Is home the new office? Local employers and employees on working remotely
For an information technology and computer service business, switching to remote working sites was a smooth transition. That’s good, because it might be the new normal.
Patty Johnson owns Adept Solutions in Yuba City with her husband and their employees were given the option of working remotely or coming into the office.
“We let them set their own work schedule,” Johnson said.
The company faced the same challenges many of its customers faced and increasingly, organizations are pondering how to go forward – have employees come back to the office when the pandemic is tamed; have employees keep working remotely, or have a hybrid model. They’ve got to deal with company culture as well as technology.
Adept Solutions has helped local businesses set up remote working by offering secure, cloud based software such as Office 365. Adept Solutions personnel also use Office 365 and are able to communicate through the Microsoft Teams application.
“We have been able to be efficient,” Johnson said.
Johnson lives about an hour away from the office and said that, before the pandemic, she would come into work twice a week and work from home the rest of the week.
“It was an easy transition for me,” Johnson said. “... I’ve got everything set up so it’s
like I’m working from my office. It’s just nice to not go out and feel like you’re being exposed.”
Chayney Pascua works for Adept Solutions on the business administration side and during the pandemic transitioned to working from home.
“I didn’t really feel like I had to do much to adjust,” Pascua said.
She said in the future companies may shift toward remote working because it lowers costs by not having a physical location. Without an office, companies would not have to pay for electric bills, maintenance or furnishing an office. Pascua said, however, that those costs would shift to providing the hardware and technical support for employees to have a secure work set-up at home.
“I do think it will continue,” Johnson said. “I think it’s the new normal … People like to have the freedom to work wherever they are. It’s a nice option and it makes life a little less stressful.”
Yuba Water Agency employees who can do their work from home are working remotely while the hydropower plant maintenance and operations staffs have to work on site, according to administrative manager Terri Daly. She’s been working from home since March.
“It seems like things are moving faster and we are getting more done,” Daly said in an email. “We have pretty successfully adapted to Zoom meetings and take advantage of what used to be travel time for more collaboration and work.”
YWA has not made a final decision on whether employees will continue to work remotely after the pandemic. Daly said an option could be some positions working remotely a couple of days each week.
“We think working remotely offers personal benefits to some employees, such as flexibility with kids’ schedules and no commute time, and would like to offer that option, if possible,” Daly said.
Some of the drawbacks to staff working from home are that it’s easier to work longer hours that can make for an unhealthy work-life balance. In addition, the unplanned encounters between employees in the office that lead to new ideas aren’t happening as much, according to Daly.
“It’s nice to see other humans once in a while,” Daly said.
Aaron Esselman is
YWA’S senior hydro engineer and has been working from home since mid-march. He said most of the set-up for working from home went smoothly because the agency already had teleconference capability and a virtual private network.
“Getting a home office put together has been more of a challenge, and the kitchen table has been pressed into service as an office for the last year now,” Esselman said in an email.
He said working at home, he’s able to complete some tasks faster such as reports and budget estimates. What is more difficult at home is developing projects and designs without having access to the equipment being modified.
“I do not believe remote working will ever be a
100 percent replacement for being in the office,”
Esselman said. “… I work with equipment and infrastructure, and the ability to be in the field with the machinery is priceless as it simplifies designs and allows for easier user feedback.”
He said he could see a hybrid system that incorporates some remote work becoming the new normal.
Alex Rodriguez works for Yuba County Health and Human Services in the public assistance division as a program manager. He helped set up remote work for his department and worked from home himself.
“It was pretty challenging,” Rodriguez said.
The biggest challenge for him was in the early part of the pandemic. Rodriguez had never worked from home before and struggled with staying on task. A team at the county put together training for employees working from home that provided resources to help staff adjust. Rodriguez said that made a huge difference.
Another challenge was getting the necessary equipment to staff. The county had put in orders for work cell phones and computers, but it took longer than expected for them to be delivered because of how many other companies placed similar orders. Apart from some occasional slow network speed, Rodriguez said the county is set up to continue working remotely for however long is necessary. No decision has been made about whether his department will continue working remotely after the pandemic.
Yuba-sutter Chamber of Commerce CEO
Marni Sanders said the chamber is not able to fully serve the community while working remotely. From March to June
2020 chamber employees worked from home.
“Working from home can be a benefit for some but for the chamber it is not ideal,” Sanders said in an email.
While virtual meetings save time, allowing for more to be packed into the day, there is plenty of room for technical difficulties. During the chamber’s first Yuba Sutter Pulse meeting during the pandemic, a “zoom bomber” disrupted the meeting to the point it had to be ended.
“There have been some good takeaways throughout the pandemic, and ways that we pivoted in how we operate that we will carry forward but, again, we will never be able to move away from getting together in person,” Sanders said. “We are all designed for human connection. We are eager to get back to that soon.”