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Is working from home better than working from an office?
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Face to face time builds teamwork skills in traditional office settings

Sitting next to someone, seeing their body language, handshakes, and in-person communication all build relationships in important ways. Being physically near coworkers encourages stronger teamwork.

The Argument

Working in-person with coworkers makes it easy to build teamwork skills. Doing collaborative work can increase creativity and performance, which a company can use to its advantage. Having multiple people working together allows different ideas and opinions to be shared, so the end result will be more rounded and detailed.[1] Utilizing teamwork in a job can strengthen employee relationships and improve individual communication skills. People can learn to work closely with differing viewpoints and opinions, which can improve how they handle conflict. Although it is possible for remote workers to collaborate with coworkers, they cannot communicate face to face. This makes it more difficult for employees to work efficiently and well together. People miss out on typical in-person office behavior by only working and communicating from home.[2]

Counter arguments

Employees are easily able to communicate effectively with no in-person interaction. Phone calls, emails, and video meetings make collaborative work simple for remote workers and can mimic typical communication found in an office. Face to face interaction is not crucial in completing an exceptional teamwork project.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] Face to face teamwork increases motivation and performance. [P2] Collaboration allows for different ideas to be shared. [P3] It is difficult to do teamwork when working remotely. [P4] Therefore, working from home is not better than traditional office work.

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/the-importance-of-teamwork
  2. https://www.sandler.com/blog/6-benefits-of-teamwork-in-the-workplace/
This page was last edited on Wednesday, 27 May 2020 at 01:05 UTC

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