to specialists?
References
Bloom, N. (2014). To raise productivity, let more employees work from home. Harvard Business Review, January–February.
Neeley, T. (2020). 15 questions about remote work, answered. In Harvard Business Review (Vol. 16). Digital article.