I agree, you can save a lot of money on expenses like commuting. Additionally, your point that remote makes it harder to socialize, is something that I agree with. I agree that the hybrid model is not a bad idea. But, do you think companies can justify the cost of real estate to maintain the offices, if people only come three times a week or even less?
In my experience, both working remotely and onsite have their own set of benefits. Last summer I interned at a medical device company working in Quality where I primarily worked remotely. Currently, I work at a pharma company focused on testing combination products where I go in person every day. The benefits of working remotely include the flexibility of not having to commute to and from the office, which saves money and time, as well as the ability to work from the comfort of your home. A con that I experienced from working remotely, primarily as an intern, was that you lose the ability to truly network with others. In my current position, although I have to wake up earlier to commute to the office, I have the ability to network and have face-to-face interactions with my coworkers very valuable. Additionally, communication is much easier in person than virtually. That being said, each has its pros and cons, and I think that the best work setup is hybrid as it gives you the benefits of working remotely and working onsite.
@cb447 Being a post-covid worker, I have had the privilege of working both in-person and online. As someone who HATES to commute even 30 minutes, I feel for your Pops that has to do the hour+ drive, in which working online would be VERY applicable, especially if he knows that his job can be done from home. An interesting thing to think about now, however, is that people I speak to sometimes EXPECT an online work environment at least partially because of how successful it was during the pandemic. Some of the managers of the engineering departments where I work want/need employees that are willing to work in person full time, and I think that is a huge advantage for people to mention in interviews/when applying. Although online work is super convenient, and honestly possibly has the capability of being more efficient when implemented, that may just not be the way your manager wants work to be done. It could be considered old-fashioned, and I don't speak for other people, but I get much better work done when I am in the office/working with medical devices hands-on, and I think it's something to consider when people are reaching out to companies. Being able to work in-person full time, makes you a lot more desirable to a company now (IMO) than someone who wants to work hybrid. This once again does not take away from the ability for people to work from home, but instead it's encouraged to be in person, and not making it necessarily mandatory.
Due to the occurrence of a global virus pandemic during the past few years, changes in where and how we work have dramatically occurred. Hybrid-style work arrangements I where employees work from home for a few days and in the office for a few days are now common. Also, more and more businesses have realized advantages of being completely remote. Also, more people globally have been drawn to the flexibility of working remotely, with some becoming fully digital online and traveling the world while working. The nature of work has changed dramatically, and the future of work is asynchronous, flexible, and distant. While the new styles of the workplace have their benefits, there are many risks and challenges. Are companies and their employees insured when working remotely, either fully remote or hybrid remote. Also, some employees may be in countries other than those in which the company is located. With onsite jobs require you to be at the office to fulfil your daily duties. There is a matter of time management, working from office is a work mode where employees work in an office during traditional work hours. The office setting is created so that workers may communicate effectively while performing their duties, collaborate with coworkers, and assist or exchange ideas. It brings about face-to-face meetings, encourages innovation, makes technical support readily available, and creates strong bonds between coworkers. The office workplace also helps employees distinguish between their personal and professional lives. Other benefits of the workplace environment include communication that is simpler and more direct, the ability to solve some problems more quickly, learning from other team members on the spot, an improved understanding of the company's culture and values. Hybrid remote work is a flexible approach that allows a mix of remote work and work at the office. Most hybrid work models allow employees to split their time between the office and home. It combines the advantages of working from home and in an office. Companies adopt various hybrid work models, which allow employees to complete their tasks in the comfort of their own homes without interruptions while still having the opportunity to connect with coworkers and managers in person. While some hybrid models occasionally visit the office, the default working mode for them is remote. While others work remotely, certain hybrid work models allow some employees to work from the office. There are also hybrid work models where employees work remotely on certain days of the week. The hybrid work policy of a company might depend on several factors, including employee preference and the nature of work. Work from home is a work mode where employees do their jobs from home using company-approved assets, tools, and policies. Work from home is generally enabled through the internet. Employees who use this form of work have flexible work schedules. This method allows employees to work productively while juggling their personal and family lives and managing work at the same time. Therefore, working from home is ideal for disabled persons and parents who must care for young children. Working from home helps to save time, expenses and enables employees to be more productive. Remote work is a work mode where employees work from locations other than their offices, and it eliminates the need for companies to maintain an office location. Companies that adopt remote work policies should cover all aspects of remote work, including demands on working hours, legal privileges, and cybersecurity standards. Which occupation is best for your company is determined by the type and industry of your business, as well as the individual needs of your employees. Reasonable compromises between your interests and one's employees' wishes can usually be found here. If your employee is comfortable and happy at work, it will show in his general character and development as a person. The effects of a positive work environment go far beyond boosted output. This same selection between both the two work models is heavily influenced by your work style and the industry wherein you wish to work. Choose one working schedule which will maximize one's efficiency while helping you grow as a professional. Companies are providing a wide range of options for in-office, hybrid, and remote work. Finally, when deciding whether to work from home or in an office, carefully weigh your pros and cons to determine which option would then perfect your situation for success.
