If you ask working professionals if they enjoy working from home, chances are that an overwhelming majority of them will have to say yes.
Actually, most of them will provide you with one of the most enthusiastic responses that you’ve ever heard. I mean think about it: employees can cut major costs in terms of commuting expenses, they can free up some of the already overcrowded workspaces that traditional settings face on the daily, and most of all, they’re able to clear their minds and work with a most positive and satisfactory attitude.
So if that’s the case, then why aren’t more companies allowing their employees to bring their work home and turn that bedroom into a home office?
Well, below we have listed four of the top reasons as to why employers are giving their workers a hardline “no” when it comes to working from home.
Repetitive Tasks Decrease Motivation
While it’s proven that working from home is capable of improving an employee’s overall productivity levels, it’s the workload that presents the more concerning case here.
Sure, it’s great to have workers that are more motivated to work because they’re within the confines of their own home, but the fact that they have to carry out repetitive tasks is what makes office managers and employers cringe.
I’m sure we all know that working from home seems like one giant symbol of containing distractions and attention grabbers, and studies show that workers who perform repetitive jobs are more prone to being consumed by these distractions.
Essentially, the decision here to not allow you to work from home is saving you from yourself because we all know that we can be our own worst enemies sometimes.
If One Wish Gets Granted, You’d Have to Grant Them All
As an employer, imagine being in the position of having one of your employees ask to work from home. They are your best worker and you know that you can allow them to carry out such a task without their being any negative repercussions.
If you say yes to that worker and allow them to work from home, what do you do when another worker – who may not be the best of them – comes up to you and requests the same accommodation?
This is a pickle that many employers want to effectively eliminate in the office and that’s primarily because they don’t want to be someone who enforces double-standards.
- There is simply no way you can allow some of your staff to leave work and work from home while leaving the others behind to be stuck in the office.
- Remember, the last thing any office manager wants is an uprising on their hands – think about it. Would you want to be handling a mutiny in your office? I didn’t think so.
A Remote Staff Takes Away From In-House Investments
Most employers have already established a state-of-the-art and fully functioning office setting where employees have everything that they could possibly need.
If you’ve been in any interviews recently or maybe even meetings with other clients, you’ve probably seen that many office spaces for rent come replete with technologically advanced workstations, full-fledged kitchens in their break rooms, quiet time pods where you can take a breather and hook yourself up to music without distraction, and many more!
- If you take your staff out of the office, the office that’s already well-equipped to suit their needs, you’re neglecting the investment that was already put into the office space so clients would be happy.
- The point is to try and keep employees in the office space because designers and developers put their collective heads together and asked, “What do employees need?”
Equal Parts Lack of Control, Lack of Trust
Trust and self-control are two elements of the workplace that at this point in time, go hand-in-hand. You’ll have to view this circumstance from an employer’s perspective because they are the ones that write the paycheck at the end of the week. Think of it this way: if you have an employee that is not always in the office, wouldn’t that make it more difficult to control their workflow and their actions?
From a systematic standpoint and from a managerial point of view, keeping your team motivated and working at a success pace is usually dependent upon having everyone present and working together.
By having everyone in one centralized location, the situation is easier to control. But with lack of control also comes lack of trust!
Employers typically view working from home as a gift from the gods, so if their staff hasn’t proved themselves or does not necessarily demonstrate the best ability to complete work on time and in a satisfactory fashion, chances are they are not going to be trusted to work from home.
