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I think, we all well known about the virtual offices, here i listed out the advantages and disadvantages of virtual offices.
In this modern age—where broadband plans, both capped and not, are available left and right—more and more companies are allowing their employees to telecommute and work from home. Some businesses even go to the extent of creating a business with virtual office employees.
Virtual office, telecommuting and teleworking basically mean that employees work from a location apart from the traditional office. This could mean at home or at a coffee shop or elsewhere.Currently, there are still not clear regulations for this type of working.
To be able to determine if having a virtual office is suited for your business, here are a few of its advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages
1. It’s good for the environment
Having a virtual office helps in saving the environment and reducing carbon footprints because there are fewer people travelling in cars, buses and trains, resulting in fewer amounts of vehicle emissions and reduced gasoline fuel use. Apart from being good for the planet, traffic congestion is also avoided, and money is saved on fuel.
2. Employees are more relaxed
Working at the office can be stressful and nerve-frazzling when your boss pressures you to meet deadlines, shouts orders at you, or sometimes loses her temper with you around. On the other hand, working from home allows you to be more relaxed, to complete your tasks in peace, without the interruption of a boss or colleague and other office distractions.
3. You save time on the commute
Another primary benefit of telecommuting is that you save time you would’ve spent getting to the office, especially if your home is far away and it takes you hours to get to the office. With telecommuting, not only do you save time on commuting, but you also save time on grooming as you don’t need to blow dry your hair, dress up in office attire, put on make-up and accessories or your tie, jacket—and even pants.
4. You save money
Working from home or from another location aside from the office also enables workers not just to save time but money. You save on gasoline, laundry, clothes, accessories, make-up, perfume, and also on food as you don’t need to eat-out (eat-outs are convenient if you don’t have the time to prepare a packed lunch every day), since you can make yourself a couple of sandwiches at home and save on lunch costs.
5. More employees can work at the office
If you’ve limited space at your office, giving your team the option to work from home can enable more workers who live nearby to work at the office with the space employees who live the farthest will vacate.
While there are advantages to virtual working, there are also some disadvantages to this option.
Disadvantages
1. Compromises speed and quality
In June 2013, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer rescinded the right of Yahoo’s employees to work from home because she said that this hampered the ability of employees to work effectively. According to Mayer, speed and quality are often compromised when employees work from home.
2. Employees miss out on opportunities
Being in the office brings opportunities as important regional officers may pay a visit and give an important talk, there may be a promotion for available employees, or there might be scheduled meetings with clients or potential clients and suppliers. Virtual employees, on the other hand, usually fail to benefit from participating in an important office event or a networking opportunity simply because they’re not in the office.
3. Miscommunication issues spring up
Working at another place while your colleague is at a different place can result in miscommunication between the two of you because you’re not face-to-face and both of you may fail to convey the exact message you need to, resulting in wasted effort and time due to miscommunication issues.
4. Employees may feel lonely or uninspired
As Yahoo CEO Mayer said, getting together and talking shop is what fires up employees to perform well. Working alone at home or from another location can result in feelings of loneliness, and sometimes, being in a team is exactly what pushes most employees to perform well, if not better.
Now that you’ve a basic idea on the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting, it’s up to you to weigh out all points and talk to your team on what arrangement can work out for both employees and the company. A possible recommendation is to require employees who work from home to send reports to determine if they’re indeed more productive with the virtual working set-up.
Employees who’d like to work from home, however, should also be equipped with a great broadband plan—otherwise the set-up is going to fail. Communication is key in work-from-home set-ups. Without this, a virtual office arrangement won’t stand a chance against the convenience of a traditional office that offers easy and quick Internet access.
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Great Piece of Content !
Covering all pros and cons of virtual office. Virtual Office is an existing trend among entrepreneurs.Take the advantages of virtual office in Mumbai that is well-equipped & cost effective.
Hi
As everything has its pros and cons same goes with virtual office.But according to me advantages of virtual offices are more than the dis advantages.
Virtual office spaces are regularly embraced by organizations who work in an assortment of areas. This permits an organization to have one incorporated office whilst additionally keeping up nearness inside different areas, without the expense of customary office spaces
Great Post!
This is an excellent article on Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual Offices. Nice work! Thanks so much for sharing this article! Productivity increases of up to 40% have been reported by companies who have adopted teleworking methods, with both teleworkers and their managers consistently reporting significant productivity gains. This is because the teleworkers avoid travel time and the interruptions that are common in an office environment. Keep sharing.
Great article.
And this is so informative and useful for everyone.
You explain the advanatges and disadvantages of teleworking in very easy manner. And I totally agree with your post.
So, I appreciate your article about the advantages and disadvantages of telework.
The advantage is you will definitely reduce costs in employment, transportation and monthly bills.
There is also a downside in having your own time of work. Meaning, you will have longer hours of doing your job since there is a possibility that you are doing something other than your work and you might forget that you still have a task at hand.
Thanks for sharing this post.
This is a great article and the explanation about the virtual office is really amazing and Also. it is really helpful for lots of peoples.