The debate between onsite and remote work has gained significant attention, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed our daily routines. Each setting has its own set of pros and cons, and having experienced both during my internships, I can see the value in each approach.
The shift to remote work during the pandemic was necessary, and many people appreciated the convenience it offered. One of the biggest advantages was the time saved from commuting, which allowed employees to focus on personal well-being, such as exercising and taking care of their health. This change not only improved work-life balance but also gave a new perspective on productivity. From a personal standpoint, my parents, for example, found it much easier to manage their daily responsibilities, such as taking care of my younger brother and getting him to school, while still fulfilling their work obligations. The flexibility of working from home allowed them to prioritize family needs without compromising their job responsibilities.
Additionally, as an immigrant family, the location of work is also a significant factor. Proximity to the workplace can reduce the stress of settling into a new environment.
However, my experience with an online internship showed some downsides too. The absence of social interaction, the discipline of dressing up, and the energy that comes from working in a shared space were missed.
In this context, a hybrid model where the work week starts onsite and transitions to remote work towards the end could provide an ideal balance.
Onsite work promotes spontaneous interaction and teamwork, which can improve innovation and problem-solving abilities through face to face interactions. Workers have direct access to office equipment, tools, and co-workers, which helps to enhance productivity for tasks requiring particular hardware or software. In-person socialization and shared experiences facilitate company culture and unity among teams. But the onsite work option has some drawbacks as well which include commuting stress, challenges to balance personal and work life.
On the other hand, remote work saves daily commutation time and money, reduces stress that can help to maintain a healthy personal and work life balance. It also saves employers investment on workspace management and relevant expenses. But the lack of face to face interaction in remote job can lead to misunderstandings or delays in decision-making. Remote workers may not have equal access to office resources like the onsite people or may encounter technical difficulties which may impact on their performance.
Both onsite and remote job have some benefits and drawbacks considering different aspects. At the end, it all depends on individual's choice, preference, role and cultures of the organization.
I would always prefers the flexibility in the working mode. My boyfriend (working as a software engineer, I know that it's very different in terms of working-remotely-possibility but still, ...) has to come to office at least 5 days a month, and have something called "collaboration week" where the company organized more activities for the employees, and the rest of the month, it just depends on the team which day of the week they prefer members to all come to interact. Back to our field, many may have to do lab work, but I really hopes that industry job is the same thing everywhere: deadlines-driven. I hope they are more tolerant in not forcing employees coming to office everyday just to swipe the card at 9 and come back at 5. I hope to have minimum days in office and that you can just stay at home to deal with data on the laptop. That would be great. But again, our field's scope is so much different, including many regulations so I don't think it will change too much for those working in lab. Also with this class, I hope that I learn about more career options available out there so I can find one that let me work remotely most of the time. :')
Contrary to many of the opinions stated in this post, I prefer fully onsite work. While I can see the benefits that remote work could bring, such as taking away commuting time and adding flexibility to the workday, a remote work platform is not for me. I find myself to be a person who thrives off of the energy of being around other people with similar goals and motivation. Being in an office setting with other people who are working on similar projects keeps me motivated and on track. I currently work in a fully onsite position and cannot imagine myself being able to reach the same levels of productivity from home. Being at home, there are many distractions and a comfortable environment.
