Let us face it. Office space is expensive. Why not work from home - we have slack and stuff.
I like the idea of working from home, in terms of working from an environment you're most comfortable with.
That being said, it's important to stay in sync with your team and that's hard even when you're working from an office, at times.
The following are the drawbacks for me when working from home:
The problem with Slack? If you upload your confidential IP, who guarantees the data security? A company would have to trust another company completely. That's not gonna happen with the giants. One little "data leak" and stuff will blow up.
However, there are solutions. Skype for business, just as one example, enables companies to have their own servers. We have Skype for business.
What's the problem with Skype for business? Well, lots and lots of people don't actively use it to its full capabilities and it is still quite limited when it comes to quick group conversations. Save for project features! It's just not Slack :<
As a result, face-to-face meetings and offline projects are still preferred!
The main issue with homeoffice is self discipline I mainly work from home and only if I like the customer and he demands it, I'm on the premise.
I started in an classic Shared Office space / Incubator but as Olive Grey mentioned there is a constant level of noise (which you actually can ignore with headphones) but the movement is distracting as well and in the evenings while you're working on a deadline some meetups start.
That's why I switched to home office. But to really become productive I had to write a schedule and stick to it, as well as dedicating one room as workplace.
Learning to organize yourself can be a tough thing and that's what many companies realized ... that's why some of the bigger ones qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-… calling their employees back to office
... self discipline, taking responsibility ... that's what's needed, usually - based on my bias observations - women are better at this ;D ....
So will there be more remote work ? I guess, is it "the thing of the future" ... no it's just a necessity it's about resources and how to keep/treat them.
That said I think that as a team sitting next to each other is a huge benefit as Siddarthan Sarumathi Pandian mentioned. Having fun at work, helping each other keeping the spirit up.
So a small team should stay together and have total self organizing freedom if they choose to work from home for a week it's okay. If they know a deadline is approaching or something has to be done as a team they come together and finish it together.
If the company is huge and you're a cog or you're "your own team" than home-office is preferable because as Olive mentioned .... traveling costs time as well ... I get up have a coffee, talk with my GF for half an hour and start working. That's efficient.
Olive Grey
For several years studies have shown that a work/life balance will be the key to employee retention. Offering a work from home option to employees has been proven to increase productivity and lower employer costs. Employers that offer a work from home option for employees hold the lowest employee turnover rates hands down. BOTTOM LINE: If an organization is comprised of happy employees your organizations results will follow.
Actually, after working from home full-time for about 3 years (I LOVED my job) for my company as well as for website like upwork.com and researchpaperwritings.net/, I recently returned to the office (new employer, not my choice). The adjustment has been tough--the lack of privacy, losing 3 hours a day for dressing up and commuting (which I dedicated to charity work previously), missing my dogs during the day who always slept in my office. I do not feel engaged with my new employer even though it has ranked in the Fortune 100 as a best company to work for during the last 17 years. I miss the flexibility and the quiet at home--listening to numerous conversations makes my head spin and it is difficult to become absorbed in projects. The idea of working at home 3-4 days a week sounds great instead of full-time. Just the right amount of balance. I have an old-time manager but I may show him this article. Our company has about 1000 at-home workers already so they know how to do it.