Prior to 2020, working from home was a rare luxury for many. We used to ooh and ahh and fantasize about our friends who worked from home. Employers would reluctantly and infrequently allow employees to work from home. The prevailing belief was that workers would be less productive at home than they would be in the office. Account executives were incentivized to be productive by structuring their salaries to ensure they were working when not in the office, e.g. commissions. However, as offices began to close and business travel slowed tremendously, working from home became part of a new normal in America.
There has been a misconception about working from home. The misconception about productivity. The reality is studies have shown that workers actually increase productivity to the tune of 1.4 more days worked per month. That equates to an additional three more weeks worked per year. With that increase in productivity, some remote workers might be looking for a raise.
Businesses seem to be turning the corner on remote working as well with many reporting productivity remaining or even surpassing their pre-pandemic levels. Remote working reduces the frustration of long commutes, small talk with colleagues, and leisurely coffee or bathroom breaks. Additionally, working from home eliminates the lengthy meetings and regular status updates clogging the productivity pipeline. Applications like Zoom, MS Teams, Slack, BlueJeans, and Google Meets allow for face-to-face meetings and presentations without the hassle of travel and impromptu interruptions.