Working from Home vs Working from Office

Investigations of the impact of remote work as a flexible form of work performance began as early as in the year of 1970s. The term “telecommuting” was first coined by Jack Niles (1975) in the 1970s when he was working remotely as an engineer on NASA’s communications systems and referred to his work as telecommuting. He later defined telecommuting as working outside of a standard workplace through telecommunications and computer-based technology (Niles, 1994). Belanger and Collins (1998), who coined the term ‘distributed work’, also researched flexible workplace and environmental issues. According to their definition, distributed work is an agreement that allows employees to share work-related tasks away from the business’s central location or its physical organizational location. The best-known and very popular type of distributed work is telecommuting. Furthermore, this type of work arrangement is recognized as ‘telework’ or ‘remote work’ (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007).

Based on recent studies (Iravanto, Novianti, & Rose, 2021), the higher the intensity of remote work, the more satisfied employees are. In the group of people who spend only a quarter of their time working remotely, 82% of respondents said they would like to work remotely more often (Buffer & AngelList, 2020). A joint study by Owl Labs and Global WorkplaceAnalytics found that 71% of people who work remotely are happy with their jobs, while 55% of people who work in the office are satisfied with their jobs. Remote workers say they are 29% more comfortable in their jobs than on-site workers (Owl Labs, Global Workplace Analytics, 2019). The impact of telecommuting on labor efficiency is still a controversial issue (Schall, 2019, Nuwer, 2016). The growth of remote employment generates many controversial decisions. Highly skilled workers face a choice: take advantage of office interactions but bear the costs of commuting to work; or save on transportation but do not receive the benefits of agglomeration effects and bear additional housing costs because part of the living space must be used as an office (Wang et al., 2021). Businesses face a choice between reduced productivity due to reduced aggregation effects and reduced office costs.

According to recent scientific research, working remotely for about 20% to 40% of the time helps boost productivity. This means that in a typical 5-day work week, it is best to work from home for 1 to 2 days. A 2007 study by Gajendran and Harrison found that this balance allows employees to work remotely while staying connected to their teams and maintaining their productivity.Until the inflection point is discovered, telecommuting increases the productivity of both skilled and unskilled workers without significantly changing the balance of demand for office and residential premises as well as increasing the efficiency of using information and telecommunication technologies (Nuwer, 2016). Following the COVID-19 pandemic, companies and organizations now aim to engage work, the workforce, and the workplace in a new system that recognizes work as a set of tasks to be completed rather than linking it to a specific location. Working from home is a term that refers to work done at home, regardless of whether the person doing the work is an employee of an organization or is self-employed. Telecommuting is used to describe when an employee uses stationary or portable devices to perform their office work outside of the office. This allows the flexibility of using telecommunications to connect with colleagues in real-time.

Other benefits include autonomy, absence of distractions, reduction of travel, and increased productivity, which are the main factors motivating people to work at home (Lakshmi et al., 2017; Meenakshi, V, & Ravichandran, 2013). Basically, employee work productivity is the result of a series of behaviors that are performed by employees in work situations (Hartini, Fakhrorazi, & Islam, 2019) and determines the viability and profitability of the organization (Islam, Osman, Othman, & Raihan, 2019; Van Nguyen, Doan, Nhu, Quoc, & Quinn, 2021).

Productivity is also an important mechanism for management to clarify performance goals and standards and motivate individuals to ensure the sustainability of the organization (Shaki & Khoshsalighe, 2017). It is also a rating system used in most companies to evaluate an employee’s capabilities (Khuong & Kwok, 2016). WFH (work from home) conditions are likely to become part of future office work and, thus, it is important to understand the implications of the three aspects of future work – worker, workplace, and task – relative to the WFH experience.

Worker Characteristics

The WFH (Work From Home) experience is inevitably influenced by worker demographics, including gender, age, income and other various types factors. . Even in 2021, gender gaps persist at the workplace and at home, which may lead to the perception that women’s productivity is lower than that of men because women spend more time on household chores and childcare. In addition to demographic factors, WFH may pose different challenges for workers with different occupational backgrounds. Earlier studies have examined the impact of WFH on productivity within specific groups of workers (for example, workers at a Chinese travel agency, and workers at the US Patent and Trademark Office). However, there have been no studies that have examined the effects of WFH on productivity across different occupational groups. The transition to remote work may reduce the risk of efficiency loss for workers who are primarily directly engaged with a computer workstation throughout their day (for example, programmers), as opposed to individuals working in jobs that require mixed tasks in an interpersonal environment (for example, health care office workers).

