The need for remote work has increased as the use of the internet has become the normal for most people, and since the COVID-19 pandemic shook up our world, the need for remote jobs has increased exponentially. Many companies made the shift to remote work to protect their workforce from the danger of contracting the coronavirus with the intention of resuming typical, daily office work once the pandemic was over. After seeing the benefits of flexible working conditions though, many employers have decided to retain their remote work conditions for at least a few days a week, and many have decided that the benefits of remote work outweigh the downsides of an office setting and plan to continue to allow their workers to work remotely even after the risk of coronavirus is behind us. SalesForce, Dropbox, Twitter, and Facebook are going to continue with allowing their workers to work remotely at least partly, and others such as Slack, GoPro, Coinbase, Grammarly, and Reddit are just a few of the big names that are adopting a "remote-first" approach to working, where if the job can be done remotely, they will allow their employees the choice to do so.
The simplest and most obvious benefit of working from home is the increased happiness of remote employees. The ability to work in a comfortable, calm, home environment and the freedom to take small breaks as needed, as well as the the lack of commute time greatly promotes a happier, and therefore more productive worker. It was found in a 2019 report that 22% more full-time remote workers said they were happy in their jobs than full-time office workers. Not only is their mental health better than those who work full time in an office, but physical health is also improved. Simply commuting to work for ten miles a day contributes to high blood sugar and cholesterol, as well as higher risk of depression, and driving thirty minutes one way each day is reported to cause increased stress and anxiety. Being able to skip the commute to and from work increases the amount of time you can spend with family, friends, and on your own mental health. Workers who are forced to commute to work find themselves in a constant rush, unable to have a healthy diet due to eating what is quick and easy during the work day, they have less time for exercise, and not enough time to get the appropriate amount of sleep needed to do their jobs effectively.
A major reason for the negative health impacts of working in an office are the costs associated. It was found in a study that the average American worker who works remotely half of the time can save between $2,000-$7,000 a year. Fuel, insurance, tolls, vehicle maintenance, parking, childcare costs, office attire, and convenient food, are just a few of the additional costs that one has to consider when working full time in an office environment. Without having to spend so much valuable time and hard earned money just to get to work, it makes it obvious why remote workers are so much happier than their office-working counterparts, so much happier that half of workers currently working remotely due to the pandemic say that they will look for another job if their current job doesn't allow them to continue remotely working once the pandemic subsides.
It isn't just the employees who are benefiting from a flexible, remote work environment though, as many employers are beginning to see the positives of allowing their workers more flexibility. Studies are showing that remote workers are 35-40% more productive than workers who work exclusively in offices, and another study in 2020 showed that when workers had their mouse movements and screen time tracked to ensure they were working effectively, 56% of in-office workers sought out distractions from work while only 39% of remote workers found themselves as distracted. This increase in productivity and decrease in distractions results in real profit for employers, so much so that a study from the Harvard Business Review showed that remote workers complete one extra days worth of work each week when compared to the completed work of their in-office colleagues. This extra work results in more than three extra weeks of work completed each year. These workers are also reporting that they are more willing to work over time, with 53% of remote workers saying that they are willing to work past their typical hours, and only 28% of office workers being willing.
Not only are workers getting more work done from remote locations than they would in an office, but employers are retaining workers easier when allowing them to work from home, and as many as 95% of employers report that utilizing remote workers has made major positive impacts on their employee retention. The Society for Human Resource Management states that the cost to hire a new employee is over $4,000 and takes around 40 days to fill a new position, so employee retention is crucial. On top of these benefits of remote working, the environment is also impacted positively. With the nearly 4 million employees who worked remotely for at least half of each week, greenhouse gas emissions dropped greatly, equal to that of 600,000 cars not driving for a full year. The decrease in use of paper, lighting, and heating and cooling of offices in this time has impacted air quality so much that it is as if a forest of over 90 million trees have been planted since the pandemic.
As you can easily see, it is time to rethink the idea of working from home, as it benefits not only the employees, but the employers, and even the environment.