Digital nomadism is the most recent revolution in the workplace trends and has brought about a magnificent change by bringing the office to home. At the hands of technology the work culture has transformed to being more localized.
Remote work was a rarity a decade ago. Slowly, the era of digital nomadism started gaining popularity and the pandemic fueled it to greater heights making it the most popular workplace trend. Digital nomadism is a type of work where the worker lives as a nomad. A huge percentage of the workforce willingly chose to work from home to keep several freelancing jobs. This also helps the established entrepreneurs by giving them more employment opportunities and also saves the expenditure over electricity, overhead costs and equipment upkeep. Oflate , the rest of the workforce was forced to take up this form of work as they were bound by health reasons. The work culture reached new heights after the pandemic hit. Before, it was a free choice to the employees but with the spread of the epidemic it became a necessity.
The success of the work from home(WFH) culture can be greatly accredited to the development of remote technology. Earlier, technology made video conferences and meetings feasible only in a few places which confined the workers to the arena of office. But with the advancement of technology, high speed internet is available almost globally facilitating remote work. Along with this, various video conferencing tools (Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc),project management software and collaboration platforms made the process of making the home an office much smoother. The evolution of communication technology and task management tools made the process much easier among the people who are physically dispersed.
Teleworkers are the present and future of the workforce globally. The edge this work culture has over other work cultures makes it one of the most popular and fashionable ones. It greatly provides flexibility to the nine to fivers where they can set their own timings to accommodate personal commitments and enhance their work life balance. It also gives increased autonomy over their work timings. This gives them much greater job satisfaction and also increased productivity for workers who thrive under a more independent working atmosphere. One of the major problems of commutation can be solved with the means of work from home. Transportation takes up a major portion of a person’s earnings and also takes up at times a lot of time. Digital nomadism has eliminated this problem by giving the workers the opportunity to work from the comfort of their homes. This lessens the mental stress, leads to increased productivity and improved holistic well being of a person. It also allows the workers to keep several freelancing jobs and not just constraint themselves to a single job and branch out to other jobs, increase their experience and also explore the market opportunities. Moreover, during the pandemic hit this form of work maximized the safety of the general public and limited the spread of the virus.
Since, every revolution comes with pros and cons and the revolution in the work culture is no different and has a lot of disadvantages. The first and the most evident problem of work from home is communication. It is one of the most crucial elements for an effective remote work environment. Communication gaps can lead to things falling apart and also, workers being misinformed and as a result the task not being successful. Moreover, working at home can lead to the feeling of isolation and ultimately can lead to depression. Man is a social being and the work from home system isolates them from their peers and limits them to just their family. Also, as much as this culture supports work-life balance it also has the potential to disrupt it as many can find it difficult to differentiate their work and personal life. Additionally, the comfort of home comes with potential distractions and can lead to lack of seriousness to complete the assigned tasks. Furthermore, it is very difficult to maintain the company culture along with a threat to maintaining the procedures and also the company policies. Maintaining a strong and healthy company culture can be very challenging since the employees are not physically present. Building camaraderie and fostering strong connections can be very arduous and can create distance between employees.
WFH is likely to evolve more and more with time and become a natural part of the market. The overall assessment of its impact over productivity, employee morale and satisfaction and overall business operations is going on. It has changed the outlook of the people about the working environment and many industries are currently introducing the hybrid model or work environment which allows the employees to split their time between working in an office and working at home. It is slowly becoming a part of everyday life and not just limited to unforeseen circumstances which force us to take up this lifestyle.
