More and more people are talking about the possibility of working from home, especially since communication technologies have become part of everyday life. Rather than using the most common definition of home-office, one could easily call this bench-in-a-park-office, Starbucks-office, airport-waiting-room-office, my-grandma's-couch-office etc. There is no limitation to your geographical freedom, as long as you have a laptop and some data connection with you (and it does not rain of course!).
Home office is quite a common habit at Ventura TRAVEL. Our big office in the heart of Berlin can accommodate up to 50 people and the great location (we are at the Kanal, in Kreuzkölln!), the nice atmosphere of the workplace and our super cute dog, make us want to go to the office every morning.
At the office, we all cultivate our passion for Latin America, Japan, China, Iran and Greece with our job and with continuous travels to these amazing countries. Thus, working all together has become altogether more fun!
We all share a strong team relationship and making sure everybody comes at the office with a smile is the most important thing to us. Being part of a good team includes open communication and clear individual tasks. Thanks to this strong team spirit and the trusting relationships we have built, it has become natural to work remotely for specific periods of time.
Francesca working from the airport of Yazd, in Iran, January 2019
Let me share with you some advantages that we have found out in the past years in doing home-office:
- You’ll be able to manage your own time in your custom environment! You need silence, go to a place with low noise level. You like having people talking around, go to a café or your favourite spot in town. Summer is coming and you like sunbathing, sit on a bench of your local sunny park. You choose your work environment and set up your own calendar for the day.
- Home office reduces distractions. Wherever you are, you won’t have to chit-chat with a chatty co-worker, and you will be safe from all parasite noise such as your neighbour’s phone ringing, ambulance sirens and so on.
- Working becomes part of your personal life. You can work while wearing your favourite comfortable clothes (PJ are also completely acceptable), sitting in your comfy old armchair or even laying in your bed (not judging, totally fine!) and you can take breaks anytime to spend time with your loved ones. All you need is to find the most adequate situation according to your lifestyle and your work tasks and stick to it.
- Allowing home office will obviously boost employee retention as it will push the trust-building at a completely different level! An employee who feels understood and listened to at work will value their job and productivity may increase. Moreover, the simple fact of allowing home office will rise the interest of future applicants. The company will probably receive the CV of a wider pool of candidates!
Both as a manager and as an employee, I am glad to give and be given this freedom and trust, I enjoy my time and I get to discover and travel the world while I work. I would recommend every company to offer home office and to every employee to request it. It is worth it! Trust me, I am writing this article from a bench, under the cherry trees in a very sunny Hiroshima!