In addition to that, I feel that in order to keep the best balance between work and home, it is important to keep them as separate as possible. The best part about working in an office outside of the home is that when it is time to go home, you can close your computer and leave the stress of the day at work until it is time to return. Working from home begins to blur those lines between working and relaxing in your home. For me, my home is a place of comfort where it is very difficult to achieve the same level of focus and mindset that I have when I step into the office. A change of environment between work and home is necessary to get anyone into a professional head space.
Lastly, being an engineer involves a high level of teamwork and communication. Although it is possible to communicate virtually in a remote position, I do not believe that it is the same effect as being in the same room. There is a major difference between face-to-face communication and communicating through the computer. As I stated before, I am someone who feeds off of the energy of other similarly motivated people. With this being said, I am a strong believer that having face-to-face interactions with coworkers is a very important aspect of any position that should not be neglected.
The issue of on site versus remote work is one that I am currently dealing with. I believe that it is a case by case basis. For a quality engineer that does not visit the manufacturing floor, the work they do in the office is the same work they do from home. In fact, the distractions of the office, such as coffee talk, lunch, and conversing with coworkers may prove to be detrimental to the flow of work and productivity. At the same time, giving the liberty of work from home to the younger generations can cause them to waste company time or be lazy in completing work. I believe it is up to the manager to track productivity of the employees, and if productivity declines, then maybe in person work is mandatory. However, I believe it is unfair for companies to demand in person work if there is no dip in productivity, or no other reason to justify going back to the office. I find it funny sometimes, when I am in the office, that there is a meeting, and each one of our team members takes the meeting from their desk, even though we are all in the office. This is sometimes the case for companies who demand on site presence, but does not use the on site presence.
I think that remote work wouldn’t be the most productive situation for an engineering career, due to the nature of the job. Some tasks may require on-site responsibilities. When working as a Quality Engineer, some if my tasks included managing eauipment maintenence and calibration. Managing these tasks with just an my computer isn’t practical due to some if the problems my team encountered that required on-site supervision and troubleshooting. Also, some experiments and research should be conducted in a laboratory environment.
There are advantages to remote work, being that with the advancement of technology, many of the meetings and technical work can be completed on a computer at home, without the distractions at work. That being said, I think that a hybrid work schedule would be ideal so that while technical work can be done from a desktop remotely, on-site visits should also be made for work requiring a laboratory environment.
@bsk32 , completely agree. I don't think its really as simple as remote or fully in-person when it comes to many technical fields especially. The type of engineer you may be for example will even impact whether you're able to do more or less remote work. In my job, for example, the PEs work more like manufacturing engineers-ensuring that equipment is always running, and and having to be there if something goes wrong. QE's, in comparison, can complete much more work remotely.
Ultimately, I think most engineering positions have potential to at least do some work remotely, however I don't know if we'll ever be able to approach our work as such. There's an unfortunate bias and 'old way of thinking' that I feel lingers even in todays industry that dictates that everyone should still go to work in-person always, even if it's not always necessary.
@giang , It's pretty interesting that you brought up that your bf's job has a "collaboration week". It brings up the good point in a way that one of the cons with remote work, is that that sense of team work definitely becomes lessened or even lost.
I suppose you do want that sense of comradery in a sense as it always helps to grease the spokes so to say-people work more for people they know and trust. You're less likely to encounter resistance when you work and/or see that person regularly. Remote work likely makes it difficult to keep things moving in those regards.
