Office complexes are full of people, many of whom might be disease carriers on an average day. The less exposure we have to people outside of our homes, the less likely we are to become ill. It is easier to consume a nutritional diet at home than it is when out on the road. Over an average year, workers will eat fast food and other items far less frequently at home than at the office. Working in an office often dictates the type of furniture that one can use.

If you’re comfortable, you can share your passions or other bits of yourself with your colleagues. You’ll feel more connected when you learn what makes your coworkers unique and share your authentic self. Day-to-day comfort is personal, but working from home gives you choices beyond business or business-casual looks—especially on days that are light on virtual meetings. Plus, even when things go perfectly, even a relatively short commute of 20 minutes will take 40 minutes out of your day—that’s more than three hours a week. If your commute is longer, it’s easy to see how the lost time can add up. We all need a break, so take that extra time to call a friend, play with your pet, hang with your family, or go out to your favorite spot for dinner.

Everyone Has Equal Opportunity, Regardless of Where They Live

Thankfully, the transition to remote work has allowed many employees the opportunity to explore healthier habits. Rather than go out for fast food or grab an unhealthy snack, workers can now get up from their desks, walk to their kitchen, and cook a quick, healthy lunch or grab a much healthier snack when they feel peckish. Having access to a full kitchen filled with healthier options as opposed to being restricted to quick take out, vending machines and corner stores can do a great deal to improve health.

If they’re most productive early in the morning, they can start earlier. If they’re not morning people and tend to thrive later in the day, they can get some extra sleep and work later. Another major work-life balance benefit to remote work is that it’s much easier for employees to say “no” when they’re being overburdened. This lessens the amount of stress which can be easily piled on in the workplace, drastically improving work-life balance by setting limits. The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic saw millions of workers around the world suddenly forced to adapt to the idea of working from home. Working from the office, it’s often difficult to juggle family tasks with job-related workload.

Companies That Have Adopted the 4-day Workweek in 2022

Working remotely can give employees the time and environment needed to make healthy choices. The 3.9 million employees who worked from home at least half time before the pandemic reduced greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking more than 600,000 cars off the road for an entire year. A whopping 7.8 billion vehicle miles aren’t traveled each year for those who work at least part-time from home, 3 million tons of greenhouse gases are avoided, and oil savings reach $980 million. And by hiring employees who can work from home in the communities where they feel the most comfortable and supported, companies choose to support diversity, community, and family. Sometimes you can feel out the level of autonomy you’ll get in a career simply from the video interview experience in asking about remote company culture, or, if you’re a freelancer, you may feel this way already. But we thrive on knowing that at home, we have control over what we consume and how it’s made.

You also miss out on spontaneous chats that can deepen benefits of working remotely relationships, build trust, and lead to promotions. That’s not to say that there are no distractions that come with remote work, of course, but for many people, the in-office ones are more disruptive to their productivity. While the shift to working from home does mean the cost shifts to the employee, the general cost savings on commuting as well as other non-financial benefits do tend to outweigh this. Hiring the right person with the right skills for a job leads to higher employee retention rates.

mental health benefits of remote and flexible work

For freelancers, remote workers, entrepreneurs, and digital nomads alike, the benefit of working remotely opens up an entirely new world of opportunity in terms of travel and exploring the world. It is no wonder that location independence is yet another key factor for many potential employees when seeking out new work opportunities. While masses of employees were relegated to remote work over the past six months, many found it to be preferable in more ways than one. Though not often a topic in the discussion in favor of telecommuting, the reality is that the benefit to your financial wellness is a major factor in why employees prefer telecommuting.

• When we no longer have to commute, we can benefit from additional sleep, which can improve well-being (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015).
• For people in crowded areas where many others also work from home — such as apartment complexes and densely packed cities — slow speeds, buffering, and poor audio and video connections are common.
• Here are some things for businesses to keep in mind as the world emerges from lockdowns and into a new working environment.
• Interestingly, many of the above issues are not a result of remote working alone.
• If you’re at home, you can avoid germs and work around illnesses that might otherwise disrupt your productivity.
• Asana and Trello provide some powerful features such as automation for tasks and projects and real-time reports to monitor progress and productivity for project management.
• Photo by Arpit Rastogi on UnsplashWhen you work remotely, there’s no limit to where you can live and work.