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Working From Home - Its Impact on Young People

  • Writer: Amer Loubani
    Amer Loubani
  • Nov 1, 2021
  • 4 min read

An Economist article describing the impacts of working from home (WFH) on productivity drew my attention to this subject. I was interested in sharing my thoughts on how WFH might impact graduates and junior professions differently from seasoned employees. The short version of my assessment is yes it does (to some extent), and the rest of this blog will talk about why. I will also describe an ideal approach to relieve some of the pain I and I'm sure other young people feel while trying to make a start in the professional world from a home desk.


Disconnection

A Deloitte survey earlier this year (referenced in sources) revealed that 58% of 16- to 34-year-olds find working from home challenging (compared to 44% on average of all homeworkers). Personally, I've found Integrating into the workplace from home very difficult. Although the fact I'm not the most outgoing guy may have an impact on this, I find it much harder to start understanding colleagues and begin to get a hang of my team and how it operates virtually compared to witnessing it in person.


I spent 12 months on an in-office industrial placement in IT in 2019/20 and found slotting into the team and doing impactful work much easier. A large part of this is down to the fact that we as people find it much easier to learn through observation. Missing the physical team dynamic that is now formed by a mix of instant messaging (most of which many team members won't see) and quick video conferencing between chunks of the team allows much of the important detail to fall through the gaps. A new virtual joiner must be given the chance to learn the end to end project process from the people who carry it out, and a standardised method of documenting the project process and associated team communication must be implemented to keep everyone up to speed. This information stream would make it much quicker for employees with less industry experience and instinct to pick up and hold onto information that will make a difference to their jobs - ultimately helping them start working effectively sooner.


Picking Up Skills

Isolation from colleague expectations is a big issue in a fully virtual world, and this expectation gap has caused me a lot of discomfort while WFH. Understanding what a colleague or superior needs becomes more difficult to deduce virtually, and as a result, it is sometimes impossible to tell when your subsequently attempted approach to providing the solution was successful or not. Without industry know-how this problem is amplified for young people, so a colleague interaction system that clarifies task needs and recognises whether the resulting approach was suitable or not would help.


Every young person wants to be good at their job, so a more complete communication loop identifying successes and appropriate conduct helps an impressionable employee gauge what they're good at, and which areas require work. A guided development plan goes a long way to helping professionals build up a skillset, but it is vital that the right superiors are involved in guiding young people towards the best way to work. Managing people in person has never been easy, never mind virtually, so ensuring mentors and managers have the correct people skills to nurture talent is a crucial element of success.


Building a Personality

Humans thrive off positive social contact, and the chance to put yourself forward in the workplace largely depends on the personal impression you make on your peers. The biggest pain I've experienced since beginning to work predominantly from home is struggling to make a lasting impression via videoconferencing. It has been the hardest issue for me to think of a solution for until it occurred to me that maybe this is where the role of the office comes in. Utilising WFH to its fullest extent for processes and work projects that are linear and logical, while bringing in face to face work for junctures where personal contact is important to bring about results (and further one's personal skills) may be the most appropriate combination. Working this way, young people may make an impression virtually through their work efforts, and personally, through the chances they get to interact in person with their teams. A healthy balance is also conducive to stronger relationships between colleagues, something that can only boost workplace productivity and harmony.


Working from home has provided a massive change to the way we work, and there is no doubt much of the impact has been positive. People from any corner can now in some capacity access life-changing employment usually reserved for residents of expensive big cities. Interaction between teams all over the globe has now become effortless, and the positivity of an interconnected world cannot be understated. At the same time as bearing these positives, we must not allow ourselves to adopt a lightswitch mentality, and simply shift away from old ways of working simply because they consume more effort. Study must be undertaken to find the best in both worlds, and only then can we begin to shape our futures.


Author: My name is Amer, I'm a Computer Science with Business graduate currently working in tech consulting. My thoughts in this blog are based on my opinions regarding working from home, rather than concrete proposals based on research. Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn (on the about page) if you have any questions.


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