Letting you know upfront: This article is aimed at people who currently work from home, and for people who have a job that can be done at home and may be considering it. Hopefully to enlighten those who don’t work from home but who may want to seek a change in career and lifestyle. If there is one positive outcome of the pandemic, it’s working from home. So I am going to outline them here. So let’s get straight into them: 1. Peace and quiet. In every office I work in, there is always some idiot who keeps turning the music up so loud you cannot focus on your job. When you ask them to turn the music down, they treat you like you’re the one being “unreasonable”. You are there to do your job, not listen to crap. The music they choose is terrible, it’s always some mainstream crap that’s on repeat. You don’t need this shit in your life; especially when you are trying to carry out your duties. When you work from home. There is no one to bother you. Working from home is better than being surrounded by people talking on their phones and at the same time having people talking louder over that noise. When you work from home, only your phones rings, no one else’s. There is no one gossiping loudly next to you. There is no one to play crap music loud. In fact, when you work from home, you choose to either work in silence or listen to any music of your choice. If I had to choose what music I’d listen to, it would be piano jazz. Better yet, when you work from home you can work out what sound makes you focus. Some people like to listen to Lofi to study, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk
I’m sure there is something to suit you. The result: Less distractions, more productivity. 2. You work in the comfort and safety of your own home. Your desk is your own private space. You can have a computer that is better than what what the office can offer. Your own gadgets, your own tools, you are in control, and things are better. You have your own seat. No one can sit in it except you. You are in control of your work environment. In the Langer and Rodin experiment, they conducted a study on care homes where they gave elderly residents plants to look after. The results they found was better well mental being. More personal responsibility for your environment is good, it’s under your control, is good for your health. Source: https://phdessay.com/work-langer-rodin/ The results speak for themselves. 3. Your kitchen is your haven. When you need a snack, instead of going to the vending machine that sells overpriced junk food or some overcrowded cafe with overpriced coffee, you have access to all the best food and drink in the comfort of your own home. Better yet, all the cutlery and all your crockery in your home is clean. You don’t have to rely on anyone else to do it. Often the cleaners don’t do it properly and you find dirty cutlery in the dishwasher. When you are you are trying to have your lunch the last thing you want to do is to spend your lunch hour looking for something clean to eat your lunch with. In the canteen, there is always some idiot cooking some leftover dinner from the night before in one of those microwaves and it stinks up the place. That ruins your food when you share that microwave. It makes you feel sick. The kitchen/canteen is never maintained properly. How many times have you went to the kitchen to make yourself tea only to find no milk in the fridge? It’s annoying. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen dirty cutlery. Worse yet, the canteen is packed with people who are having their businesses meetings and job interviews there instead. It’s an eating area, and they are taking space, they are being inconsiderate to others and they know it. There is only one place where none of the above happens, and that is at HOME. Screw the dirty and noisy canteen. Your kitchen is your haven. The fridge is your best friend. Spare yourself the grief, Work from home.
4. You save time and money You gain more hours of much needed sleep. You don’t have to get up at some ridiculous hour in the morning in order to take public transport to get to work. It’s a waste of time and money. It’s even worse when there are constant delays, cancellations, and strikes that cause you to be late for work that are not your fault. Being able to do your work without having to leave your home is perfectly convenient. You get a few extra hours of sleep, you save time, and you are spared the stress of public transport before getting on with what’s really important. 5. Only you can use your toilet In nearly every office building there is a tiny number of toilets for a for a whole building full of people. It is frustrating to go to a toilet only to find it occupied. There’s always too many people in one building. There is usually two or three toilets for everyone, or having one on each floor if you are lucky. Having to wait, hold it in, or make multiple visits to see if one is vacant is irritating because it breaks the flow of your work. It’s bad for your health. The longer you hold it in, the worst it gets. You are trying to do your work for god’s sake. Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-it-bad-to-hold-your-poop#complications
What makes it even worse is people taking their phones with them into the toilet only to scroll through their social media profiles. They are wasting time in the toilet while preventing others from using the toilet when they actually need it. All of this is a big inconvenience. You don’t need this. When you work from home, your toilet is in the other room. At least yours is clean. 6. The temperature is right for you Not too hot. Not too cold. In the office, there is always the one idiot who keeps turning the air conditioner so high it makes the place too damn cold, making you ill. Being ill sucks. You can’t work while you are sick. And it’s not your fault. When you adjust it to the temperature that suits you, it is immediately changed back the way was as soon as your back is turned. This is bullshit. In some instances you have to wear your coat indoors in order to keep warm while everyone else is wondering if you are leaving or not. You don’t need this in your life. When you work from home, you can turn up the heat, or the cooler, to what’s suitable for you. 7. There is only you in your home office. The problem with living and working in a city is that everywhere you go there is the same problem: Too many people. Noisy office; too many people. Long queues, whether it be for getting lunch or going to the toilet; too many people. Overcrowded public transport, too many people. Overcrowded canteen/eating area, too many people.
