Remote work

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a massive change in our working practices. Remote work has become common. Today, many businesses offered work-from-home options for full- or part-time employees. If you have some working from home, here are my views from our experience for you to consider. We have 40+ years of experience in remote working.

1) Productivity

Many studies have shown different results on whether working at home is more productive at work or home. It is telling that most large companies and government departments, which I am sure have checked their figures want their employees back at work. So I wonder if people are more productive at home.

2) Work from home

Experience and studies confirm show only about 42% of jobs can be done from home. Even if a job can be done from home, not all employees have a dedicated workspace without distractions and interruptions to work at home. I find, for example, like this woman in the image below, that my kid distracts me at home while working. That is part of the reason workplaces were invented to give people a place to work without distractions.

Many lack the technical knowledge and/or tools to work from home. 

3) Some kinds of work are not suited for remote work

It is challenging to be creative and collaborative at home if isolated, as it is harder to collaborate and communicate effectively with one another. Many jobs need a lot of teamwork, creative input, and collaboration. 

This is true of routine jobs; for example, I find doing salaries much more challenging at home than at work. You need all the information immediately, which is only available at work. It is interesting at the height of the pandemic lockdown; the Victorian government had to change the lockdown rules to let payroll staff return to work. 

4) Security Threats

Today we should all be concerned about cyber security threats. Protecting your client's information and company data is only possible if the information is at your work site. Implementing secure remote access protocols and security software can help only somewhat. We have had to modify some of our client's computer systems to address these threats.

5) Oversight

Many do not work at home; it is for them an excuse to bludge. It's a fact. 

In my experience, monitoring performance and ensuring remote workers meet expectations can be challenging. You will know if people work in some jobs, but not all. 

6) Training

This long-term problem worries me; how do you train people if they work remotely? 

7) Cost savings

There is potential for employers to have cost savings by allowing employees to work from home. Because they no longer need as much space, some businesses have even been able to reduce the size of their workplaces. Plus, their requirements have changed. They now need more meeting room space and technology to run Zoom meetings.

Key points

> Since the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become common.

> The productivity of remote working is debatable

> Only about 42% of jobs can be done from home

> Many employees cannot work remotely

> Collaboration and communication can be difficult

> Cost savings are possible

> Additionally, security dangers

> It can be challenging to track remote workers

> Training remote workers is difficult

This question gets asked a lot now particularly as now many people are working more from home and the need for a home/office printer has increased.

As a rule, I tend to recommend for home an all-in-one (MULTIFUNCTION) printer, as these print, scan, and fax. These, however, are getting a bit rare as who faxes nowadays but they are still available if you look for them. Of course, if you like so many do not have a landline now at home, its not much use to you the fax part but if faxing is very important to you then you may want to investigate some fax services that are available.

Today the scanner is very important, we are continuously being asked to scan some documents and send it by either email or fax it. Yes, you can use your mobile’s camera to do this and if you only occasionally need to do this, it maybe could be enough for you but the quality of this scan doesn’t come up to the quality of a scanner.

How often will you print?

Inkjet printers tend to dry out if not used, so if they are not used for a month there are problems. So if months could go by and no-one prints anything on that printer, then the ink can dry and the inkjet printer needs cleaning, which generally is not an easy task to do.

For this reason, overall lasers cause fewer problems as in school holidays, the kids have not used the printer, you do not print, and then when someone tries to use it the inkjet does not work without a clean, generally, what happens then the inkjet gets dumped as who can be bothered fixing it.

How much do you expect to print?

As a rule, lasers print a page cheaper than an inkjet. However, there are a few inkjet printers out there with a supertank, which have refillable tanks that offer a lower cost per page than lasers. 

This is important as the biggest expense for a printer isn’t the printer, the paper but the ink. I have known people to buy printers on special with free ink when the ink runs out, they throw out the printer. It was not worth buying the ink. So they buy another printer on special with ink.

Do you mind some bother?

Inkjet printers need ink cartridges you often need to continually restock them which is a pain.

Plenty of times at home, after doing some printing, just one of these ink cartridges ran out and I had to go to a shop to buy another ink cartridge.  If the shop did not stock my inkjet cartridge, there were problems. 

Do you want to print in colour?

I have given up on printing photos on my home printer, the professional printers are so much better but if want to do photos then you need an inkjet. If you just need some colour now and then, then either laser or inkjet can do the job.

The professional look of the print?

I find the quality of the text printing by lasers more precise although some of the better inkjets are good enough for most documents.

Speed

This is often not a factor in a home printer as you can always in a big run, set the printer up, go and do something else but if it is a factor lasers are faster

My conclusion is that overall, it is worth spending a little more and getting a laser all-in-one (MULTIFUNCTION) printer for home.

Hope this all helps.

Be aware that if you have a computer at home which you do work on for your business, you may be entitled to claim many other expenses including many other costs such as the desk, chair, lamps, carpets, lighting, etc for the area from which you conduct business.