Photo by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free Companies, such as in information and tech sector, that still allow work from home, remote, telecommuting, or hybrid setup have started requiring their employees to return to the office. Many employers are getting blowback. While management may argue productivity and socialization as few of the factors for this decision, the real benefits highlights the following advantages of work from home setup.   Save on Rent Renting (or leasing) makes the highest expenses for companies who don’t own office spaces. For example, office space on one of the towers located in the central business district might cost you tens to hundreds of thousands. Just imagine if you could just use those huge savings from rentals to the following:  Advertisement to improve your market reach Buy stocks Buy your own office space Employee skill development such as education and training Healthcare insurance for your employees Invest in another business Software for business Tools for productivity   Utilities Utilities comprise electricity, gas for heating, internet and water. All of these can cost you thousands of pesos if you compel or require employees to return to the office. Telecommuting means saying goodbye to monthly bills that can add to your stress. Remember you need one of your staff to process bills and that can take away precious effort, money, and time.   Cleaning Services Renting an office can add a cost — cleaning services. Since your staff occupies your office, you’ll need to keep the floor, ceiling, workstations, and windows clean. And that calls for janitorial or cleaning services. Now that’s another bill.   Diminished Business Travel Expenses Remote collaboration and virtual meetings can reduce the cost of business travel, including accommodation, airfare and dining expenses.   Improved Employee Retention Resigning employees can hamper your production. Although you can always hire another employee, remember that retraining a new staff doesn’t mean you can always get the same quality of service. On top of that, think about the cost and time of retraining new employees. Promoting work from home can help you retain talents who require more time with their family, and take care of their babies or ailing relatives.   Reduced Absenteeism Flexible schedules can give more time to your employees who have personal obligations that could demand taking days off. Returning employees from sick leave can bounce back to work easier compared to commuting employees.   Reduced Tardiness Traffic jams can hamper your staff’s ability to arrive on time. Even though you can adjust your time or wake up early, it’s very taxing and tiresome for you to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. By the time you and your staff arrive on-site, you’re already wasting precious time and energy. The solution to traffic? Make work from home a permanent work setup.    

The start of a global pandemic made companies and employees focus their resources on a flexible working environment. That’s it to work at home, work remotely or telecommute. If you’re working in an industry where tasks can be made at home, or you’re an employer who is looking for ways to reduce operational costs, knowing these benefits will help you appreciate work from home setup. For Employers Save on office space rental Office rent expense is one of the most, if not the most, costly parts of running a business. Whether you make business or not, at the end of the day, you’re still obliged to pay landlords or real estate companies. If you’ve already made permanent work from home working arrangements or you’re sure you don’t need one or more of your staff to meet in person, you can already let go of your office space. Saving on rental space can reduce your risks of bankruptcy. Save on parking rentals Some office towers charge their tenants with parking rental spaces. That could take from a few hundred to thousands in (your local currency). If you carry your vehicle and intend to stay in one place, such parking rentals can add to your rental costs. Also, think about valet parking services - these too, cost money per hour or a day. Save on travel expenses Even you drive your own vehicle, you’ll still face travel expenses such as gasoline, toll and maintenance fees. Some company executives or those with high ranking positions have their own drivers. Hiring your own driver is an additional wage expense.  Save on utilities Utilities such as water, electricity, gas and internet can cost hundreds to thousands of bills a month if you use them to serve your employees working at the office. By WFH, you’re also saving time from paying these bills.  Improved inclusivity A work from home is set up is more egalitarian than requesting employees to perform tasks at a traditional office. If productivity is the same for working at the office and working from home, then it’s rational that remote work can benefit your business purposes and your staff. The following people and their conditions will benefit from this setup: ○ Pregnant women  ○ Mothers who need to take care of their babies ○ Fathers who need to take care of their babies due to being widowed or having working wives ○ People with comorbidities who need stay at home ○ People who have relatives that need medical attention and care. For example, a bedridden patient or ailing seniors ○ People who can’t afford the cost of living in cities due to higher housing rentals, transport, and food ○ Support people who have physical limitations such as being