Importantly, workers’ health is consistently associated with productivity, such that the more health problems workers report the worse their level of productivity. Although it can be more easily concluded that these relationships will similarly exist in remote contexts, there are limited studies that examine the impact of workers’ health on productivity during WFH.

Workspace Context

The workplace context plays a major role in shaping the work experience. Satisfaction with one’s workspace, privacy, and the ability to personalize the workplace are predictors of workers’ productivity. The shift from working in a well-established office space to working from home can be challenging for many office workers in whole world . Such challenges can be stressful and negatively impact an employee’s willingness to work and thus reduce their productivity. Having the optimal physical setup, proper ergonomics, and necessary equipment is crucial to creating an effective workplace that boosts productivity and increases workers’ engagement with their workspaces. In their analysis of the workforce’s shift to WFH, Moretti et al. explained that workers are expected to engage extensively with their workspaces while working from home, and therefore presented their suggestions for a comfortable workspace (i.e., an adjustable desk and chair to prevent back and joint pain, one with a footrest, and an adjustable monitor screen).

Research shows that keeping the workspace separate from the living space is very important when working from home. Having a separate workspace is recommended because it creates clear boundaries between work and home life. This separation helps improve focus and productivity. It also makes people stay in their workspace longer because the environment feels more conducive to work. Also, a designated workspace signals to other household members that you are busy and should not be disturbed, which reduces distractions.

Work Context

Another important consideration in worker productivity and work experience when WFH is workers’ ability to set and maintain appropriate boundaries between work duties and home responsibilities. Along with role conflicts, even before the pandemic era, workers found it challenging to manage work and family/life commitments. With workers’ sudden shift to WFH due to the pandemic, new types of conflicts arose between work and life. When working and living in the same location, setting boundaries between work and life becomes more challenging. For example, the sense of time may fade in homogeneous work-home environments, and employees may increase their work hours, start working earlier, later, or on weekends. Some employees may adopt flexibility in their work hours, while other workers may have no choice but to schedule their work hours according to their household members or responsibilities. Also, unclear boundaries between home and office have increased work expectations. For example, Pesley et al. found that sales personnel felt exhausted when trying to meet management expectations and believed that job expectations became higher as they began working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this increase in expectations, workers may be assigned more duties and be expected to perform additional tasks, increase working hours, and require them to spend additional time at their workstations.

The job stress experienced by employees, if not properly managed, will result in lower work productivity and increased absenteeism (Ahmed & Ramadan, 2013; Kakkos & Trivellas, 2011; Yahya, Yahya, Bon, Ismail, & Ing, 2011). In addition, the following hypotheses of scientific research were formulated within the framework of our study from the analysis and criticism of the tools used in previous studies and knowledge of the importance of time management and its effective role through working from home in achieving high productivity and quality:

H1: Working from home is more effective in time management than working from office

H2: Working from home increases work quality and productivity

H3: Improving time attitude behavior has a good effect on improving time management skills (timeplanning)

H4: Time wasting behavior has a bad effect on improving time management skills (timeplanning)

H5: Good time management behavior skills (time planning) increases work quality and productivity

Research Methodology

Since the purpose of this research is to improve and clarify the effect of time management on employee productivity and job performance, and also which best workplace can improve time management and work quality. To clarify the effect of time management and workplace relations on employees’ efficiency. Quantitative research methodology has been used with the model of analytical correlation design and cross-sectional approach. An online questionnaire was sent to a number of engineers (127) whose nature and workplace are different.

