What East Capers say about working from home
Time and cost saving most significant advantages, some say
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, companies had to make adjustments for staff members to work from home.
Now, with the country at alert level 1, some companies have maintained the option of staff working remotely from home.
In an effort to gain insight on the relevance of working from the office — seven months into the pandemic — the Daily Dispatch spoke to employees in different sectors.
Some said working from the office had become outdated because of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
However, they maintained that managerial roles were still important to facilitate the completion of tasks and communication between workers.
An Eastern Cape accountant said: “Working remotely is encouraged by access to technology and Wi-Fi.
Also, this helps the employer decrease fixed costs like rent, electricity and water.”
She said there were also disadvantages to working from home.
However, the disadvantage is that employees tend to work longer hours at home because of the relaxed environment and constant demands on them by their managers, while team morale may be affected.
Managerial positions are still important, someone needs to monitor progress and assess output from employees,” the accountant said.
Sikho Maho, the head of operations for a tech start-up company, said he had been working from home for seven months.
It was great at the beginning, then it got annoying to be working from home.”
Maho said working from the office was still a necessity.
Certain processes in our business need a lot of collaboration to get projects completed in a timely manner.
Managers are still needed as they are a great way to ensure that everything is running smoothly, but it can become a bit tiresome when people try to micromanage,” Maho said.
Langelihle Mlalazi, a senior product manager at Voice Technologies and Al, saidworking from home had its ups and downs.
My experience overall has been positive,” he said. The upside to working from home is that I feel I have more personal time back in my life.
“There are significant time savings from not having to commute to the office daily and you are able to create an environment at home that suits your preferred working style.
The downside is that there is definitely a gap in the social aspect of work, meetings and brainstorming in-person with work colleagues, which can lead to a feeling of isolation and working in silos.
Team morale can also get affected significantly
Employees tend to work longer hours at home because of the relaxed environment and constant demands on them by their managers
if no physical interaction is maintained for long stretches of time,” Mlalazi said.
Mlalazi said working from the office was becoming obsolete.
I believe that total isolation may not be the answer, however, a hybrid model that allows for some sort of physical team interaction once in a while could work.”
Speaking on the importance of managerial positions, Mlalazi said: “Managerial positions are still very important in this arrangement.”
Brand manager Bongani Matshisi said working from home had been “the most natural thing” for him to do.
Let ’ s just say I took to it like a duck to water. It’s been the most natural thing in the world for me.
You always read and hear about work/life balance.
Working from home teaches you to manage and focus on output instead of managing time.
The most important thing for people or teams whowork remotely is clear communication.
“Of course, with communication, the most dangerous thing about it is that we sometimes believe that it has taken place when it actually hasn’t. And that’s where the problems start,” Matshisi said.
Chemical engineer Fezi Nayo said: “In some industries office-bound work might be obsolete.
Most industries like ours work perfectly well from home, but the challenge is the management that has not transformed.
Most bosses still want to see us in the office, but once the new millennials start leading companies, they will be OK with people working from home.
Companies under stress will see this as a cost saving, and let people work from home.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will also have an impact, and once things start being automated, few people will be needed to start/stop machines, and this will lead to people working from home,” Nayo said.