wheelchair-bound due to missing limbs   Employees are more willing to do overtime If you need your staff for some extra projects due to shortage of staff, you have more chances of motivated employees who are willing to stay late at night. Why? This is because employees don’t have to worry about going home late, queuing a long line before a bus stop or getting hungry after a missed dinner. Increased productivity and performance Telecommuting increases quality output and decreases noise level, office politics, tardiness, and work disruptions due to issues such as internet disconnections and power outages. Working at an office can also make false positives on work performance that can lead to favouritism and biased decisions. Arriving early or leaving late may look nice, but remember, actual work output makes the true metrics of productivity. For Employees Save on living space rental Apartments, houses and condos make up most of the employees’ expenses. If you’re living in a condo unit, it’s likely that you’ll be paying from moderate to expensive rental fees. On top of rental, you’ll mind parking fees, security fees, and garbage collection fees. A work-from-home setup can reduce these expenses as you can opt to live in a different city or area that offers cheaper apartments or living spaces - regardless of its distance to your head office. Avoid stress from commuting and driving Stress costs money and time. Stress involves getting early to arrive at work, queuing a line for the bus, and worrying about getting late. On top of that, you can mention worrying about arriving home late at night, facing bad weather and safety issues. Even if you own a car, you still have to deal with the stress of driving in heavy traffic. More time for fitness  If you work in IT, accounting or any industry that usually demonstrates a sedentary lifestyle, chances you’ll have fewer physical activities. Since you’re working from home, you’ll have more time to walk, jog, lift dumbbells and prepare workout meals. The more you spend time in the office setting, the more you build your belly fat. For Society and the Environment Positive environmental effects Since the start of the pandemic, there was a decrease in CO2 emissions from vehicles. This benefited the city and suburban areas, and reduced toxic gases. This situation is a win-win solution for all. Without commuting and driving employees from home to workplace result in decreased greenhouse gas emissions - equivalent of taking 600,000 cars off from the road. Work from home also resulted in oil savings of more than a hundred million dollars.

Companies, such as in information and tech sector, that still allow work from home, remote, telecommuting or hybrid setup have started requiring their employees to return to the office. Many employers are getting blowback. While management may argue productivity and socialization as few of the factors for this decision, employees may highlight the following advantages of work from home setup. Save on Rent Renting (or leasing) makes the highest expenses for companies who don’t own office spaces. For example, office space on one of the towers located in the central business district might cost you tens to hundreds of thousands. Just imagine if you could just use those huge savings from rentals to the following:  Advertisement to improve your market reach Buy stocks Buy your own office space Employee skill development such as education and training Healthcare insurance for your employees Invest in another business Software for business Tools for productivity Utilities Utilities comprise electricity, gas for heating, internet and water. All of these can cost you thousands of pesos if you compel or require employees to return to the office. Telecommuting means saying goodbye to monthly bills that can add to your stress. Remember you need one of your staff to process bills and that can take away precious effort, money and time. Cleaning Services Renting an office can add an additional cost - cleaning services. Since your staff occupies your office, you’ll need to keep the floor, ceiling, workstations and windows clean. And that calls for janitorial or cleaning services. Now that’s another bill. Improved Employee Retention Resigning employees can hamper your production. Although you can always hire another employee, remember that retraining a new staff doesn’t mean you can always get the same quality of service. On top of that, think about the cost and time of retraining new employees. Promoting work from home can help you retain talents who need more time with their family, and take care of their babies or ailing relatives. Reduced Absenteeism Flexible schedules can give more time to your employees who have personal obligations that could demand taking days off. Returning employees from sick leave can bounce back to work easier compared to commuting employees. Reduced Tardiness Traffic jams can hamper your staff’s ability to arrive on time. Even though they can adjust their time or wake up early, it’s very taxing and tiresome for you to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. By the time you and your staff arrive on-site, you’re already wasting precious time and energy. The solution to traffic? Make work from home a permanent work setup. Reduced Payroll Costs Although it’s likely you can’t get employees who like reduced salary in exchange for a flexible workplace, a research shows that almost ⅓ of employees will want remote work over a pay rise. So, instead of a pay raise, why not reward your employees with work from home.

