Managing Oneself
With the world opening up after covid 19 vaccine adoption, the leaders want to have their teams back in the office. This is causing resistance in employees as working from home is where many of us have gotten comfortable.
Who enjoys early morning fights with traffic, vehicles honking, and rushing to work? Everyday commute to work has been the biggest joy killer amongst working professionals.
Work from home or sometimes even work from your bed, this thought itself sounds so comforting right? Uggh, losing the precious 30–45 mins of your mornings to reach the office and repeat the same ritual in the evenings.
But to my surprise, working from the office has revitalized my way of working. I’ve regularly gone to my workplace for the last 2 months and haven’t felt this good working remotely. This made me understand a very crucial aspect missing in remote work – interpersonal relationships with my colleagues. The virtual world can keep us connected, however, we form healthy relationships only by being with people in person.
The benefits of working from home might actually pale in comparison to working from the office, especially when you’re early in your career and think about its long-term gains. Working in unison with your team members will reinforce the purpose of your work for a particular organization. There’s an interesting phenomenon called Goal Contagion, which means peer-to-peer learning in simple terms. When you’re surrounded by people and observe their actions, you will also end up adopting their same goals.
In the next 2 mins, let me walk you through the 3 C’s explaining why working from the office is significantly better, adding to long-term benefits for employees.
Collaboration– Starting out a new job remotely might be complex for many of us. I too underwent this challenge when I started a new job back in 2020. Getting accustomed to a new setup and learning new things becomes grueling. Observing and interacting with people around you will predominantly cater to new employees’ learning, which is impossible to gain remotely. Being present in person at work will give confidence to the new joiners and help them adapt faster.
Culture– A good workplace is defined by its unique culture and there’s a very minimum chance to assimilate the goodness of a culture remotely. Getting aligned with the ethos of an organization calls for its employee’s presence at the workplace. This benefits both newly joined and existing employees. How? The existing employees will act as flag bearers of the org’s mission and vision and the new employees will adapt to it which will fuel their learning and growth. This also prevents toxic work culture to prevail.
Closure for the day– Zoom fatigue, no work-life balance, no time for meals- I’m sure most of you reading this blog piece faced this at some point while working remotely. I had to bare with this too in the last 1.5 years, and it took a great toll on my mental health. Being present at your workplace will mark a discreet boundary about when you’re working and when to call it a day, not to forget the tiny breaks to fuel up the energy requirements for deep work.
BOUNDARIES ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! They not only prevent burnout but also increase productivity. When you exit your workplace- you should own your time after that choose to spend it as you like- be it with your family, and friends, or pursuing hobbies that add fuel to your soul.
Boundaries are a part of self-care. They are healthy, normal, and necessary.
~ Doreen Virtue
Closing Note:
Working from the office has benefits both for organizations and individuals. Though these benefits at an individual level are not visible in the short term, hence making work from home a better choice for many of us. Humans tend to have strong biases towards short-term benefits over long-term gains, but we ultimately need to acknowledge the reasons why in-person work might improve our work life.
PS: I’ve got a suggestion for you to make commutes better- try taking quick naps while traveling to work.
Disclaimer: Take naps only if you’re not driving to work. Naps while driving is not a very good idea 😛
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