Working from home has been an experience for everyone. Whether that’s a good experience or a bad experience, it’s up to the individual employee and employer.

Introducing The Concept of Working from Home

Since the covid-19 pandemic, working from home has become increasingly prevalent. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the covid-19 pandemic resulted in over a third of companies increasing work-from-home arrangements for their employees.  

Benefits Of Working from Home

What are some of the benefits of working at home? Here are some of the pros of working from home:

• Lower commute
• Cheaper costs related to commuting, drinks, and food
• Increased comfort for the employee
•  People who work from home have a better work-life balance (Owl Labs)
• More flexibility in hours and scheduling
• More time spent with friends and family
• Fewer interruptions from workplace socialization
• Optimize home office space for maximum productivity
• Ability to live and move wherever you want or need to

The flexibility that remote employment offers its employees is its main appeal. A greater diversity of adaptability and accessibility ensures greater workforce diversity.

Struggles of Working from Home

What are some of the downfalls of working from home? Here are some of the cons of working from home:

• Social isolation and loneliness (Owl Labs)
• Difficult to stay up to date with colleagues and coworkers
• Increased costs related to home energy bills,
• Potential for social anxiety or social avoidance increased by the Covid-19 pandemic
• Communication and collaboration can be a challenge (Owl Labs)
• It is hard to separate work and recreational activities.
• Difficult to create and maintain a company culture
• Increased interruptions from home life (mail, neighbors, etc.)
• Flexible work wardrobe
• Easy to misread cues via electronic communications (U.S News)
• Possibly preferences or pressuring to working in the office
• Increased IT security risk concerns (Open VPN)
• Increased privacy concerns

Many of the difficulties associated with working from home come from the fact that, unlike an office building that has been ergonomically designed, most homes are not built or structured for a home office.

“Many people have little experience with a work-from-home lifestyle and may not have gone into this with an ergonomically designed, dedicated work space,” says Eric K. Holder, MD, a Yale Medicine physiatrist, a doctor specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation.

“Workstations that were quickly put together may have felt comfortable initially, but they can cause problems with extended use if not appropriately designed. Often this is due to poor body alignment, leading to imbalances in posture and microtrauma overuse injuries, which can result in aches, pains, and strains”, he says.

Fun Facts About Hybrid Models of Work Environment

Do you need more information about working from home? Below we have compiled some fun facts about the hybrid system that combines working from home or in the office in some capacity or another. Remember that each type of hybrid system differs slightly as you read these statistics.

Depending on your commute, eliminating a typical 45-minute commute could save 1.3 years. Many employees who work an hour away from their place of employment or must endure an hour of morning and evening traffic (Great Work Life).

More than half of employees (56%) who claim their jobs can be done primarily from home say they frequently use online platforms to connect with coworkers as remote work continues to be an option for many Americans. According to a January 2022 Pew Research Center survey, most of these employees say they are OK with how much time they spend on video calls, but about one in four claims that it exhausts them (Pew Research Center).

These decisions are now driven by a preference for working from home rather than worrying about the coronavirus. Nearly 76% of employees with access to their workplace prefer to work from home. This is a significant factor in why they currently telework all or most of the time. Next, 7%  of those who work from home say there is no reason, while another 17% say it is a minor factor. The proportion citing this as the primary cause increased significantly from 60% in 2020 (Pew Research Center).

Another example is the Canadian Bank of Montreal, which reported that 80% of its staff members could and will probably continue working from home even after the pandemic (BNN Bloomberg).

Remote work helps business leaders cut overhead costs associated with maintaining an entirely in-person workforce and increasing employee productivity. The typical business could save $11,000 annually for each remote employee (Open VPN).

Professionals want flexibility but miss their colleagues. Most professionals (81%) either don’t want to return to the office or would prefer a hybrid schedule in the future, while 61% would like to work from home a couple of days a week. Less than a third (27%) prefer to work full-time from home, while 18% prefer to work in an office again (Harvard)

Did you know that parents who have children at home want to return to work full-time more than parents who do not? (Harvard)

Did you know that married and common-law couples want to return to their jobs full-time more frequently than single people? (Harvard)

Comparing company profits with prior years, a nine-month Stanford University study of 16,000 employees found that working from home increased business productivity by 13% (Standford University).

More than half (56%) of IT professionals say remote workers pose a greater security risk than traditional workers. A drawback of remote work is the rise in cybersecurity risks on various personal and public networks and devices. These concerns also include privacy risks for the individual employee’s work or access to internal information from the organization (Open VPN).

More than 70% of men and women expressed strong preferences for hybrid work, but non-binary employees were 14% more likely to prefer it (Mckinsey).

Employees who identified as LGBQ+2 were 13% more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to prefer hybrid work (Mckinsey).

Share these fun facts during your next Zoom meeting to show off your smarts. All sources are linked, so you can also expand your knowledge.

Working From Home Playlist

One of the best aspects of working from home is listening to any music I want while working. Whether I want to listen to [music] or [this] while editing a document or researching more deeply into a switching styles article, I can.

Celebrate the difference between a home office and an in-person office. Here’s some weird music to listen to while you work from home.

Female cover of ‘Feed the Machine’ by Justine M. & Friends, Originally by Poor Man’s Poison

“Joker” Remix By Skydxddy Originally By Dax

“Buttercup” Earthbound Chiptune Cover By Mixandmash Originally by Jack Stauber

‘Handlebars’ Epic Dubstep Cover By None Like Joshua, Originally By Flobots

‘The Fine Print’ By The Stupendium  A Song Based On Outer Worlds

Concluding thoughts

Switching Styles has compiled a playlist for all working from home to help your day run smoother and more exciting.

This article was made possible by readers like you. It means a lot to Dylanna Fisher as the founder and all our guest writers and featured artists. Most of them, ironically, also work from home. Thank you for taking the time to read this article and supporting the Switching Styles readership.