Like working from home? It could be in your future

Working from home? The world’s in a miserable and frightening pandemic right now, but try for a moment to think of only this: Do you prefer working from your home, skipping the commute and the time wasted at the office?

If so, give yourself a side project in the weeks and months ahead when so many of us are sheltering in place and won’t be going to the office or other workplaces: Document for yourself, and possibly your employer, your time saved, improved productivity, better life balance and personal well-being.

When the dust settles from COVID-19, you may be armed with the information to show to a newly flexible boss that coming to the office isn’t so important.

And that could have an enormous impact on your happiness, your personal finances and your health. And it’s entirely possible that the long-expressed resistance of companies and individual bosses to WFH arrangements will decline markedly after they see how well the arrangement has worked during this emergency.

In March, researchers at the University of Chicago, analyzing government data on employment, incomes and industries, concluded that 34% of U.S. jobs can “plausibly be performed at home.” The jobs tend to be higher-skilled and professional, though not all, and are most concentrated in metropolitan areas heavy with technology employers. Thus those 34% of all jobs represent 44% of all wages in the U.S.

A full list of the 100 metro areas and a ranking of occupations by work-from-home plausibility can be found here: github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome.

For that discussion with your boss — what’s in it for the company? — my colleague Neal Templin wrote about the substantial savings and increased productivity companies and workers enjoy from WFH arrangement: rate.com/research/news/persuade-boss-work-remote.

The savings could be roughly $24,000 per employee. Also: lower turnover and absenteeism, far less global-warming pollution and other benefits. Here’s another tool for estimating benefits: owllabs.com/blog/remote-work-statistics.

Keep in mind, your experience during a social distancing mandate won’t be a true representation of what telework is like because so many of the benefits — running errands, hitting the gym at off-peak hours — aren’t available.

But there are some hard numbers you can crunch right now. Use a commuting cost calculator to see how many thousands of dollars a year you’d save on gasoline, parking, depreciation of your car and other items.

Just as valuable is the time you save. Don’t just think about your transit time, but factor in your time spent saying hello or goodbye to co-workers, stopping for coffee or whatever rituals are included.

Next, think about your routine in the office. Let’s be honest — who really works eight hours straight through the day? We all take breaks, talk with co-workers or otherwise have little respites to recharge.

The COVID-19 WFH mandate, your own experience in the weeks and months ahead and the University of Chicago study should help you make a case to continue working from home, if that’s your preference.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2VGTSRm