Prior to the dark days of 2020, working from home full time was rare and rather luxurious. Having a job which allowed you to work from your own home office gave you a certain aura as it really was quite rare. Of course, dark events of the past meant that working from home quickly became the norm for the majority of office workers and pretty much anyone who worked using a computer. Many workers have since gone back to the office as employers are calling their employees back into the office.
According to a recent BBC article on modern office expectations, pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the ‘cool’ office which included lounge areas, video game consoles, fridges full of beer and team-building events – all of which was used to foster the ‘family’ feeling. In the past, such cultures drew people into the office. In 2024, companies are doing their best to create this culture again, the difference now is that swaths of employees aren’t interested in going back to a pre-2020 working environment. Employees want flexibility in terms of their workload and where they work from. Trust is an important aspect to this too and employees now have heightened expectations of their employers.
However, there are still plenty of companies which have continued the work from home culture. BusinessMonday’s spoke with Jean Prince, editor of Slotshawk.com, a website which has always embraced the work from home culture. We asked Jean about office culture compared to working from home, whether or not working from home improves an employee’s quality of life and how SlotsHawk has embraced remote working.
Thank you for speaking to us, Jean. Let’s get started. What is your take on the whole working from home culture?
It is great to speak to you, thank you for having me. I think working from home culture is probably just about the only positive which came from the pandemic, at least from my experience. I turned 40 years old last year, so working from the office has been a major part of my adult life. Working with SlotsHawk gave me the opportunity to work from home for the first time in my life, and thankfully, it is something which has changed my life for the better
I think just having the option to choose whether you want to work from home or not is a major factor when it comes to employee happiness. I think that for the majority, a mixture of an office working environment and the option to work from home whenever you want is what we are looking for. It cannot be a one boot fits all, there are plenty of employees who need an office to work from. For a lot of people, working from home is something they absolutely want to avoid, as they simply do not want to mix work life with family time. Whereas there are others who work infinitely better from home, without the distractions and stress of working from and travelling to their office workplace.
I sent you the BBC article discussing office culture being dead before we began, what did you make of the article?
It was certainly an interesting article which made a lot of sense. It is also fair game for Gen Z workers to be at the forefront of demanding the option to work from home. If a worker has his pick of two jobs; one of which is 100% office based and the other allows remote working, then already one job is much more attractive than the other, and it’s not the former!
It is also a natural outcome of what we saw during the pandemic. People realised that they could do their jobs at just the same level if not better than they could when working from their offices. Therefore, it always begged the question, why should I spend my own time travelling too and from an office when I can just do the job from home?
So, is working from home here to stay?
Certainly, there are now plenty of companies in the UK and abroad which have fully embraced working from home culture. It also benefits employers because it can often mean that they have less costs themselves. They don’t have to pay as much for electricity etc. In addition, the majority of people who want to work from home are more efficient, less stressed and therefore happier in their work/life balance.
You told us that working from home is new for you, how has your experience been of the transition between an office worker and now doing the same job but remotely?
I love working from my home office. I have set up a small room in my family house which I use solely for work. One of the issues for many people is that when they work from home, they are unable to separate their work life from their family one. When I do not work, I never go into the office, and I ensure that I have set times of when I work and do not work. The biggest advantage for me is that I can have breakfast with my wife and children every morning. I am never in a rush either and I can spend the best part of the morning and evening with my family.
This also means that I can devote the rest of my time fully to work. I do not have to think about being stuck in traffic and I am not distracted by the usual office distractions. The beauty of the internet and communication tools like Skype means that if I ever need to talk directly to a colleague, I can just have a video call with them.
Does everyone who works at SlotsHawk work remotely/from home, then?
Absolutely! The website was launched at the back end of the pandemic/lockdown period, but it was never in our mind for our staff to work from a work office. We are a five-person team and we all work from different locations around the world. I am based in London myself, but we are also based in Scotland, Malta and France. We actually have several websites which we all work on to varying degrees, but we all love our jobs and the autonomy they offer.
Thank you for speaking with us, Jean. Let’s try and talk again soon!
It has been a pleasure. Absolutely, let’s speak soon.
