I worked at F1Soft in the capital of the country. I've worked from home as a freelancer. I've worked at Yarsa, commuting from home, and as of now, working from home. So yes, I have accumulated quite a working experience. There are both upsides and downsides of working from home.
"Yes mom, I will be there in a second !!"
I prefer working from home. I am opinionated on this one, so I will start by mentioning the downsides of working from home, which is just a few.
- family and friends are there to disturb you
1 out of 10 days in my case, but I've often heard much frequency from colleagues, mainly the lazy and the married ones, how they have no mood or time to work from home and prefer working from the office. - distorted and trouble at communication
Usually, the home is not a well-equipped office so usually lacks a backup when something essential goes wrong. There is no proper power backup at my home. My parents and visitors hog my wifi. And it has happened more in these two years when I've fully started working from home. That is fine. But this and so many other reasons leave the people I work with, hard to reach on time. - sticking online and available during work hours
Well, I personally have not faced this but some of my friends have trouble being available during office hours. It is mainly due to their personal life affecting the office hours.
There they are. And we are done with the downsides of working from home in my experience. But what actual benefit do I get by working from home is really interesting.
- commute time is saved
My commute time to all jobs was roughly an hour. But it's not just that time that is saved, I have saved the time to prepare for office, I am no longer stuck in traffic, I am not fatigued by the daily travel, travel expenses are saved, and I have much more free time and a good time to myself. - productivity increases
I have the whole room for my work, with no peeping from the manager or colleagues. I remember how I used to constantly listen to music for focus while working at the office. Here, I can take breaks as I want them, plan/prioritize my tasks as I want them, and my ability to focus is increased in this isolated environment. It's been productive, better than what it was at the office. - overall time is saved
At the office, we engage in nonsensical stuff, more than we do now. Even when our task was finished, we needed to stay at the office doing something. The personal time is saved for me that I can now invest in other things. - freedom
Apart from peeping managers, we are free of how we work. I can work in my comfortable clothes, in the sun or in a cafe nearby watching the boats in the lake. I can have a guitar by my side and play a melody whenever my mind needs to take a break off the screen. - healthy eating
We were given healthy foods at the office too, but not every day was our pick on what to eat. We had a routine on weekly lunch and we all had the same lunch on a day. It could be someone's favourite and someone's "it's alright" lunch. But here at home, it's my choice, it's healthy. Good food = good mood.
Well overall, nothing much is changed, we do our task and everything is mostly fine whether we work from home or office. As an employer, they might find things different. But as an employee in a software business, it's how things should have been all the time, with occasional meet-ups and discussions, but mostly working from home, whether COVID or not. So far, my experience is great working from home.