work from home in covid

1. 4 FEB
Advantages of Work from Home
There are many advantages while working from home.
1. There is more job applicant for a particular job with certain people with location
constraint or disabled people can apply for the job. Even parents with children who tend
to leave job can be retained for the job.
2. There is more work life balance. Many people claim that a more quieter or friendly
atmosphere is found at home which helps to concentrate on the work as well as they
can complete the assigned work quickly.
3. There is a lot of savings with respect to cost of office infrastructure like spaces,
electricity bills etc.
4. Employees feel motivated as they get a good work life balance, and improves their
productivity
Disadvantages of Work from Home
There are many disadvantages as well
1. There is always a major problem with monitoring the work.
2. The cost of technological infrastructure that is required for implementing the concept.
3. There is always a security problem with data being transferred and that can’t be monitored easily.
4. All jobs doesn’t is not suitable for work from home concept. Sometimes communication problem
between employees makes it problematic for a job.

2. Work From Home Tips
The companies should encourage the employees to WFH but should provide certain tips to enable
effective Work from Home like
1. Asking employee to work for the hours he/she would work otherwise in office
2. Maintain a proper work schedule
3. If personal breaks are being taken for personal work, proper status should be sent to manager
4. Designate a place at home where work can be done in a professional setting
5. Make sure you have proper internet and mobile connectivity (many companies provide reimbursement
policies as well)
6. Have a proper routine with breaks
Working from home: pros and cons
As nice as the idea of working from home sounds – there are also negative aspects to this way of
working. Both the advantages and disadvantages relate to productivity and quality of work on the
one hand, and to personal well-being and teamwork on the other. However, most of the
disadvantages can often be turned into advantages by introducing certain behaviors and following
rules.
One topic that’s relevant when working from home, for example, is work-life balance: The
advantage is already apparent in the fact that you save the time spent on your daily commute.
Experience has shown, however, that home-based employees tend to work more rather than less.
Here, all those involved should make sure to stick to the contractual working hours. In their own
interest, employees must also discipline themselves.
For example, many people who have set up an office at home also mention the peace and quiet they
have there. In a large office, there are constant distractions: colleagues talking to you, telephones
ringing, and even public traffic causes anxiety. These disturbing factors are eliminated within your
private home – although there may be other reasons for anxiety: children screaming, a package
delivery, the washing machine beeping. At home, you yourself are responsible for ensuring a quiet
working atmosphere.

3. These and other factors should be considered, when setting up your home office.
Pros Cons
Better balance between family and work Requires more discipline
No commute Limited contact with colleagues
Personal workplace where you feel comfortable Additional technical requirements
Reduced stress Separate workplace is needed
Social isolation
Summary
If you have the technical means in place to work from home and the job does not require a local
presence, there are many benefits of the home office. But discipline is necessary for this. Without it,
either the quality of work or your physical and mental health may suffer. In the end, the decision is
also a question of character. Not everyone works well in a home office environment. But many
people can certainly benefit from this modern way of working
What should you consider when working from home?
Employees, employers, but also self-employed individuals have to pay attention to some aspects
when setting up and running a home office. Some of these aspects are labor law or occupational
health and safety laws. How to set up insurance in the home office and how to deduct the home
office for taxes play a major role. On the other hand, one should also get used to certain behaviors
so that working from home has advantages for all sides.
For many, the most important thing to know is that there is neither a general right to work
remotely nor an obligation to move one’s work home. It always depends on the agreement between
employer and employee. Self-employed individuals are understandably responsible for where they
carry out their work. However, once you’ve decided to work from home and all legal aspects have
been considered, further precautions must be taken. When first setting up the home office, for
example, technical conditions must be clarified. Every employee must also be able to access the
same applications, services, and data from home that are available in the normal office.
When setting up your workplace, you should make sure you’re setting up an ergonomic home office,
and that you’re getting enough movement at your workplace. Therefore, you should also
consider home office design, so that you can focus on getting your work done. If you have children
and work from home, you should make sure that you can juggle work and family.

4. Working from home: what it means to work from a home office
Working in your pajamas? Enjoying the comforts of your home? No
annoying colleagues around you? For many, setting up an office at home
is tempting – but do you actually know what it entails? As fantastic as
the working conditions sound: working from home doesn't just come
with benefits. When you switch from your familiar office environment
to a workplace at home, there are a few rules you need to follow to make
sure your work at home is as good as possible.
What is Work From Home (WFH)?
Work From home (WFH) is a conceptwhere the employee can do his or her job
from home. Work from home gives flexible working hours to the employee as well
as the job for the employer is done with ease. Work from home is helpful to
delivering work life balance to the employee, and also parallelly helps the
company to get the work done. Nowadays, most of the employers are offering this
option to their employees.
Work from home (or Working from home) is a modern work approachenabled
through internet and mobility wherein irrespective of the physical location of an
individual work can be done. Work from Home is also known as Working
Remotely or telecommuting which implies that the employee is working from a
remote location usually home.
Importance of the Work from Home Concept
Work from home as a concept is very important in current times. It helps to keep productivity of
the employee same or even better and at the same time supports the employee for being with
family or handling some personal work. Also in the case the employee is facing some health
issue of self or family, Work from Home (WFH) can be a great tool for helping employee stay at
home and work at the same time. in 2020, during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, Work
from Home enabled many companies to remain productive and keep themselves relevant. Roles
like IT, Management, Designing, Media etc. continued to work with the WFH option.

