By Lucy Lorenzo, CPC - Founding Partner
With everything going on in the world right now, I am speaking to a lot of candidates who are wanting, and even expecting, to be able to work from home for the foreseeable future. Working from home obviously has a lot of perks, but I would argue there are some nuances to being in the office that might make it a better career move.
Wider Ranging Connections
When being in office – getting our coffee in the kitchen or waiting for a document at the printer – we end up having interactions with people that we would not ordinarily come into contact during the course of business. Susan in legal, Jimena in sales, Bob in IT (who doesn’t need a friend in IT on speed dial??). One of my contractors bumped into the CEO of the company in the elevator and struck up a dialogue and shared a business idea that was then implemented for the company. This is not something that would ever have come about during a formal meeting – they had no meetings together. You cannot just “bump into someone” on Zoom. These kind of “water cooler” conversations, whilst not official, can be highly effective.
Easier In Person Meetings
If you work from home environment, there is nothing to stop a weekly lunch or quarterly happy hour being organized. However, when you are in the same office it is much easier to grab lunch or a coffee with less interruption to the day. Grabbing a coffee from the Starbucks across the street is easier than finding somewhere in the middle of both residences. This allows in-person meetings to happen more easily and efficiently. Why is that important? Read on…
More Effective Meetings
We have all realized the usefulness of Zoom, Teams, and other online meeting platform platforms to enable much-needed face to face interactions during this period of working from home. However, according to a study by Forbes Insight, 85% of people say they build stronger, more meaningful business relationships during in-person meetings and conferences. According to another a study by the Harvard Review, 95% of people say face-to-face meetings are a key factor in successfully building and maintaining long-term business relationships. So, whilst working from home may be convenient, it may not be the best thing for your professional relationships and career.
Better work/life balance
Working where you live often leads to a lack of delineation between work and home life, and the two run together. When at home, it is much easier to keep working and get carried away, rather than drawing a line under the workday when the lights start going off in the office and others are heading out. A study by NordVPN Teams, a New York-based company that provides virtual private networks (VPNs) to businesses, found that home working led to a 2.5 hour increase in the average working day. So, if you want to have better work/life balance, commuting to an office is the way to go.
In conclusion, there are many reasons why people enjoy the convenience of working from home. I would argue, however, that from a career standpoint, being in office makes much more sense.
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With everything going on in the world right now, I am speaking to a lot of candidates who are wanting, and even expecting, to be able to work from home for the foreseeable future. Working from home obviously has a lot of perks, but I would argue there are some nuances to being in the office that might make it a better career move.
Wider Ranging Connections
When being in office – getting our coffee in the kitchen or waiting for a document at the printer – we end up having interactions with people that we would not ordinarily come into contact during the course of business. Susan in legal, Jimena in sales, Bob in IT (who doesn’t need a friend in IT on speed dial??). One of my contractors bumped into the CEO of the company in the elevator and struck up a dialogue, and shared a business idea that was then implemented for the company. This is not something that would ever have come about during a formal meeting – they had no meetings together. You cannot just “bump into someone” on Zoom. These kind of “water cooler” conversations, whilst not official, can be very effective.
Easier In Person Meetings
If you work from home environment, there is nothing to stop a weekly lunch or quarterly happy hour being organized. However, when you are in the same office it is much easier to grab lunch or a coffee with less interruption to the day. Grabbing a coffee from the Starbucks across the street is easier than finding somewhere in the middle of both residences. This allows in-person meetings to happen more easily and efficiently. Why is that important? Read on…
More Effective Meetings
We have all realized the usefulness of Zoom, Teams, and other online meeting platform platforms to enable much-needed face to face interactions during this period of working from home. However, according to a study by Forbes Insight, 85% of people say thing build stronger, more meaningful business relationships during in-person meetings and conferences. According to another a study by the Harvard Review, 95% of people say face-to-face meetings are a key factor in successfully building and maintaining long-term business relationships. So, whilst working from home may be convenient, it may not be the best thing for your professional relationships and career.
Better work/life balance
Working where you live often leads to a lack of delineation between work and home life, and the two run together. When at home, it is much easier to keep working and get carried away, rather than drawing a line under the work day when the lights start going off in the office and others are heading out. A study by NordVPN Teams, a New York-based company that provides virtual private networks (VPNs) to businesses, found that home working led to a 2.5 hour increase in the average working day. So, if you want to have better work/life balance, commuting to an office is the way to go.
In conclusion, there are many reasons why people enjoy the convenience of working from home. I would argue, however, that from a career standpoint, being in office makes much more sense.