Occupied toilets, too many people. Cramped elevators, too many people. Can’t find a place to park your car, too many people. The truth is, all of this is increasing stress, hence preventing you from doing your job well. The problem is so obvious it’s everywhere and yet many people seem to pretend it doesn’t exist. This is why working home is the best because you don’t have to put up with this amount of inconvenience. The less people the better. 8. You are safe from other people’s sicknesses. There are people in this world who go to the office while sick, either by choice or forced to do so by their employers. Whether they catch a cold, or carry some other sickness, they spread it onto other people and it makes them sick too. Imagine going to work only to catch something your sick boss or sick colleague brought into the office, and then you go home feeling unable to work because now you are sick because of them. Nobody wants to deal with being sick. Nobody wants to wake up in the morning with a stomach ache or a running nose and sneezing. Nobody wants to go and see the doctor, the appointment, the waiting, the prescription etc. All of this can be prevented when you work from home. We had a pandemic recently, so it’s about time people took this in to account. No one can make you ill when you work from home. 9. Local facilities benefit too. The local park for that walk and some fresh air. Or for a jog or a for a bit of cycling. There are local cafes and coffee shops where you can have a sip of a coffee and a have little snack. Cookies, anyone? For those who don’t like snacking and eating sugary foods, there are local gyms and fitness classes you can go to. There are the local gyms for fitness enthusiasts. Everyone has a different fitness routine to keep themselves active to counter the number of hours spent sitting at a desk. Some do it in the morning before work, some during lunchtime, evenings after work, or even late at night, some as late as 1 am (which to me sounds insane). In fact there are more people exercising at lunch time along with is increasing evidence that prove the benefits of exercising specifically at lunch time which suggest that is the best time to exercise: Source: https://www.wework.com/ideas/professional-development/creativity-culture/why-you-should-hit-the-gym-at-lunch
In connecting to exercise, it’s good for your health: Sitting for long periods of time is bad for health. You can get diabetes, coronary heart disease, depression etc. I’ll leave you with these articles below: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/the-dangers-of-sitting https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/exercise-guidelines/why-sitting-too-much-is-bad-for-us/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/sitting/faq-20058005
10. It’s good for employers, which means it’s good for business How employers can benefit from staff working home is an article in itself, but I’ll break this down into a few points for now: - It saves money on office space. They are practically paying rent for people to be in an office when it can be done at home. Who needs an office with slow internet connection? Working from home is good because it saves revenue and employers don’t have to spend their money on the crap I mentioned above, such as a dirty kitchen and eating area. See above, for Number 3 and 5. - You and your workers are not restricted to one geographic location. Thanks to the internet we can work anywhere at any time. It allows flexibility. Some people prefer to work at night while others work during the day. This gives employers access to a vast amount of skilled workers anywhere at any time. Working from home allows this flexibility. - As I mentioned earlier, working from home increases productivity. With less stress and less distractions, you have a more focused work force. - Your staff stay healthy. See above, for Number 8. Here is one article to see how it benefits both employees and employers: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/benefits-of-remote-work-for-employers/
In short, working from home is good for business, good for employers and employees.
11. It provides a Work-Life balance.
I’m a Work-Life balance advocate. And this is an article in itself I will post in the near future.
But for now I’ll add another benefit to working from home.
Spending more time at home is good because at least you get to use what you pay for. Your home. You pay to live in it. So it makes perfect sense to spend more time in it.
It’s makes no sense for people to spend most of their time at work, only to spend huge chunks of their salaries paying for bills and mortgages or rent on a place they spend the least amount of their time in. Working from home takes away the mundanity of working, and paying bills for a place just to sleep in. Why not work in it as well? It makes perfect sense.
Getting back to the work-life balance, there needs to be a balance in the number of hours people spend with work, sleeping and doing other activities such as spending time with family and friends.
The result, a happy work force, happy people, a happier society.
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