Yogyakarta, April 30th 2020 – Center for Digital Society (CfDS) UGM started a new program on April, 29th 2020, it was called Obrolan Seputar Dunia Digital (Oposit) or Chat About the Digital World. The first implementation of this program was held through Instagram live feature with interactive concept. The topic was about the challenges and advantages of working from home.
Raka, as the moderator, started by telling story about his experience of working from home. Besides boredom, Raka said that work from home was a little torturing for him because he could not physically interacted with other people. Some of participants also commented that work from home caused more work to pile up. Not to mention about the access difficulties and limited signal, because of that work from home became more ineffective.
One of the participant, Janitra (@jeharyanto), admitted that he prefer to work from the office. It was easier for him to work with many people, especially in his cozy office atmosphere. Because of that, Janitra prepared a working room in his home with a table, a chair, and a laptop. But, he also argued that the effectiveness of working from home varies from one person and another. There are people who are more comfortable working at home, such as the introverts. Other than that, office workers with a strict system are also more relaxed when working from home because of the flexibility.
The other participant who shared their story is Trevi (@trvputri) as a lecturer. According to Trevi, the sudden implementation of learning from home caused a stuttering system. Trevi agreed with the National Geographic’s article which mentioned that too often doing online conferences can cause fatigue. Other than that, Trevi complained that the unable to focus and could not follow the class very well. In fact, she had saw several students fell asleep until they forgot to hang up the online class conference when she used Microsoft Teams.
The last participant who still stayed in Yogyakarta, Noel, admitted that the working from home system changed his sleep hours and work hours. The idea for work only appeared after eleven o’clock at night and he would be sleepy during the day. Because of that, Noel advised to take a shower immediately and change the clothes if you have to work in the morning. This was done to keep the body fresh and to increase the mood. Other than that, work out can be the solution to keep the body fit.
On the other hand, Raka also alluded to the result of a study by Nicholas Bloom which showed that working from home could actually increase the productivity up to thirteen percent. According to several comments of the participants, it might be because of there are no restrictions on working hours while working from home. Besides that, work from home was also more flexible. When you feel tired, you could rest immediately. Raka added that work from home could be adjusted by setting up a comfortable work environment. The health and sufficient rest also should be concerned. Hopefully, the productivity is still maintained while working from home in the middle of this COVID-19 pandemic.