Research Instrument

The research instrument is an online modified questionnaire adapted from the Time Management Questionnaire (TMQ, Britton & Tesser, 1991) for time planning and time attitudes. Assessing job performance using brief self-report scales, Madero, G.S., Ortiz, M.O.E., Ramirez, J., & Olivas Lujan, M.R. (2020), – for workplace efficiency questions (Bao et al., 2020; Madero et al., 2020), work productivity (Ramos-Villagrasa, Barrada, Fernández-del-Río, & Koopmans, 2019). This questionnaire is designed to collect information about people’s time management and its impact on their work. It includes personal information of the respondents, their short and long term planning habits, and their attitude towards time. The survey also looks at how efficiently they work, what activities or distractions waste their time, and what impact all this has on their work productivity. By analyzing the responses, we will try to understand the relationship between time management and workplace efficiency.The data collected with the questionnaire was transferred to SPSS 26. The questionnaire was carried out remotely via email using GoogleForms (2021). The questionnaire survey consisted of 6 sections. The first section includes: 1) General information about the respondents (gender, respondent’s age, marital status, workplace and total amount of monthly income). The second section was developed to learn the respondents’ behavior towards time management (time planning). The third section was developed to know the respondents’ attitude towards time planning management (TimeAttitude). The fourth section was developed to learn the respondents’ attitude towards remotework, to study the preferred form of work, its advantages and disadvantages, and to assess its effectiveness and the factors influencing it (workplace efficiency). The fifth section was developed to learn from the respondents’ attitude towards time wasters (time wasters). The sixth section was developed to know the respondents’ attitude towards work productivity (work productivity). These questions were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale (always, often, sometimes, seldom and never). The primary indicator for assessing labor efficiency is the indicator of productivity (Langmeier, 2018).

Discussion and conclusions

In the current disruptive and highly competitive world of work, managing time efficiently can be a vital ability, not always innate but can be learned, which is why we consider it essential that the university prepares students and creates appropriate structures. The correct use of time is deeply linked to the setting of short-term priorities and the effort to accomplish them, for which it is not enough to rely only on memory, it is also an essential tool to make a list of activities to be done. Tools such as agendas (on paper, digital) play a very important role in this process. To achieve better time management, employees should use a diary to set goals and use the technique of timeboxing to decide the time needed to complete each task, as this helps in setting priorities and making decisions. When defending a dissertation or presenting any task/exercise required during working hours, employees should also present the actual time box and explain the possible work differences. They should develop awareness about where they spend their time and learn to keep track of time, be flexible and say “no” to avoid procrastination and distraction.

Research Contributions and Recommendations

The research contributed to highlight the importance of the time management factor for companies and employees. Clarify various concepts for time management in a simple and practical way and understand the impact of good use of time management behavior on business and mission accomplishment. Clarify the difference between working from home and working from the office and conduct careful field research to obtain real results that can be relied on later. Knowing the best work environment suitable for employees to achieve efficient and high-quality work and develop some scientific recommendations that consider its embrace as the beginning of several successful next steps.

The research has many implications starting from the implementation of training programs for students and new employees to introducing an evaluation system using points based on learning and measuring the importance of time management skills and how to develop these skills and the influential role of time management in practical life. Employees’ behavior and skills towards time management and its reflection on achieving goals and tasks within companies or even on those working from home. To improve the performance of employees in the office, spending on means of entertainment should be increased so that the work environment is pleasant and employees can perform successfully.

In order for employees working from home to perform well, flexible work arrangements should be made available in the company and employers should supply ergonomic office items to improve the performance of employees working from the office so that they can deal with any stress and pressure factors. . To improve the performance of employees working from home, employees should be supplied with ergonomic office items so that they do not have to deal with any problems.

Conclusion

We can conclude that WFH and WFO have clearly been shown to provide major changes in organizational culture and work productivity in Egypt, meaning that the majority is well aware of the importance of time management and its impact on their working lifestyle, they are aware that working from home life is better for health but it is not effective in completing the required tasks and functions. These findings will certainly be the aim of further study to explore in depth the WFH concept and its impact on the wider organization. In addition employees who work in the office will also be examined. It can be concluded that employees who work from the office have higher levels of productivity and performance than those who work from home. Several factors may be responsible for this result. Some of the primary benefits that make the concept of working from home beneficial to work life health are reduced stress levels, connectivity with family, convenience at work, and cost reduction.

Limitations

The sample size for this study is limited to the city of Cairo located in egyptian country. It is recommended for future researchers to include career workers with many different backgrounds in other cities. A study can also be conducted on employees with non-engineering backgrounds in other cities to better assess the impact. Because the study is limited to employees in the engineering sector in a single city in Egypt, the findings may only be able to characterize the specific location of the study rather than the entire universe. Employees who work from home and from the office provided data, and because they were busy with their work, they were less responsive and engaged, however, there is a risk of bias in the responses, which is a major weakness of the current study. A more in-depth study can be conducted on both WFH and WFO employees. By comparing the opinions of WFH and WFO, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the broader perceptions of engineering personnel.

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