Lachlan Kirkwood – Digital Marketing Specialist

I recently came across this post from Invision which delved into ’50 things only remote workers would understand’. Never in my life have I felt so related to one blog post! The post highlighted some pretty funny, yet sadly true guilty pleasures and routines that anyone who works from home is bound to do from time to time. This did get me thinking though. In the year of 2017, majority of organisations are trying to take a step forth into the digital age. With everything now being so accessible from any mobile device, it’s becoming a more common practice for companies to allow employees to work from home (unless of course, you work for a corporate organisation).

After reading this post, it got me thinking about how blessed I am to work for a company that allows me to work from home. Although the company I work for has an accessible office with incredible facilities, we are given the privilege to work from home whenever it’s required. I’m sure that when you think of someone who works from home, the first thing that comes to mind is someone who lays in bed all day watching movies whilst scrolling through their Facebook feed looking for new memes. If I’m to be completely honest, when I first heard about people working from home, this is exactly what I had in mind. In reality, working from home can be the complete opposite to this. In my case, working from home allows me to be more creative, productive and less stressed.

I wanted to write this post to delve into the reasons why I think that all digital organisations, provided it suits the line of work, should encourage the freedom to allow their employees to work from home.

EXTRA SLEEP:

Do you know that feeling you get when you wake up on a Monday morning and all your body craves is more sleep? As much as you want to get back to bed, you have to start the long, tedious task of getting ready (it’s an extremely long process for myself). Well when you work from home, there is no rush in trying to get ready in the morning. When I work from home, I can spend what would usually be an hour making myself look pretty, on more important things… LIKE SLEEP! 

With an extra hours sleep I’m able to wake up fully rejuvenated, aware and productive. I will also mention that not having to dress up every day is also a small blessing!

The power of lunch breaks:

You can fully utilize the power of lunch breaks. I’m not just talking about eating a whole jar of Nutella because it’s in the pantry. I’m talking about getting important personal tasks done in your lunch break. When you work from home you can do your washing, cleaning and even house maintenance all in your lunch break. This frees up a whole lot of time from your weekend, not to mention it means that you don’t have any pesky tasks to do once you’ve finished working for the day. I also find that by working from home you can go to important appointments that you’d else wise need to claim regular work leave to attend. I couldn’t imagine trying to book to see an accountant, doctor or dentist on a weekend. Weekends are for relaxing and having fun, not trying to play catch up on appointments you couldn’t go to because you were at the office all week.

Save time and money:

Save time and money! Who doesn’t love saving as much time and money as possible? Well when you’re a remote worker, you longer need to make your regular commute to work each day on a crowded bus or train.

This can save people thousands a year in transportation expenses, not to mention hours each day. I find that when I’m working from home, I can work longer hours than normal and still have everything wrapped up for the day before I’d even be home from my regular commute. In hindsight, you can log more productive working hours, which is music to my Project Managers ears.

Healthier lifestyle:

You can maintain a healthier, more active lifestyle. The last thing I want at my young age is a business belly. For someone like myself who loves to get outdoors and ride my bike, working from home lets me do just that! I love having the freedom to finish work for the day and go straight to riding my bike.

I absolutely cherish having the freedom to work from home. I personally see it as something that all digital organisations should take into consideration. If you want more motivated and content staff who are going to want to stay within your organisation, I’d highly recommend jumping aboard the WFH bandwagon. Once you work from home you, can’t go back!