The Home Office – No Longer the Temporary Solution

 - HOME OFFICE - 

As the UK works it is way through the end of a third national lockdown, the work from home order is still in place for many businesses, to keep workforces in a job and keep the cogs of the economy going.

This does, however, throw up the issue of where do you work if you need to work from home?

A Change in Working Habits

Working from home can be a great change from the office environment, but there are a few caveats that we need to consider before working from home becomes the norm forever.

Workforces have been crying out for years to be able to really invest in flexible working, remote working, working from home and of course a more open and organic working week.

Remote working has been a popular choice for workers for many years, in 2015 over a quarter of a million workers in the UK regularly did some work from home, but very few were permanently based at home.

Where Should You Work

While we are pleased to see more people and more companies taking on remote work and the flexible working approach, the question of where people work from within their home if their home situation is not best set up for home working or has had a temporary fix is now more important than ever.

It seems likely that most of us will be working from home until possibly the end of the year and with many companies now choosing to keep homeworking in place a more permanent solution.

The answer we have is a beautiful new garden room, creating an outside office to ensure you can concentrate properly on your work.

There are some serious considerations to give your home working environment.

Here are a few things to think about when designing your environment, and how an outside home office space in a garden room may be the answer.

Mental Health Struggles

While many workers will say that working from home is brilliant for their mental health and reduces the risk of workplace-related stress, remote workers have a whole host of other concerns with their mental health, mainly around how to switch off when the workday is done.

Remote working can be great for people who prefer a more flexible approach to their hours, but there is a real concern that a more flexible approach soon turns into an all-day-every-day approach and the risk of burnout becomes hugely problematic.

One of the main reasons that people find it hard to switch off is the need for a physical break between work and life. In an office environment, you are much more likely to mentally prepare for work and wind down from work on your commute.

Even if that commute is a five-minute walk, the physical change of scenery has a powerful psychological effect on the mind, something that many remote workers and home workers aren’t getting right now.

With a separate garden room office set up, you can set up your space to be specifically for work, rather than home comforts.

Different Decoration

For example, if your home is decorated with light walls, natural materials and calming artwork, you may wish to go down the darker route of a modern industrial office look which is now a hugely popular choice in many city-based fashionable offices.

Privacy Concerns

A big concern that employees and employers both have during this huge work from home shift is the need for privacy.

For employers, this covers the privacy to ensure that sensitive data isn’t seen by a third party (kids and spouses in this case), and for employees, it means a space where they can have Zoom conversations in privacy without the interruptions of everyday life.

A garden room turned office is the perfect answer to both of these issues, giving employers the peace of mind that screens are not overlooked, and employees a quiet environment that is conducive to working rather than needing to put up with the constant interruptions while everyone is at home.

Having a separate working space away from the kids also has the benefit of keeping expensive laptops and work equipment away from poster paints and sticky fingers too!

Work/Life Balance

One of the final big benefits our customers find is the ability to balance life and work in a more succinct way. With more families struggling to find the space for everyone to work and for the kids to be home educated while schools are shut down, a private space for you to work away from the chaos can be an absolute blessing.

It’s likely that working from home is going to continue at least throughout 2021, with many companies not opening their offices back up for the foreseeable future.

This big experiment in working from home has largely been successful, with productivity up, stress down, and employee happiness fairly stable given the current situation, there is a push to make remote working the norm rather than the privilege.