Between Work And Home, What Is The Best Work Environment For Productivity?

How many times on average you spend at work per week? Most people will probably say something between 40 hours to 50 hours or even 60 hours as for the elite average. Now let me ask you this, when you come back from work, how many hours do you take out of your family time to finish an unfinished work that was meant to be finished at work? On this post, I am not going to judge whether or not it's ok to bring work at home, but I will light up on some of the reasons why working at home in contrast to the typical workplace will work better for everyone.

I love that quote from the Self-discipline strategist Rory Vaden saying: "you don't get paid per hour,but for what you do during that hour." Yet, the real issue with the typical working environment is that you are just way to accessible. Let's start with your arrival at work. For the majority, when they get to work at 8 a.m. after switching their computer on, the time is spent chatting with co-workers on just about anything that might not even be work-related. Is that bad? As, a Professional Relationship Development Strategist, I'd sat that is not bad, it's called socializing. However, with many people suffering of the lack of discipline, it can easily take about an hour to wrap up these warm greetings of the early morning. So you might want to go ahead and start working as soon as you step at your work place, but just because it's also a social environment, you can't just jump on your task to be done.

Now let's talk about managers. Managers are the other reason why I believe working at home can be more productive. Managers

simply call to many meetings sometimes. You simply have the feeling that their job is to call on meetings. Don't get me wrong, they might have good reasons to call all those meetings or have good information to pass around but if they always come up with two to three meetings a day of at least 30 minutes each, then their staff has no time to advance on the schedule and therefore the staff will end up going home with some more work. For managers looking for better ways to manage with efficiency and effectiveness I do highly recommend the Ken Blanchard best-selling book entitled: The One Minute Manager. This book is available at Cheap'Shop, the Act2be.com online store for ONLY self-improvement material.

What about non-stop phone calls and incoming emails or chat? Those are another source of interruptions that slows one productivity at work. At work, if you are expert in anything, then you will be the one everyone will be giving a call to get the help on your expertise, even if it's not part of your responsibilities. Will it be good not to answer their call? I'd say no, because they've seen your car in the parking lot so they know you are there at work. So if they can't have you on phone, they will walk at your desk and that will definitely waste more of your time. Some people will even simply interrupt you to come and check out a funny image they found in the net, or they will ask you to come and check out their PowerPoint presentation, or ask you to give them a feedback on the email they're about to send out... Fact is, at work, it makes it easier for people to get in touch with you whether it is work related or not, and that kills your personal time of work productivity.

So, yes, I do believe, people don't go to work in order to work anymore. Work place nowadays are all about interruptions and the only way to finish your work on time is to bring work home if you don't want to be fired for finishing your work late. You can quit on a program until you finish you work, you can completely switch off your internet and not answer you phone, but you can't quit on someone who shows up at your door or who yells your name two desks away (Max! Max! Come and see that buddy!) or even co-workers who simply talk and "lol" next to you. You can't quit on those things because you have no control on it.

Now, is working at home the best solution? The best thing about working at home is that you can be in control, depending on whether or not they kids allow you to. If you have little feet at home, working there can be almost impossible unless you take a nanny or take them to a day care. If they are school age kids, then you can simply match your home working schedule to their school time to make it work at your advantage and that way you will show up at work only when there is a scheduled company or division meeting.

Sometimes, even without children, working at home might not work out so well because of being in the comfort of your home where you have easy access to your comfortable bedroom, day room, or TV room. The best alternative in that case would be to go to the library. There, no cell phones are allowed, you have access to a variety range of books if needed, the WIFI is installed and if you don't have your own computer, they are some available at the library, and more important, at the library, silence is the golden rule.

Do not fool yourself, people are hired and paid to produce and not just to show up at work. Some work requires a physical presence at the company and some others don't. At the end of the day, you are leveled by how your work and responsibilities helped the company to move forward, and appreciated for the initiatives and solutions you brought to the table to be more productive. If working at the company hurt your productivity and your work does not required your constant presence at the company, then go and talk with your managers for better arrangements.

Now I am eager to know, what is your take of the typical workplace?