A world that works from home

Crises accelerate societal changes, and those changes can be jarring. But those changes often allow us to recalibrate and set society on a better trajectory. FDR’s New Deal showed Americans the value of great public works and the power of controlled financial intervention from the federal government. The ‘Space Race’ of the Cold War accelerated U.S. space programs and served as a bellwether for the robust programs we see today. And while there are certainly more ‘cons’ than ‘pros’ to the 2020 pandemic, many of the societal trends unfolding will equally shape the ways we think about civic, social, and professional engagement.

The Global Impact of Social Distancing

Few changes are more drastic and profound than the professional impact of state-level decrees that workers should no longer physically show up for work. On a national level, the economic impact has been astonishing. Industries that have been consistently strong for years have come to a screeching halt in a matter of days. The personal impact will be equally devastating as layoffs affect countless workers and others are asked to telecommute, many for the first time.

But we’ll soon see the silver lining to some of the changes associated with the latter. Fewer commutes mean workers save time and reduce carbon emissions. Remote work has proven to boost worker happiness and improve productivity in some cases as well. And workers may save money thanks to tax write-offs for use of personal resources and cost savings on otherwise expensive lunches, gasoline, and the other expenses associated with office work.

The Benefits of Telecommuting in Numbers

That doesn’t sound like much, but the cumulative effects of changes like this on a societal scale are impressive. Let’s take a look at some crude numbers.

Time Savings

The average daily commute in the United States is 25.4 minutes one way or roughly one hour per workday. New remote workers get that time back immediately. Let’s assume a worker splits that time between their work and personal life, where the average employee works 260 days per year. Over one year, that’s about 110 more hours of productive work and 110 more hours of personal time annually.

Keep in mind that millions of people globally are working from home as a result of social distancing. If they did that all year, that’s a lot of time rescued from the banality and stress of rush hour.

Cost Savings

A single trip to the office might not burn much gasoline, but imagine the annual cost and emissions savings if everyone who could telecommute began doing so. Passenger cars already produce 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S, The New York Times reports; and since 85.4% of U.S. workers drive to work around five days a week, much if not most of those emissions come from commuting.

There are financial benefits for both workers and companies, also. The costs of telecommuting from home are fairly negligible, save the additional electricity one uses to power devices and any additional services workers may require, many of which might be covered by an employer. Workers can write off other expenses from their taxes as well. Meanwhile, companies save on the cost of electricity, equipment, and countless other operational costs typical of running the modern office. Recent estimates put a company’s savings at $11,000 per remote employee annually, and that’s if each employee worked from home only half the time.

Better Work Environments

There are global advantages to normalizing the tools and software that remote work requires. Even those workers who do not telecommute will need to adapt to the tools their telecommuting colleagues must adopt. Video conferencing, digital tools for project management and collaboration, and the digitization of analog and paper-based workflows will boost efficiency and productivity as we tackle the learning curve of adoption together. Familiarizing workers with these tools reduces the need for air travel, print materials, and time-intensive meetings, not to mention delays because of things like absences.  

Better Personal Lives

Finally, there are the familial and personal benefits that the flexibility of remote work provides. Commuting alone can add tremendous stress to one’s life when done every day, where long commuters are 33% more likely to suffer from depression and 12% more likely to have issues caused by work-related stress. That stress evaporates with the adoption of telecommuting.

Meanwhile, countless parents will be home when their children finish school at times they would otherwise be at the office. Families are more likely to eat dinner together when parents work from home, they are more likely to eat healthier, and they are more likely to be present for shared events where traffic, late office hours, and business travel might otherwise get in the way.

Emerging with a New View on Remote Work

For some, it’s difficult to imagine a world where office work is done from home. Visions of lazy, un-showered employees in their pajamas slacking off come to mind. But as accountability and oversight depend more on KPIs and less on physically “overseeing” what employees are doing—and as digital tools increasingly compensate for changes in proximity—employees will align their habits accordingly, no matter where they happen to sit.

Will we live in a world where everyone works from home? No. Will the loss of in-person office camaraderie cause us to lose some value during this digital transition? Yes—much as the automobile disrupted the horse and carriage industry and removed the average American from the joy of a casual horse-drawn jaunt. But we’re also embracing an exciting digital future, one where workers reposition themselves as the central piece of the American economy. I think we’ll all surprise ourselves with how much we can do from home—for ourselves, our employers, and each other.