I have a colleague who used to live at the sea coast. In the summer he was often working at the beach. He took his car in the morning, parked near some of these quiet beaches that only the locals know, and equipped with laptop, battery, 220 V car power inverter and mobile internet, he spent the day working there. When he got tired, he left his laptop for a while, swam in the sea and then refreshed, came back and continued his work. He was one of the high performing members of our team that always delivered excellent quality and outstanding results.
Nowadays many companies offer the possibility for flexible working hours and remote work for their employees. This offer numerous advantages for both the companies and the people working in them. Are you working from home on a regular basis? If not, here are few reasons why you should start doing it right away.
Better productivity
Working from home can be much more productive than in the office
- Less distraction
- Quieter atmosphere
- Focus on tasks and getting things done
Home office allows us to block time for important tasks and get things done efficiently in quietness and comfort of our home. At the end we do more for the same time, which is also good for our employer.
When we are in the office, we are often distracted by people having questions, asking for support or just passing by to discuss some topic even if we are currently working on higher priority tasks. This is all fine – we take time to help them and then we continue with our tasks, but it is also decreasing productivity due to the tasks switching and distractions.
Time savings
In big cities we will spend at least 30 minutes to reach the office (and it may be much longer if we are stuck in a traffic or live further away from the work place) and we need the same time to go home after work.
This means we lose at least 1 hour a day in commuting. Let’s make a simple calculation and see how much time you will save if you work 2 days in a week from home.
- 1 year have around 45 working weeks.
- If you work 2 days from home, this makes 90 days.
- Each of these days you save 1 hour which makes 90 hours of time saved.
- If you are working 8 hours a day, this is the equivalent of 11 working days or 2 weeks of holiday.
If you do home office, this is a time that you can spend with your family, friends or just taking some rest. Furthermore, in the big cities few people are lucky enough to reach the office in only 30 minutes so for the rest, the time savings are much higher.
Costs savings
In addition of saving time, we save also money when we work from home. Let’s assume you are coming by car in the office and you are living 10 km away which results in 20 km a day when you travel back and forth. This multiplied by 90 (the number of days you work from home) makes 1800 km a year which results in around 200 € only for gas.
Well, if you are in the office you need also lunch, coffee, some snacks in the afternoon and few more goodies, so you probably save at least 5-10 € a day when working from home. This makes 450-900 € per year.
There are also cost savings for your company. If you work 2 days a week from home, this is 40% of your working time. If each of your colleagues, do the same, this may reduce the need of office space with up to 30-40%. This means you are helping your company to cut costs as well.
Depending where you live and work, these savings may be much higher.
Work/life balance
Home office can make us more efficient and reduces the level of stress related to our work. Working at the terrace or at the cozy home is much more relaxed and pleasant. No matter if you like working in a quite environment or listening to music while handling tasks, your home is your kingdom and you can work according to your own preferences.
If we get tired after several hours of focused work, we can go out for jogging or visit the gym during the lunch break. This refreshes us and increases our productivity for the rest of the day.
The time we save from commuting we can spend with our families and friends. Instead of traffic jams or waiting at the bus stop we have time for things that matter.
Working from home is environmentally friendly. Reduced travel and office space mean lower C02 emissions (from your car, air conditioning, electricity etc.). Congratulations, you are saving nature!
Combined these factors makes our work easier and our personal life better. Everybody can probably add few more positive points here so if you have possibility for home office but you don’t use it yet, now is a good time to try it out and see if it works well for you.
This article was first published at IT Knowledge Bank website.
