Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
I am in the lucky position that my employer lets me work from home one day a week. Recently I was asked by some research institution to fill in a questionnaire on working from home, and that got me thinking about this.
I live in The Netherlands, and for my work I regularly travel within Holland as well as to Germany, Belgium and the UK. What always strikes me is the enormous amount of people that commute each and every day. In the train you can't find a single place to sit (standing in the hallway feeling like a packed sardine is normal these days). And on the highway you're lucky when you can indeed drive at the maximum speed for more than five minutes; mostly however you better add one hour to a journey that should only take you 1,5.
So why is it that we still commute? Why do we voluntarily give up many precious hours? We have internet constantly available, could work remote from, everywhere really, and unless you work in construction or some other field that requires your physical presence, there is really no need to commute to an office on a daily basis. Because let's face it: there you start up your computer and open programs that you could open on your computer at home as well (whilst enjoying a much better cup of coffee than in the office). For me, there isn't a single thing that I miss when working from home; I have practically everything I need available online and put additional information on a usb-stick. Now I am also in the lucky position that I don't have to commute for hours - so for me the commute time has nothing to do with why I wanted to work from home one day a week - but if I would have a long commute, then I would probably want to work from home 2 or even 3 days a week.
Ask yourself why
So why are there still so many office employees commuting? Maybe this is because not all employers are at ease with their staff working from home? It could be they don't believe people will actually work, and they rather keep an eye on them. But then I think: not just employers who don't trust their staff have a serious problem, their staff as well. Because think about it: if your employer wants to be able to watch over your shoulder at all time, and this is the reason you are still getting up at 6am every morning in order to spend hours on the road, then you should really ask yourself if you wish to continue working for this employer. Because personally I wouldn't trust people who don't trust me.
Priorities
Apart from not having to commute, what other benefits does working from home offer? For me, I am much more able to concentrate at home. I don't have to listen to the phone calls of my co-workers, or to co-workers who can't stop chatting. I don't have to put up with pop-up meetings in my office or requests to keep an eye on the reception area whilst colleagues are away for lunch. I don't have six people dying to learn how I spent my weekend on Monday or another six who want to know how I will spend my weekend on Friday. Bottom line: when working from home there are hardly any distractions, and I get lots of things done in a shorter time span. I don't think I emphasize when stating that at home I am twice as productive. You have to prioritize and I value getting shit done much higher than discussing the weather or being caught up in endless, pointless meetings. I'm more of the 'niet lullen maar poetsen' type.
Don't get me wrong, I like socializing, I do care about my colleagues, I don't mind picking up the phone of a colleague every now and then or answering the door to accept packages. I also enjoy eating cake to celebrate a co-workers birthday, even if this means I have to really search for my concentration afterwards and add an extra 30 minutes to my day to finish everything I had planned on doing. But when you not only want to finish the tasks on your to do list but in addition wish to work out plans, draft concepts, spend some extra time on a project to make it even better, think about where you want or need to be a year from now and create a timeline in order to get there, then you simply can't afford losing too much time with meaningless chit-chat. So that is where my working-from-home-day comes in handy: it allows me to be awesomely productive by being anti-social without being anti-social ;)
In addition, the coffee I drink at home is much better, did I already mention that?
How about you? Can you work from home (every now and then) and what is your main reason for (not) doing so?
#homeoffice #worklifebalance #commute #commuteless #workfromhome #easypeasy #giveyourselfabreak