5. Work From Home Tips
The companies should encourage the employees to WFH but should provide certain tips to
enable effective Work from Home like
1. Asking employee to work for the hours he/she would work otherwise in office
2. Maintain a proper work schedule
3. If personal breaks are being taken for personal work, proper status should be sent to manager
4. Designate a place at home where work can be done in a professional setting
5. Make sure you have proper internet and mobile connectivity (many companies provide
reimbursement policies as well)
6. Have a proper routine with breaks
Work from Home Steps
A company before allowing work from option should be enabled as a mobile organization
1. Make sure that the employees can work from home securely
2. Provide office laptop and hardware if work has to be ensured with proper security
3. Have professional partners for video and audio conferencing
4. Put proper WFH policy in place for employees to follow
5. Make sure you have reimbursement policies in place for internet, mobile bills etc.

6. Conclusion
We have sought to cast light on the issue of whether or not working from home is
something typically associated with good jobs. This has been investigated
primarily in terms of the effect of working from home on work-life balance. Is
working from home a positive attribute that helps employees balance their
commitments? Or is it one of the ways through which labour market deregulation
is undermining standard working conditions?
We have found no simple answer. The descriptive analysis suggests that, in
just over a decade of the HILDA Survey, there has not actually been any increase
in the incidence of employees working from home. If anything there has been a
slight decrease in the proportion of employees working any hours from home, and
the proportion working eight hours or more per week in the home has remained
static. These findings for Australia seem to be in contrast to the impression painted
in the international literature of a growing incidence of ‘teleworking’ and
‘telecommuting’. Those who do work from home report working a substantial
number of hours in the home – around one day a week – and this has also remained
relatively stable over time.
Multivariate analyses show that managers and professionals are by far the
most likely to work from home. Women with pre-school and school aged children,
older workers, those who have been with their employer for longer and who are
employed in the private sector are also more likely to work from home. Union
membership is associated with a lower incidence of working from home.
The most marked variation in the likelihood of working from home comes
with respect to the number of hours usually worked per week. Working long hours
goes hand in hand with working from home. For example, females and males who
usually work 55 or more hours per week are estimated to be nine and seven times
more likely to work from home, respectively. The likelihood of working eight
hours per week or more from home increases even more dramatically, and this
response is strongest for women. Herein lies the double-edged nature of home-
work: its potential to facilitate longer working hours and the intrusion of work into
home life.
If the reason employees are working from home is to meet home and family
commitments, it does not follow that such home commitments, and the time spent
working there, would increase more than proportionately with hours of work. An
issue here may be that time spent in the office is constrained by the timing of home
commitments, rather than the duration of those commitments. Take the example of
an employee who drops off and picks up children from school, such that the start-
and end-times of their shift at the workplace is constrained by those commitments.
Save for returning to the workplace for a second time that day, any additional

7. hours would therefore need to be done at home. This is consistent with results
relating to gender. It is still the case that women are more likely than men to meet
caring obligations, such as getting children to and from schooland preparing
meals. Consequently, when work times lengthen, men stay in the office for longer
but women work longer at home. Among full-time workers, it seems that jobs
associated with working from home are higher paying jobs – typically paying
around four per cent higher weekly wages after controlling for a wide range of
individual and job characteristics. However, this increase in wages does not fully
compensate home workers for the number of additional hours they put in. We
estimate that workers receive an hourly rate for hours worked in the home that is
roughly 10 per cent lower than they are compensated for hours at the workplace.
Savings in commuting times may offset this difference, and it is also possible that
working additional hours from home may contribute to future promotions and pay
rises.
Irrespective of hours worked, employees value the flexibility of being able to
work some of their hours from home, and this is also generally associated with
greater overall job satisfaction. However, other than for those who work the
majority of their hours from home, working from home is associated with lower
satisfaction with hours worked. It is clear that many of these hours are worked
from home as a means to cope with long hours of work and high workloads. Once
hours of work are controlled for, it is women who are more likely to work from
home. For those working long hours, being able to do some of those hours from
home does not necessarily impact negatively on their satisfaction with work life
balance, but rather it is the long hours themselves that detract from satisfaction. In
the sample used here, one in four male employees reported working 45 hours per
week or longer and one in ten women.
The important question is the extent to which the capacity to work from home
facilitates longer work hours and hence contributes to the dissatisfaction with
work-life balance associated with longer hours of work and reduced leisure time. It
seems a key distinction to make is between ‘home-workers’ as opposedto workers
who do some of their hours from home. Here we find unambiguously positive
effects for employees who work at least half their hours from home, and this
concordswith previous findings with respectto employees who work from home
through a formal agreement with their employer (Dockery and Bawa, 2014). These
definitions are likely to capture employees who have ongoing explicit or implicit
arrangements for working from home, and who might be considered ‘home-
workers’. This status is clearly valued by those employees who have such working
arrangements.

8. REFERENCE
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/blog/student-
life/working-from-home-factors-affecting-
well-being/