While remote working is a blessing for some, unfortunately not all industries can switch to or offer work from home. Not everyone has skills for work from home jobs and so they have to report on-site or work on the companies’ offices or job sites. Knowing what work can be performed at home or not will help you choose a job and career especially during this time of pandemic. Flexible jobs - These are the jobs that can be performed on-site or at home Remote working is doing tasks right in the comfort of your home. The following jobs can adapt or are ideal for such setup: Accountant Animator App developer Beautician (home service) Bookkeeper Carpenter (home service) Chef (cooking foods to sell online) Child caregiver Content writer Customer service representative  Data analyst Data encoder Event planner Front-end and back-end web developer Graphic artist Healthcare writer Marketing consultant Medical doctor (telemedicine or online medical consultant) Online language teacher Online seller Physical therapist (home service) Proofreader Psychologist QA Tester Realtor/Renter (landlord) SEO consultant Technical writer Video editor Virtual assistant Voice actor What industries have work from home jobs Information technology Social media marketer Arts and graphic designer Database administrator Front-end web developer Back-end web developer Network administrator Insurance Accounting firms Healthcare  BPO related accounts Remote consultations Medical transcriptionist Telemedicine operator Marketing and sales Social media marketer Online seller Entertainment Subtitle transcriptionist Advertiser Voice over artist Dailymotion, Vimeo and Youtube content creator Matrix The matrix below lets you analyse the degree of likelihood for the specific industries (words in purple) and jobs (words in black). The two arrows correspond to the degree of computer or telecommuting usage and social interaction.  What jobs can’t be performed at home Jobs that are obviously can’t be made at home: Ambulance worker Bank teller Barista Construction workers Delivery riders Factory worker Garbage collector Grocery store worker Hospital assistant Hospital-bound doctors Mortician Nurses Pharmacist Physical retail store staff Pilot Police Security guard Social worker Soldier Statistics surveyor Taxi driver Truck driver Waiter Welders Conditions that qualify a job or tasks for work from home: Tools used to finish tasks should be procured and available at home. Such tools include a laptop, desktop, webcam, external keyboard, extra monitor, graphics tablet and software. Availability of stable internet and electrical connection. Contingency plans such as pocket wi-fi, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and extra hardware in case of problem or trouble such as wifi or power outages and computer breakdowns  Working arrangements and procedures allow efficient submission of deliverables before or within a deadline. Conditions when work from home isn’t possible: Products and services that only can be made or manufactured on-site. The production of product and rendering of services require sophisticated/professional machines and raw materials. Example, you can’t have car factory workers to work from home. The manufacturing tasks and handling of raw materials or ingredients are too dangerous to be performed at home. The performance of a specific task involves highly classified or confidential info or material.  Social interaction is absolutely needed to perform or finish the task - such as in the case of police, soldier, statistics surveyor and social worker.

