By: Christina Nguyen
As you can see from our last blog post, offices throughout the world are reopening. Employees are coming back into the office and seeing each other in person again.
However, some companies, most notably tech giants like Twitter and Shopify, realized that working from home actually turned out to be pretty effective and efficient. They’re now giving employees the option to permanently work from home. Research actually shows that working from home improves mood and productivity, making it beneficial for employees and employers.
Since most of us have been working from home for the past few months, you’ve probably realized some ways it’s improved your life. However, there might have been some benefits you haven’t been aware of.
If your reopening organization is letting you stay at home, here are some reasons why you should consider it:
1. You have a more customizable environment.
Depending on where you live and who you live with, working from home can mean a quieter environment. If you’d like, it can be louder. Your coworkers aren’t there to tell you to turn down the rock music. You can personalize your surroundings to your comfort level without any comments on how weird your plants are.
Even though you can decorate your office desk with as many Post-its and motivational posters as you’d like, some productivity and mood-enhancing customizations are best left for your living room.
Unless you went all out on a posh home office, working from home can save you money without you even realizing it. Remember eating out with your coworkers or ordering delivery every other day? That was probably costing you around $10-$20 each day. If you’re always grabbing morning coffee on the way to the office, now you can save hundreds by brewing at home.
Not going out for lunch all the time means you’re cooking at home, which is generally cheaper. You also don’t need to buy as much clothing either, especially pants.
For companies, this means spending less on replacing worn office equipment, snacks, catered lunches, and other in-office items employees use.
As previously mentioned, you might be cooking at home more often instead of eating out. This means you’re probably eating more cleanly -- restaurant meals often use heavy amounts of oil and salt. Some of them have massive portions with over a thousand calories a meal! If your meals don’t taste quite as good as theirs, don’t despair. You probably saved yourself a ton of sodium and calories.
Not having to drive an hour home gives you more time to finally fulfill your new year’s resolution to hit the gym and/or go out for a run.
4. You're polluting less.
Not having to get up earlier and sit in traffic is an immediately recognizable benefit to working from home. What you may not have realized was that the environment also benefited from fewer moving cars. In April, air pollution massively dropped after just one month of quarantine. With almost everything closed, most people had nowhere to drive, lowering air pollution from cars.
Working from home has been a life-changer in so many ways. For many of us, the benefits are worth keeping up. Even if it’s ideal to meet fellow employees in-person, working from home just two days a week can make a difference.
How has working from home benefitted you? Everyone’s story is different, so let us know what we might have missed in the comments!
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About Stingray Advisory Group LLC: Stingray Advisory Group LLC is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is a proud member of Local First and the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We help small businesses grow by providing guidance in financial planning, website development, marketing, and more.
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