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Is working from home better than working from an office?
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Serendipidous moments are missed when working from home

Water-cooler interactions, bumping into someone in the hallway, the random lunch meeting are all missed when working from home. Having a healthy social life is important to a person's mental health, as well as to the success of the company.
Work

The Argument

Socialization within the workplace is important in building strong connections with coworkers and maintaining the human demand to be social. According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the need to feel belonging is the third most important thing that humans require. When working from home people are not able to fulfill their desire for socialization and miss on small, meaningful moments that happen in traditional offices.[1] Work relationships increase employee productivity and engagement, which benefits the company. Having socialization at work improves teamwork skills and widens the amount of knowledge being shared. Establishing and building relationships within a workplace can make employees happier and encourage them to be more productive and focused.[2] Without socialization at work, stress levels can rise and their performance can diminish. Working remotely makes it difficult or people to have meaningful relationships with coworkers, which lowers their motivation. By opting to work from home, employees miss on typical office interactions that would be beneficial to their happiness and work.

Counter arguments

It is entirely possible to have strong relationships with coworkers, even when working from home. People can socialize and collaborate with coworkers online throughout the workday, proving that people are still able to build relationships despite working remotely.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] Having relationships at work fulfills the human need to be social. [P2] Work relationships improve productivity, engagement, motivation, and happiness. [P3] It is difficult to maintain meaningful relationships at a job while working from home. [P4] Therefore, working from home is not better than traditional office work.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] It is possible to build relationships with coworkers while working from home.

References

  1. https://adurolife.com/blog/mental-health/benefits-of-social-interaction-at-work/
  2. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-socializing-workplace-18718.html
This page was last edited on Monday, 2 Nov 2020 at 18:36 UTC

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