Beyond the 9-to-5: Exploring Freelance, Remote and Hybrid Careers

After Covid-19, the stereotypical working day has never been the same all thanks to lockdown, where many people discovered what it was like to ‘work from home’. This sparked a debate, is working in an office necessary?

During the time where we were bound to the TV, allowed 1-hour walks in the park and baked more banana bread that we knew what to do with, those who could work from home did. At first this seemed to be ‘needs must’, but over time, more and more people were warming up to the idea of it becoming a more permanent arrangement.

Discussions on social media began to pop-up, questioning whether or not there was any point to going back into an office. Those in favour of going back to the office, said that a workforce who worked from home would not be as productive or focused. Those against going back to their traditional, office-based schedules argued that this would not be the case, and the positives would inspire them to be more productive. If we fast forward to the present day, where the option to work from home is becoming much more prevalent, let's take a look to see how this has affected the workforce:

“Because the subject of remote workers’ productivity prompts such divergent opinions, we decided to put the question to our respondents directly. Our findings were quite compelling: Although office, split-time, and work-from-home professionals spent similar amounts of time on the clock each day, remote workers reported being slightly more productive on average. Experts have suggested many reasons that professionals who work from home may actually be more industrious, including the theory that remote workers are more concerned about being perceived as unproductive and overcompensate accordingly. Employees who split their weeks between home and the office offered an interesting case study in contrasting opinions. Thirty-seven percent felt more productive when at home, whereas nearly as many said they got more done at the office. Of course, a hybrid schedule also raises the question of where to work on each day of the week. Some suggest “work-from-home Wednesdays,” for example, explaining a mid-week change of pace works wonders for morale.”

A great example of a company who are offering hybrid roles are ‘ACCA’, ‘CADENT’, ‘TJX’, ‘IBM’ and more. This shows that more and more companies are adapting to new work schedules and shows that people's opinions on working from home has shifted to the positive, with both employees and employers seeing the benefits. Another important factor for any person in a job is the satisfaction one would get from working, so how would this be affected if you worked in the office or not?

“In many different areas, professionals who worked from home or split time between the home and office reported greater satisfaction than their in-office counterparts. This trend was especially evident in matters relating to individual performance: Remote or split-time workers were more satisfied than in-office employees with regard to pay, growth opportunities, and their jobs in general. Results like these form the basis of the business case for offering work-from-home options: Multiple studies have found remote employees to be happier and more engaged after leaving the office setting. Interestingly, however, a hybrid approach may be even more beneficial to workers than working exclusively at home. Work-life balance and family life satisfaction were best among the split-time cohort, for example, and they were also most likely to feel appreciated by their employers. Moreover, spending part of the week in the office may pay great dividends with colleagues. Split-timers felt most satisfied with their co-worker relationships, and they were even less likely than in-office workers to feel disconnected from fellow employees.”

In my personal experience, there are pros and cons to each one, for example, working in an office environment allows a good separation between work and personal life, allowing you to focus on work when in work and allowing you to focus on recharging and any personal time when the day ends. When working from home, this gives you freedom, allowing you to schedule your days and not having to worry about a commute, but it can be hard to create that separation you need from work, I have found that if you have a home office, or somewhere you can sit that’s away from the rooms you frequent the most (i.e. bedrooms, living rooms) then that works best. In my opinion having a hybrid environment is the best way, this allows you to have the pros of both, giving you that freedom of working from home and also having that separation when you go into the office.

Now there is another form of work that hasn’t been covered and that is freelance. Admittedly, my experience with freelance work is not as extensive as the more ‘traditional’ forms previously mentioned, but from my experience, I found it to have the most freedom with you being able to take charge of your own work and schedule which grants great satisfaction. But this also comes with some unique challenges, for example, there is no guarantee of work meaning you don’t always have regular income and you don’t get the benefits of holiday pay (but you do have the freedom to choose when and how many). A couple of websites that can help improve your workflow are sites such as ‘Fiver’ or ‘Behance’, but keep in mind that they can be quite competitive in terms of pricing and people.

So to recap, is working in an office environment necessary? I would say the answer differs from person to person, it’s dependent on what a person's priorities and preferences are. In my opinion, a hybrid work schedule is the best, as it gives me the separation from my work and personal life, but also gives me a good relationship with my colleagues and time to focus on work when needed.

The referance used for this article can be found here.