I recently talked to a mentor who had switched to a new company for a promotion (Head of Global Mergers and Acquisitions…not a bad title if you ask me!). As we started talking about the differences between his old company and the new one, the biggest perk to him was that he could work from home full time. When he described his new company, he said “they have taken work from home to a whole new level.”
Essentially no one at this company has an office. They have open workspaces and offices that you can grab if you do have to come to the office. People only come to the office if they have a reason to; whether they are working on a team, meeting a client, etc. I should note that this is a consulting company which might explain why they are able to pull this off, but at the same time I believe this model could work for many companies whose employees work out of cubes and offices.
In fact, one time as I sat in my cubicle a thought struck me, “this could all be done remotely.” If you could cut out printing (which I believe is viable) it would not be that hard to implement a full-time work from home setup. Many people I work with drive twenty-plus miles to get to work each day. Some drive in excess of forty miles (each way). They don’t move closer to work for various reasons (like the school district, like their house, like the city they live in, etc.). In fact, the mentor I mentioned above used to commute approximately 2-3 hours a day. Is there any question as to why he loves working from home?
The degree to which a company embraces work from home dictates how much the employees embrace it. When almost no one in your department works from home regularly, would you propose working from home a majority of the time? I don’t think so.
There are many benefits of work from home setups:
- No Commute
This is a huge advantage for some people who have long commutes. The hours, days, weeks, and months you spend driving over the course of a career adds up.
- Office Set Up How You Want
When you are located in an office there are always things you don’t like about where you sit. If you are in a cubicle, people around you may be loud and distracting. You might not have enough desk space. You might be 200 feet from the closest window (or God forbid located in a basement). It could be difficult to participate in conference calls because of the noise around you (not to mention that you are adding to the noise). When you work from home you can set up your home office the way you want.
- Company Saves Money
What’s the biggest reason that companies embrace work from home? Decreased costs. A company doesn’t need to pay for multi-million dollar office buildings when their employees are using their own homes for work.
- Increased Morale
Employees who work from home don’t have to deal with rush hour. They have more time for their families and hobbies. They are in a comfortable work environment that they have a lot of control over. Employees who are given flexibility over their work environment generally are happier than employees who are thrown into cubes.
Granted, not all jobs can be done remotely. Technology is evolving, though, to allow for an increasing number of jobs to be done virtually where ever there is a WiFi connection. I have seen that when I work from home I am more productive, I’m happy about not having to face rush hour, and I can communicate just as easily through phone, chat, and email as I can in the office.
In my opinion, if there are real cost savings in setting up remote work environments, companies should embrace them sooner rather than later.
What are your thoughts on work from home and remote work arrangements? Should companies embrace it or will it be counterproductive in the end?
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Photo by jnyemb.
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Since I don’t work in the corporate world and neither does my husband it wouldn’t benefit us but I can see how it could be great for companies to switch to. Assuming people are getting their work done
@Em23 I did focus on the corporate world in this post, mainly because I believe corporations are more resistant to change than small businesses. Small businesses are much more accommodating to changing culture (it’s their edge, after all). I understand there are many jobs that this would not apply to, though, small business, corporation or otherwise.
I love the idea of work from home but don’t know how productive I would be. On top of that we normally have a lot of people stop by our offices. My work totally could be done remotely but I don’t think it is going to happen anytime soon.
I will sometimes work from home, but usually it’s because I need to be around while my wife goes to a doctor appointment (and I need to watch the kid) or something along those lines. I actually worked from home today, but it was hard to be very productive since my wife and son were both pretty sick, and I was watching my son most of the day. I think having kids at home throws a wrench in there, but I think it’s workable as long as you’ve got a nice work area set aside where you can be productive, and there aren’t too many distractions.
I think more businesses should consider going this route, but I’m sure a lot won’t because they don’t like not having the employees where they can keep an eye on them. :) I know I like working from home, I don’t have to get dressed in the morning!
I have slowly started working on my boss to let me do my work from home more. She’s starting to see the benefits and also how much time I’m wasting during my hour morning commute. Plus they pay for gas in my car which costs them a good chunk of change.I’m happy technology is evolving and I agree with the points you made here – companies should definitely embrace the work-from-home model.