We always thought we might be ahead of the curve, but CraftWork knows working remotely is here to stay.
The explosion in working from home triggered by the pandemic is the biggest change to U.S. labor markets since World War II—and it is here to stay.
Working from home accounted for only 5% of all workdays before the pandemic. It was often disparaged as “shirking from home” or “working remotely, remotely working.” But now it’s common to find employees up and down the job ladder—from rookie hires to the CEO—working from home at least part of the week. As of December 2022, almost 30% of paid workdays happen at home.
There is much to celebrate about this rise of working from home.
An office sits vacant on October 27, 2022 in San Francisco, California. According to a report by commercial real estate firm CBRE, the city of San Francisco has a record 27.1 million square feet of office space available as the city struggles to rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic. The US Census Bureau reports an estimated 35% of employees in San Francisco and San Jose continue to work from home.
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Employees are perhaps the biggest winners. According to our monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, employees value the ability to work from home 2-3 days a week at 8% of pay, on average. That’s a huge benefit, worth nearly $5000 a year for someone with an annual salary of $60,000. Employees save, on average, 65 minutes a day in commuting and personal grooming time when working from home. People also appreciate the flexibility and greater personal autonomy that comes with working from home.
Other evidence tells a consistent story. Indeed, in a recent experiment with 1,600 employees of a large tech firm, quit rates fell 35% among persons randomly selected to work remotely two days a week. Employees literally voted with their feet to stay at the firm when they could work from home.
BY JOSE MARIA BARRERO, NICK BLOOM AND STEVEN J. DAVIS
Source: www.time.com