WORKING REMOTELY FROM HOME FULL

We all need a break, so take that extra time to call a friend, play with your pet, hang with your family, or go out to your favorite spot for dinner. You could squeeze in more work-but I want better for you. Working from home gives you back that time to use how you want. If your commute is longer, it’s easy to see how the lost time can add up. Plus, even when things go perfectly, even a relatively short commute of 20 minutes will take 40 minutes out of your day-that’s more than three hours a week. And if something goes wrong, that can make you late to work. For many, a commute can be more stressful than the job itself. A longer commute can also reduce job satisfaction and worsen your mental health. Your daily commute can compound or increase your stress levels as you deal with factors beyond your control, such as rude passengers, vehicle breakdowns, and traffic jams. You can ditch the time-consuming commute. Going into an office every day would have made this phase of life overwhelming-if not impossible to sustain.

WORKING REMOTELY FROM HOME FULL

I can take a half day (rather than use a full day of PTO) to take her to a doctor’s appointment. I can take a break to meditate, exercise, or go for a walk. I’m grateful for the time with her and for my siblings who share in the challenges and joys of caring for an elderly parent, but the stress of being in the sandwich generation is intense. My mom has also reached the age where she needs help managing day-to-day activities. When my kids were younger, WFH meant I could make school events without much scheduling fuss, or easily pick up a sick kid from school with just a quick message to my boss. This depends on your job and employer, but for me, WFH means I can take an hour or two away from my computer to go to the dentist or pop to the store during business hours. Some remote jobs may also come with flexible hours, which allow you even more control over when you get your work done in addition to where. I can use my breaks to get dishes out of the way or cut veggies for dinner, which gives me more time to spend with my husband and the kids in the evening. “I used to have six to eight loads of laundry to do on the weekend and then I’d be exhausted going to work the next week,” she says.įlexibility shoots to the top of the pros list for me too. So Bostwick can take care of the ceaseless laundry pileup that comes with kids during her workday. Before the pandemic, remote work wasn’t an option for her now her company is fully WFH and only maintains office space for monthly meetings. I can get up and make sure the kids are moving along and I can go to the gym every morning,” says Heather Bostwick, VP of Marketing and Analytics at Education Dynamics, a higher education enrollment growth agency. With remote work, “I can sleep in a little later.

You get greater flexibility in your schedule and your day-to-day life is easier to manage. But keep your circumstances in mind-remote work isn’t ideal for everyone. If these advantages spark excitement or “I could get used to that” thoughts, WFH may be a good fit for you. Let’s look at the pros and cons of WFH so you can determine where you’ll flourish the most. There are significant advantages to working from home for many, but there are disadvantages and challenges too. Still, the reality of a 30-second commute from bedroom to home office (or dining room table) is more complex than the fantasy. And in a Muse user survey conducted that same month, 80.8% of the 4,681 respondents said they’d like to work from home full or part time going forward (with users under 25 being the most likely to say they’d prefer full-time in-office work). workers with jobs that can be done remotely are working from home all or most of the time, according to Pew. People scrambled to set up home offices and adjust to back-to-back virtual meetings and online collaboration.Īs of February 2022, nearly 60% of U.S. Global lockdowns forced all but essential workers to adopt remote work almost overnight. Since then, the workplace has undergone a seismic shift. The Pew Research Center found that before the COVID-19 pandemic, only 20% of people whose work could be done remotely were working from home most or all of the time. Until recently, the idea of working from home was firmly in “must be nice” territory for most employees-the stuff of wistful conversations during post-work happy hours. I work from home for a technology marketing agency, so I can use these stress-relieving strategies as needed without distracting anyone. When I’m stressed during work, I sit on the floor and do some belly breathing or throw on some music for a kitchen dance party where the VIPs are just me and my dog, Joy.

Working remotely from home