What Do You Prefer: Remote Working, Office Working or Hybrid Working?

Are you enjoying remote working? Or do you prefer going back to the office? Or maybe you are in between the two?

Most office workers have been working from home since the beginning of lockdown back in March. For those who could not (or were not allowed) to work from home previously, this was an interesting exercise, but for most of us it came as a relief that suddenly we had to stop our commutes to work, stop dealing with the daily traffic jams or packed trains, trams and tube.

The government announced in July that employers had the discretion to make the decision for their employees to return to the office or continue to work from home. So far 35% of employees have returned to the office. There are many reasons for the low take up of this, one of the key reasons is that offices are just not equipped to ‘social distance’ everyone and the shared facilities can pose a risk for infection.

For example, some figures show that: 

• The typical office phone has 25,127 germs per square inch
• Computer Keyboards - 3x more
• Filthy Fridges – Uncleaned for 93 days
• Door Handles – Can infect half the office within hours
• Unhygienic Colleagues – 25% of office workers admit to not washing their hands after going to the toilet

So overall, working from home has been well received by the majority of employees and to some extent some employers too but many employees do feel they need a balance between office working and home working or others do prefer working from the office all of the time. Can this be a case of personality types?

 Personality Types & Working from Home

The Guardians (ESTJ, ESFJ, ISTJ, ISFJ)- These personality types may find appealing mixing homeworking with office- working. They are structured, organised, self-motivated and have an excellent work ethic.

The Rationals (ENTJ, ENTP, INTJ, INTP)-Like the guardians, they enjoy working from home but also in the office. They may need to stay intellectually stimulated and get a sense of the success of their work efforts and with working from home this might not be the case or might take a little longer to get recognised as opposed to working in an office and collaborating with managers and colleagues daily face to face.

The Artisans (ESTP, ESFP, ISTP, ISFP)- Artisans enjoy connecting socially with people. They enjoy the daily ‘chit chat’ at work and the social interactions with colleagues. This personality type might struggle remote working and not having social interactions.

The Idealists (ENFJ, ENFP, INFJ, INFP)- This personality type enjoys full autonomy over their work style and schedules, and they feel constrained by structure. They prefer full autonomy over their work and are happy to be left to their own devices when working from home. However, they need social interaction as well and therefore a mix of home working and office working would be ideal for this personality type.

We are unsure how much longer working from home will last but a few big corporations have already decided that they will make the move to working from home permanent, like in the case of Fujitsu, whilst some others have extended their working from home policy like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

While the most of us continue to work from home, our top tips to have a balanced, productive and healthy home working schedule are:

• Create boundaries between ‘Work time’ and ‘Home time’
• Set up a routine and dedicate a space for work
• Stay connected with your colleagues and manager by having regular meetings
• Try digital detox in the evenings
• Exercise and go outside at least once a day
• Go to bed on time

Are you enjoying working from home? Or do you prefer the office?

Send us your comments!