Band 6+: In the past, most people used to travel to their place of work. With increased use of computers, the internet and smart phones, more and more people are starting to work from home. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?

Nowadays, the increasing popularity of working from home shows a major change in the process of technology with devices such as phones and computers, which causes the number of people to work from home rather than having to travel directly to work. This brings many different advantages as well as disadvantages.

One of the common benefits of working from home is that they can be with their family more than working in the company. Working remotely will be more flexible and comfortable, they can spend time talking to their family when they have a break or when they finish work without having to travel the distance from the company to home.At the same time, the burden of travel or food expenses at work is also significantly reduced, they only work at home so the problem of gasoline is also reduced because they do not have to move too much. A small example of this benefit is my sister’s experience during maternity leave, she only worked at home so the problem of travel and food expenses was significantly saved.

On the contrary, having to do remote work like this makes the working environment lack seriousness in the office, easily creating a lazy or noisy working space, leading to loss of concentration or boredom when having to sit quietly in the room. Furthermore, sitting quietly in a room leads to less communication and movement, which leads to many health and psychological problems such as obesity or excessive stress, because most people who work from home have less to move around or talk to colleagues than when working in a company. For example, during the pandemic, my cousin, due to the nature of her job as an accountant, only sat and calculated figures during work hours, which made her stressed and unable to concentrate on her work, and she was easily distracted by noisy children around her. The restriction of movement also caused her to gain weight rapidly, almost becoming obese until she went back to work.

In conlusion, working from home can bring benefits such as being close to family and saving costs, but it also has disadvantages in terms of health as well as a suboptimal working space. Therefore, each individual must carefully consider the issue of working from home and balance these benefits and disadvantages to be able to work better.