If I were to choose full-time remote versus being on-site, I would prefer working on-site. I only have experience at my current place of employment, but in an engineering position, I would still prefer to work on-site rather than remotely. My preference may change if I get different positions, but this is what I see. I work as a clinical laboratory technician at a medical diagnostics laboratory. Our option is working on-site since we receive physical specimens to perform tests to determine if the patients have the disease or not. It would be quite difficult to work remotely in this type of scenario. From what I learned working in person; there is a sense of collaboration and productivity. Everyone works together to get things done effectively and efficiently. There is that sense of teamwork with each other which can promote a better and productive workspace. It is also easier to rely on communication within each other and different departments like quality control to confirm correct and accurate analysis of patient positives, patient negatives, and passing a set of controls to send out results to doctors and clinics.
The downside I can see from working on-site for me personally is the commute from home to work. I commute about an hour and 20 minutes both ways for three days a week. I also work twelve-hour shifts from 8am to 8pm, which can be exhausting for three straight days due to waking up early and getting home late. With that, it would also be difficult to have a good work-life balance from going to work and going to school at the same time, while trying to incorporate some you time. Another one is that sometimes you are taking on more responsibilities and more work compared to others.
As what others said, with working remotely, there is more flexibility with the location, as well as no need to commute to your job site. That would be really nice, but there could be issues with communication within the departments to convey any issues or concerns. Emails may not be seen or responded to see if a certain task is done or if the issues have been resolved or not. This is a constant issue I see at my workplace with some QC workers working remotely with miscommunications. Everyone is responsible for their own technology, such as computers and the internet. If there are cases where you run into an issue or have to send an important message or document and you cannot send it out or convey your message, work would be backed up and workflow would slow down.
Though this post was made during the time of the covid pandemic when companies did not really have a choice whether or not to transition to remote work, however I think it is still incredibly relevant to today where we see many corporations opening or moving positions/roles to remote rather than onsite. I think there are definitive pros and cons to working onsite vs remote. Firstly, in terms of remote work you certainly gain back some time in your day that you do not have to spend commuting to work in addition to saving on gas as well as adding up miles on your car. This allows remote work to a lot more flexible in terms of scheduling and time budgeting which I know I certainly appreciate. In addition to this, remote work can be conducted anywhere, so one is not anchored down to live in a certain area. This again adds to the flexibility of remote work and allows those who hold remote positions to be able travel if need be while still bringing work with them. A drawback to remote work is that you lose the ability to socialize and communicate with your peers/coworkers which may hinder team effectiveness/communication. There are ways to mitigate this of course, but I believe that is harder to handle these issues while being exclusively remote. I also believe in terms of psychological affects, remote work would be more likely to increase the risk of burnout and result in less satisfaction in work in addition to negatively impacting mental health without human interaction. In terms of onsite work, I believe that the onsite work environment is more structured and allows for better collaboration amongst coworkers as they can put a face to a name and communicate any issues that arise more effectively. In addition to this, there are tasks that simply cannot be done via remote work and can only be done in person so this is another added benefit. However, their are obvious cons to onsite work including commuting stress both financially and mentally as well as reduced flexibility in scheduling and time for workers. I think for me personally, I would prefer a hybrid model working mostly from home while coming to location several times a week so that I can get the benefits of a flexible schedule and more time in my hands while also acquainting myself with my peers and developing my career skills further. If I could not choose hybrid and I had to pick onsite or remote work, I would likely pick remote work as it fits my needs as a worker much better than onsite work does. Having extra time on my hands and saving costs on commuting is invaluable to me. With that said I would like to pose a question to further this discussion, what skill sets do you think are most important for a worker to succeed in an onsite or remote work environment? Are they translatable and apply to both roles, or are there unique skills/traits for each that contribute to employee success.
I believe working from home gives more flexibility. It also helps me focus better on tasks. However being in the office makes teamwork and better communication. In my opinion a mix of both remote and office would be the best option. This way we get benefits of flexibility and collaboration together.
