The work from home scenario has been a very popular choice for many people. Working from home is now becoming a trending work option as more and more companies are seeing the benefits of work from home employees. According to a study conducted by Mercer’s online survey, 43% of companies will continue with remote work.
And since the work from home scenario has been gaining a lot of popularity recently, several people are now looking forward to work from their homes. Working from home has its own perks such as flexible work hours, work in pajamas, work around your kid’s schedule, etc. The pros are very clear and work from home arrangement has been an ideal work choice for many people.
However, work from home arrangements could be a nightmare for you if not handled properly. Like any other work arrangement, work from home also comes with its own set of challenges. There are some common mistakes that people tend to commit while working from home. These mistakes create problems in work performance and can lead to substantial issues. Below are some of the most common mistakes to avoid.
- Using copyrighted images – One of the most common mistakes committed by people working from home. Using copyrighted images in work presentations or work-related projects is illegal. It’s advisable to get your own picture rather than using any borrowed work material. Worst-case scenario is you might pay for the legal damages if work images are being used without permission. So if you want to use an image or any materials on the web, double-check first and make sure you are using copyright-free images. There are plenty of sites that are offering free use of images, make sure to check on those.
- Not setting boundaries and limitations – Just like working in the office, work-life balance is the key to success. If you work from home, it’s easy to get sucked into work and work for 24 hours a day. Any work arrangement could become a nightmare if not handled properly. It’ll be very difficult to build an efficient work performance unless you know how to take care of your time and place boundaries between work and personal life. You need to make clear limits regarding your work availability during weekends, holidays, etc., otherwise, it’s likely you might lose track of family time or other hobbies since work would consume all your time.
- Lack of security and privacy – work from home arrangement brings along some security and privacy issues. Since work from home often includes online work, in a setting where the employer and employees are not face-to-face, very little consideration is given to work security and privacy. It’s important that work from home employers set protocols regarding the use of safe work from home practices and work-related confidentiality. Any work environment with a lack of work security or work privacy might lead to various issues such as identity theft, work sabotage, etc., so it’s important that a work from home environment is secure and private enough. Using VPNs for work-related tasks is just one of the work security steps that work from home employees can follow. If you are new to this, there are Top VPN services on the web you can choose from to help you get started.
- Working from the bed or couch – Working from the comfort of your bed might sound like a good idea but it can be very unproductive as you might end up sleeping all day. A workstation with a proper work setup is important for work performance and work productivity. Set up a quiet and comfortable workstation and you’ll be surprised how quickly you can finish your tasks.
- Working late night – There are many work-related problems that might come up while working in the evening shift like lack of sleep, malnutrition, etc. These work-related problems have been found to have negative effects on work performance and lead to absenteeism from work. Therefore, it is important to take care of oneself by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and getting enough sleep whenever you can so that these work-related problems might be avoided.
Conclusion – work from home is becoming more and more popular. However, work-related issues like work security, work privacy, lack of work boundaries, workplace problems, work performance deterioration due to health problems, working late at night etc. might lower work productivity drastically. Therefore it’s important that people working from home or planning to work from home keep these work-related problems in mind and work accordingly to keep work productivity high.