Working Remotely

This week here at Thrive business coaching was a great one! First, we were able to work in the office again, secondly, I was able to get back in the groove of things. There is a huge difference for me and for others when it comes to working at home versus working at work. The narrative is that people love to work from home and that working from home is going to increase productivity and all that jazz. The people that want to work from home think that it will be the best thing ever, I mean, after all, they get to sleep in and stay up late partying with their friends. However, the people that I have seen work from home have all pretty much hated it. The first example is my father in law was one of the first that had to work from home at the start of the shutdown. He would just stay in his room all day long in his work clothes on video call meetings while the rest of the family was out in the living room or kitchen. He would occasionally come out for food, but in reality, when he did come out it looked a little sad cause he was home but missing everything going on with the family.

Working from home may seem like the end-all solution to everything related to the happiness of the employee.

Another prime business coaching example is with some of our employees that had to work from home when this whole thing began. They found it difficult and slightly discouraging about the slow going to write and to upload the articles. The main thing that they said was that it was hard to stay on task and it was hard to feel as if they were at work and not at home. They found it hard to get started in the morning to actually do something. The fact that they got paid with the merit-based pay system was a motivating factor for them to actually do something. The people that get paid hourly and are on salary might find it even more difficult to do work knowing that their pay is not tied to the work that they perform. Working from home may seem like the end-all solution to everything related to the happiness of the employee. 

What really gets me is that the people that all want to work from home either are unemployed themselves or they simply are that entitled and think that they deserve to be at home in their safe space in their pajamas sipping their tea while they write their business coaching blog on how capitalism has failed them. The thing with working from home is that there is no difference between home and work at that point. There is not a distinct space where they are able to work versus live their lives with friends and family. The importance that this has is that no one can effectively work from home, no one can make money while there is no distinct space of work and living. That is one of the many things that I have learned this week being back at the office.