The ongoing COVID-19 has, once again, emphasized the importance of remote working or working from home. Others say it is telecommuting which is the use of the internet, VOIP software, Google docs, etc. Remote working is a blessing for workers and employers who are coping with the onslaught of a pandemic. If you’re working for an industry or organisation that will offer possibilities of work from home, you can learn from this list. Pros Savings for the employers This is the most visible benefit of allowing employees to work from home. You‘ll save hundreds to thousands of money and time without the need to pay office space rental (the highest expense), electricity, water and internet bill. Your employees are all working remotely and so they are the ones who will be shouldering the monthly utilities. Such savings could be diverted to research and development, marketing and buying new equipment. Savings for the employees Employees can save from working remotely. If you’re working at the office, you’ll reap the following benefits: Zero transportation costs - From bed to bed. Savings from expensive lunch and dining at restaurants and fast food. At home, you can just cook an inexpensive meal with cheap ingredients. Freedom from stress Remote working brings the following benefits: Less stress because you don’t need to wake up early, wait at the bus stop, stand with commuting crowds and worry about getting late. Less stress because you don’t need to walk far away to reach the office. Less stress because you don’t have the pressure of being watched. Less stress because you don’t have to deal with rush hours (7 am, 5 pm). Less stress because you don’t have to deal with office distractions. Mutual benefits for both parties  One of the best blessings of working from home is that it benefits the employees and employers. Mutual benefits result in more morale, better performance (team and management) products and services. Flexible schedule Working from home equals flexible scheds. Even if your company requires you to work a fixed schedule and day off, you'll find that you can work beyond the working hours. When you work at an office or in-house, it’s more difficult to work overtime as you’ll always worry about going home late and being left behind by public transports. Avoid office distractions and stressors The office is a centre point of unpredictable distractions such as chatting co-worker, customers calling an admin, demanding boss, blaring sirens outdoors, fire drills, and accidents. Reduced to zero risks of contracting COVID-19 One of the reasons why companies allowed their staff to work from home is the ongoing COVID-19. It seems that the pandemic will stay longer - maybe 2 years or more. The need for social distancing and avoidance of staying longer in space to avoid inhaling virus makes working remotely an absolute necessity.  Work from home negates the risks of COVID-19 associated with public transports, dining at restaurants and handling money. Reduced boredom Setting at the office chair in front of a desktop or laptop computer and dealing with restroom restrictions can raise the boredom level. Just imagine if this routine never changes for an entire year. At home, you’ll have flexible work and ease your nature’s calling when the time comes. Customised working environment At the office, you don’t have the freedom to choose the space, the type of chair and table, window location, wall colour and decors. At your home, you’re the king and you always have the decision. You can turn a wall into a mural of cats or polka dots, decorate your mini-office with cactus and potted plants. Reduced risks of inhaling pollutants Since you’re indoors, the risk of you inhaling smoke from cars, factories, trucks and jeepneys is zero. Remember that these vehicle fumes contain myriads of chemicals that could impair your lungs in the long run. Think about the following chemicals: Benzene (a carcinogen) Carbon monoxide Formaldehyde Nitrogen dioxide Nitrous oxide Sulphur dioxide Polycyclic hydrocarbons Suspended particles (particles with a size less than 10 microns) More time with loved ones Remote working allows more time with loved ones - parents, siblings, spouse, kids and grandparents. Another is if you have a baby that is best cared by a biological parent. You can’t just entrust your baby to anyone. If you’re working at home, you have more time to safeguard your baby and attend to his or her needs. If you’re married and both working at home or even one of you is working remotely, it’s still manageable to care for your child.   Cons Working at home isn’t devoid of cons. It’s still not perfect. At mercy of power and internet outages A glaring con of working from home is that you’re at the mercy of power and internet outages. These two essentials are beyond your control except your capacity to pay (which is, of course, you can) as long as you have a livelihood. If you live in the Philippines, a country always visited by storms, you have to brace yourself for fallen power lines and cables that can always cut off electricity and the internet. Depending on the technical team of both utilities, you’ll have to wait for repairs which can take a day or a week). Willpower can be affected Willpower is the ability to delay gratification, impulses and short-term temptations that can be watching a movie marathon or video streaming over studying to become better at web development. Finishing a study is for the long-term goal - for better job prospects and career. In remote working, you’ll face myriads of temptations to procrastinate such as message notifications from your Facebook, an urge to watch your favourite channel or surf the internet. All these things may result in delayed submissions and/or loss of concentration. Your question may wait for an answer Even though the other side is online, you don’t know if they are immediately available unless you and the other side are video calling. This happens if the first or second party is chatting with someone, being too busy to reply or having a very slow computer. Less socialisation The most obvious downside is less social interaction. Not all remote jobs involve video calling or constant real-time connection. Some only connect a few minutes or an hour and after that, they just send and expect the deliverables through project management tools. At the office, everyone can party, celebrate birthdays and attend after-work happy hours. When you work from home, you can be alone or be with your relative.