Working from home has gone from being rare to commonplace during the pandemic. There are positive and negative aspects to this new way of working, and in today’s blog, we will focus on the positive. Working from home is not a new idea, but until the pandemic came along and forced many people to stay home and work, it was never really an idea that employers felt comfortable with. No employer could afford to take the risk of trying to work from home on a large scale and seeing the experiment fail. So the idea remained an idea that employers could not afford to try, and we continued to travel to work in offices, and change remained unlikely.
We haven’t had a choice of course, with the pandemic, and many of us have been working from home as never before. So what has been the effect of wfh?
Now we are faced with some choice perhaps, in the future. Do we want to return to our normal places of work – or do we want to stay wfh? What is lost and what is gained if wfh becomes the norm, the way of working for most of the time?
So today in this blog, I’m going to talk about some of the positives. I know that there are negatives too – there are ways in which wfh doesn’t benefit people or businesses. So I may do a second blog looking at the downside of working from home. But for today, let’s look at the advantages, the upsides of wfh – and why it’s probably here to stay.
It’s worth saying, of course, that some types of work just don’t move to online. It’s estimated that around 50% of job roles can be done from home – so 50% can’t be. And as usual, there’s some inequality in this. One statistic shows that the higher your level of education and the higher your earnings, the greater the likelihood that you can do your job from home. So it’s worth noting that the more privileged in our societies are the ones more able to do wfh. If you work in the service industries – or in manufacturing – that’s where you make goods or make products, wfh is not an option, not a possibility.
Saving commute time
But for the fortunate people who can, wfh removes some of the things which make your working day more difficult, more frustrating, less pleasurable. Working from home removes the commute, of course.
If your commute time is an hour – that’s 2 hours a day, 10 hours a week of what you might argue is wasted time. It’s probably quite a lot of hours in a year. Sometimes people find something useful to do on their commute but for many people, the commute is what you might call ‘dead time’. And it can be stressful – if there’s a delay like a traffic jam or if your train is canceled.
Wear more casual clothes
So wfh removes the commute. And also the need to wear smart clothes for the office. For some people this is a negative – they prefer to dress up to work – it doesn’t feel right otherwise. But for others, just to have to think less about what clothes they put on in the morning is a blessing, is a good thing.
You don’t have to spend as much money on clothes and you can dress more comfortably. High heels or expensive suits and ties don’t make sense in a pandemic. Neither does lipstick!
Save on expenses of going to work
There are also considerable cost savings – on commuting of course. You save the money that you would spend on traveling – your petrol or your train or bus fare. And of course, if you’re at home, your coffee, your tea, and your lunch will all cost less – and potentially, it’s easier to eat healthily. So less stress, less frustration – and in between meetings, you can put on the washing machine, maybe water your plants in your garden or on your balcony or you can go for a run. And you don’t have to worry if your children are off school – you’re there anyway.
Not that same level of stress as normal to cover the school holidays, half terms or sickness. Of course, this does depend upon the age of your children. Having small children and being expected to wfh and home school them is very challenging. This probably is a major downside, but if your children are older, it’s much easier.
Be more productive
Another positive is productivity. ‘Productivity’ means ‘how much you get done, how productive you are, and how much work you get through’. Amongst call center workers, whose productivity is measured and monitored carefully, one survey found that productivity had increased by around 13% as a result of wfh. People simply get more done! 13% is quite a lot if you think that call center working is already set up to maximize productivity.
Businesses save on the cost of office space
In the short term for businesses, they’ve been left with a lot of empty office space, still having to pay. But if the trend towards wfh continues, there are potentially cost savings for businesses too. Having a smaller office, not having to provide workspace for all of the employees – that’s a big cost saving for many businesses.
We will probably be doing more ‘hot desking’ – that means where you don’t have a specific desk – you move around and work at a different desk when you’re in the office. Providing office space for workers is expensive and a cost which many businesses will be happy to save. The same with car parking, air conditioning, electricity. It’s much cheaper if your employees provide all of this for themselves!
Do people want wfh to continue?
So wfh has been better than most people expected. That’s both employees – and employers. Previously wfh was often seen as ‘shirking’. So most people who worked from home – there was a bit of suspicion around – ‘Are they really working?’
We’ll always be conscious I think, of ‘breathing other peoples’ air’ after this. Many people will still be nervous, long after the pandemic. And now that people have invested their own money in making sure that they have the means – the computer, the internet connection, the desk, the comfortable chair - we’re all set! Another time – what about the downsides of wfh? What are the problems with wfh?
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