During the pandemic you may have worked from home and either loved it or hated it. Now that life has become more normal, you may have gone back to the office full time or been offered flexible working. If you’re still working from home, have you considered what the top 5 benefits of working at the office are?
- Friendship and connection
Spending time with your colleagues in the same space naturally leads to kinship and friendship. After all, many of us spend more time in the office with our colleagues than with our significant others or family.
In fact, according to a Gallup study, employees who have a best friend at work are more satisfied with their careers, more inclined to go above and beyond for clients, and more likely to deliver high-quality work.
Their research also shows that employees who have friendships at work are more than twice as likely to be engaged (63% vs. 29%) as those who don’t.
Working from the office is not only much better for our mental health, but also significantly better for our career.
- A sense of belonging
Feeling part of a whole is just as important as interpersonal relationships. When we go to the office, we have a sense of being part of a whole, part of something bigger than ourselves.
As humans, we need to feel like we belong to be happy and content. Being in the same physical space as our colleagues means social gatherings can naturally happen, such as round the water cooler, in the lunch area or after work.
The sense of belonging we feel when we go to the office is also good for companies as employees work harder when they feel like they belong to the company.
- A sense of purpose
Employees gain a sense of purpose in their lives from their employment. Research by Mckinsey found that more than two-thirds of employees felt that their own sense of purpose was at least in part defined by their work.
That sense of purpose is enhanced when we go to the office to work. We get up, get ready for work and we’re out the door. The commute becomes part of your sense of purpose for the day.
- Increased creativity and innovation
When workers’ desks are located near their colleagues, it changes the way they share knowledge which sparks creativity, problem solving and innovation between the team.
Conversations happen more frequently which leads to increased dialogue and sharing of ideas.
Conversations can happen digitally of course, but you lose the nuances and facial expressions that convey important messages in communications between people.
- A work life balance
There are benefits of working from home but there are also disadvantages. One of the biggest downsides of working from home is the number of distractions, they are everywhere at home. Whether it’s children, pets or the housework, there’s always something that needs to be done at home that isn’t work related. Noisy distractions especially, have been shown to increase stress and lead to poor health.
If you work at the office, when you go home for the day you have the chance to leave it all there until the next day, allowing you to be fully focused on your loved ones outside of the office.
If you work from home, the danger is that you work longer hours and don’t finish until later in the day.
Now that you know what the top 5 benefits of working at the office are, do you want to find out more about the office space we have to rent at Hone’s Business Park? If so, contact us now and Marion will be happy to talk you through what we have available and give you a tour.
