Many of us are working from home, some with regrets, some with satisfaction.
In an April CNBC article, the news outlet reported that 42% of swing-state residents were working from home.
Based on a survey that ran from April 1-5, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that 34.1% of 25,000 U.S. survey participants are working from home.
I suspect the number is somewhere in between or diminishing as people return to working in person. I’m also curious to know if people have regrets about working from home?
Personally, I regret the lack of face-to-face interaction. I don’t really have other regrets for myself; but I do regret that there are many people, like my daughter, who don’t have the opportunity to work from home. They are working in offices where they may encounter the threat of the coronavirus. Others aren’t working at all.
What is satisfying about working from home?
Although my pets torment me with constant demands for attention, being at home has been a money saver. I had been paying a pet sitter $20 a day to visit and walk my elderly Chihuahua and feed the eighteen-year-old cat and her two younger mates. The pet sitter also cleaned the litter boxes. While these are all valuable services; saving $400 a month now that I’m doing it myself is also valuable. Regarding the noise, I deal with it by working on the patio while the pets have the run of the house.
You might be enjoying more quality time with your family. You just need to figure out how to schedule it.
Being at home is saving gas – not only money, but the environment as well. Perhaps more importantly, commute time is zero. That extra hour and a half to two hours that I had been on the road each day can now be put to housekeeping, reading, writing, cooking, making necessary phone calls and exercise time. Maybe this is where you incorporate the quality family time.
As we work from home, we may be learning new skills like how to do online presentations, collaborate online and use new tools.
Perhaps the greatest value is in the safety of being away from others while there is a risk of coronavirus. Where I live in Texas, the disease has spiked above previous levels in recent days according to mid-June data from Texas Health and Human Services https://tabexternal.dshs.texas.gov/t/THD/views/COVIDExternalQC/COVIDTrends?:isGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&:embed=y.
What about the lack of face to face interaction? Face to face is still available, but the format has changed. Now instead of seeing someone in person we see them on Zoom, WebEx, TEAMS and other platforms that permit being together. Surprisingly, I feel like I’m getting to know my work colleagues better as we share both knowledge and personal vignettes on TEAMS.
Personally, I’m ready to continue working from home.