Hybrid working

The benifits and traps

Hybrid working is becoming the new normal. Corona has forced us all to work from home out of necessity. Now, even though we can go to the office again, most people prefer to continue working from home. The only reasons to go to the office for a few days are to see colleagues, or because of the need to be in a different environment for a while. The alternation between working partially at home and at the office will therefore become the new normal. 

Hybrid working is very pleasant for both employees and employers. You can determine your own working hours. For example, if you want to do the shopping in the morning, you can easily catch up with your work at another time. What also makes a difference is that usually when you were working in the office, you often had very long meetings. Nowadays these are converted into a short online meeting. It also appears that people are much more productive when they work from home. You are less likely to be distracted by people entering when you work in an open space. And you are not bothered by people having a nice chat.

In addition, it also saves you a lot of travel time and traffic irritations. For example, there are much fewer traffic jams in the morning and in the evening. So if people work from home more, it is better for the environment. And with the current fuel prices also good for the wallet.

A good home workplace is very important for hybrid work. According to the trade union CNV, almost half of the home workers have to deal with physical complaints. This concerns neck, back and arm complaints. It is therefore very important to have a good home workplace. So think of a good desk and a good office chair, which you can sit at for a while. In addition, it is also simply important to move a lot in between. A sit-stand desk is therefore convenient to purchase. Or an office chair that you can easily adjust. You can adjust the chair to the correct height in terms of seat, arm and backrest.

What you could experience as a disadvantage of working from home is that you can feel alone because you don't have that many social contacts. Other things that can be disadvantageous in working from home: Technical problems that can arise, such as not having a good network connection. Or, where we were just positive about being able to easily combine working from home with private life, it can also be a pitfall for some people. Sometimes you may be so busy working that you keep going unnoticed until the late hours. If you can't find a good balance in this, it can cause stress. 

In addition, communication with colleagues is more difficult. It can be unclear where someone is and when they will be available. If someone wants to do some shopping in between, you can't reach them and you may get stuck again. The chance encounters at the office, which are sometimes experienced as disturbing, can also lead to new insights to help you further in your work.