The future of home office in the modern world of work

Hausarbeit , 2020 , 7 Seiten , Note: 1,3

Soziologie - Arbeit, Ausbildung, Organisation

This paper examines the possibilities and limitations of working from home. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this way of working for both employers and employees and is this model of working conceivable under normal conditions in the future?

Whenever board members or managers held speeches in the past and talked about the future of the modern working world, the subject of the home office was already within reach. Flexible working hours, no long commuting distances, family and career together under one roof, that was the theory. In practice, however, this type of work was only implemented in isolated cases. To not let employees work in offices or conference rooms in the company, but at the dining table or in the living room at home? Unimaginable for many bosses. Consequently, it remained an abstract idea for most employees how it would feel to have home and office in the same place. But currently this knowledge gap is closing. The Corona epidemic is giving the working world an unprecedented field test. From one day to the next, managers and employees had to clear out their offices and were forced to work from home in their home office.

Table of contents

1 Introduction

2 Definition Home Office
2.1 Telework in general
2.2 Home office as a form of telework

3 Possibilities and limits of the home office
3.1 Advantages of the home office
3.2 Disadvantages of the home office
3.3 Future prospects

4 Conclusion

Bibliography

1 Introduction

Whenever board members or managers held speeches in the past and talked about the future of the modern working world, the subject of the home office was already within reach. Flexible working hours, no long commuting distances, family and career together under one roof, that was the theory. In practice, however, this type of work was only implemented in isolated cases. To not let employees work in offices or con­ference rooms in the company, but at the dining table or in the living room at home? Unimaginable for many bosses. Consequently, it remained an abstract idea for most employees how it would feel to have home and office in the same place. But currently this knowledge gap is closing. The Corona epidemic is giving the working world an unprecedented field test. From one day to the next, managers and employees had to clear out their offices and were forced to work from home in their home office.¹

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this way of working for both employ­ers and employees and is this model of working conceivable under normal conditions in the future?

In order to answer this question in more detail, this paper examines the possibilities and limitations of working from home.

2 Definition Home Office

2.1 Telework in general

The so-called telework, which is also called electronic work, is also known in ergo­nomics as a common term for various forms of work. All forms of work in which em­ployees communicate with employers via IT are classified as telework. The service provided is far away from the employer's place of business. Depending on the place of work, working hours, contractual provisions and size of the technical infrastructure, telework can be divided into four main categories. The literature distinguishes be­tween mobile telework, collective telework, telework from home and alternative tele- work.²

2.2 Home office as a form of telework

By definition, home office work is done at home. Employees can set up workstations in their houses or apartments and discuss tasks and goals with employers via email or phone. There are two different types of home office in Germany. One describes work that happens entirely at home, no work at the company included. The other one describes so called alternating telework, which means that the workplace changes between the home office and the company. In the second case, the corresponding working days and times are agreed upon in advance.³

3 Possibilities and limits of the home office

3.1 Advantages of the home office

Employers and employees have different advantages when using home offices. For example, employees save time and travel expenses otherwise spent on commuting to and from the company office when they utilize home office instead. Another ad­vantage that working from home offers to the employee is the family-friendly working environment. Hence, employees can better take care of relatives and children.⁴

However, it is not only the employee who benefits from working at home. For the employers, home office can be lucrative because it gives them the advantage of be­ing able to support the interests of their employees. This can result in a positive im­age and reputation of the company and might strengthen staff loyalty in the process. Furthermore, this flexible way of working can increase the motivation of the employ­ees, which in turn has a positive effect on productivity.⁵

3.2 Disadvantages of the home office

Despite the above-mentioned benefits, home office can also have disadvantages for both employees and employers. Employees have no contact with colleagues and are socially isolated when only working from home. Especially the so-called in-formal communication is essential for the exchange of professional and informal knowledge. This is made considerably more difficult by home office. Another disadvantage that should be pointed out pertains to the limited control possibility regarding employees by the employer. More precisely, employees could come to a false understanding that they must work harder and longer than what is actually required since the burden of proof falls on them.⁶

One disadvantage for the employer could be that qualified employees might recog­nize that their presence in the company is not crucial. Thus, their identification with the company might take a negative turn. Additionally, working from home is often considered a privilege. Employees who do not have the possibility to utilize home office due to technical reasons may feel disadvantaged. Tensions arise in the com­pany and the cohesion among colleagues is threatened.

3.3 Future prospects

In addition to the classic models of work in companies and established teleworking, new forms of work organisation are on the rise, often referred to as New Work. Driven by the digitalization of the work world and the needs of employees, employers and customers, many different forms have emerged. These cannot always be clearly sep­arated or used as an alternative.^{7 8} The digitisation of the work world means that em­ployees no longer have to work in the same place with colleagues nor do they have to be physically present any more.⁹ In addition to this spatial dimension, digitisation will also significantly change the temporal and structural dimension. Employees will be able to flexibly decide whether they want to spend the hours they have to work all at once or spread them out over the entire day. Here, it is important that the required work gets done.

For the future, it can be concluded that the development of digitalisation will continue to push home offices and other forms of work.¹⁰

4 Conclusion

This paper deals with the topic of the home office in the modern working world. The beginning of this paper emphasizes the fact that home office has been around for a long time in theory, but has only been used sporadically in practice. Due to the cur­rent situation, many board members and managers had no other choice than to enter new territory ask their employees to use home office. In further sections of this paper I will define exactly what it means to use home office. Afterwards, the advantages and disadvantages for employers as well as for employees will be examined in detail. In the last section, the future of the home office in the modern working world will be discussed. Particularly, why home office will continue to be a topic in the future and will not disappear from the working world in the course of digitalization.

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¹ See. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/corona-krise-homeoffice-1.4877445 Access on 24.04.2020

² See. Büssing, A. / et. al. (2003), S. 13 ff.

³ See. https://www.arbeitsrechte.de/home-office/ Access on 24.04.2020

⁴ See. Meissner, J. / et al. (2016), S. 21

⁵ See. Rupietta, R. / et al. (2016), S. 14

⁶ See. Rupietta, R. / et al. (2016), S. 15

⁷ See. https://www.arbeitsrechte.de/home-office/ Access on 24.04.2020

⁸ See. Nash, C. / et al. (2018), S. 207 ff.

⁹ See. Lang, F. / (2019), S. 11

¹⁰ See. Praeg, C. / et al. (2017), S. 172

• Hochschule: FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management gemeinnützige GmbH, Nürnberg früher Fachhochschule
• Note: 1,3
• Autor: Alexander Adelmann (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2020
• Seiten: 7
• Katalognummer: V967975
• ISBN (eBook): 9783346316622
• Sprache: Deutsch