Seven Benefits of Working from Home: Improve your Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing

After 12 months of a combination of furloughment, working from home and popping into the office for a day at a time to check on my engines, this week is my first full week back in the office. I hadn’t been in the office since before Christmas due to the third UK lockdown, so this readjustment as JCB have brought back all of their staff permanently got me in a reflective mood. I am going to share my seven benefits of working from home, which I believe can contribute massively to job satisfaction and both physical and mental wellbeing. I will also talk about the downsides to working from home, which have undoubtedly been exasperated due to the pandemic and the minimised social interactions we are all facing on a daily basis.

Benefits of Working from Home

Personally, I have really enjoyed my experience of working from home, and I think there are some absolutely critical benefits for both employers and employees by allowing a more flexible working arrangement. I can see seven incredible benefits of working from home, which I honestly believe can drastically improve your job satisfaction and wellbeing. As with all of these things, the amount that you benefit massively depends on you – it is up to you to have the motivation to get up at the usual time and spend that time going for a run, working on your side hustle or whatever it might be. If you roll out of bed 5 minutes before you’re meant to start work, spend the first hour unproductive because you’ve just woken up and you’re sat in your pyjamas, then working from home isn’t going to work for you and your employer will more than likely be dissatisfied with your output.

#1 – Reduction in Expenses

The first benefit in my eyes is a huge one – after all, we go to work every day to earn the money to live the lives that we want or need, so the financial benefits can’t be overlooked. I have a 500 mile weekly commute, and typically spend £250/month on diesel just to come to work. I know plenty of people commute on trains with expensive season tickets, and the cost of motoring isn’t just the fuel as we all know increased mileage = tyres, brakes, reduced service intervals, oil and coolant…the list goes on!

For many people, working from home would mean they would actually be able to get rid of one vehicle in their household. Personally, if I was able to work from home most of the time I wouldn’t need my car, as I could get by with my van and motorbikes. If a couple could get rid of one of their cars, imagine how much money could be saved by not having to buy, maintain and insure a second car.

The other hidden cost saving by not having to commute is not having the opportunity to be distracted by Starbucks or McDonalds on your journey! Okay so you might replace this with something else to have at home, but chances are this will be cheaper than your favourite coffee you might grab on the way to catching your train home from work.

Just imagine how much money you could save if you didn’t have to commute, or even if you could just reduce this commuting requirement by half – for me it felt like I had a pay rise because I went from filling my car up every week to once every couple of months.

#2 – Perfect for Dog Ownership

I absolutely love having a dog in the house, and I’ve been fortunate that in my living situation we have always been able to have a family pet. I always thought that once I moved out I wouldn’t be able to have a dog of my own, due to both me and Jack working full-time. However, working from home would be an absolute game-changer on this subject and would enable us to have our own furry pal. For me personally, having a dog is the best thing and really gives you such an improved quality of life, so this is a huge potential benefit to being able to work from home as it will impact all areas of your life instead of just the 9-5.

It’s been so nice working from home, my dog isn’t distracting (unless she’s barking at the postie!) and I’ve been able to have such a great relationship with her by being at home all day. She’s spent a lot of her time lying next to me or under the table, and it’s been really nice being able to take her for a quick 15 minute lap of the village at lunchtime. It is important to build in some time outdoors in your day when you’re working from home, as you’re much more unlikely for this to happen compared to working in the office and commuting…and having a dog to walk is a great excuse to get some exercise and fresh air!

This is another area that could be a huge cost-saver, as if you currently have a dog and it has to go into doggy day-care during the week, you could either completely or partially cut out this expense. It’s a win-win for everyone involved – those who have dogs will save money and have a better relationship with them, those who want dogs will be able to get them, and the dogs will have a better quality of life because they’re with their humans for so much more of their time!

#3 – Day-to-Day Life Improvements

The daily improvements that are a benefit to working from home feel like the small things when you list them, but actually make a big difference to your life! How many times have you had to take a morning off to wait for builders to come around, an important delivery to be made, or had to drive around collecting parcels from the depo? When you work from home, you literally remove all of the requirements to waste time on these menial tasks! If you have someone coming to do some work on your house, you can deal with them so easily whilst still not taking away productive work time – let’s face it you aren’t doing the job with them so you only really need to greet them, check their work and pay them! You’re at home to receive deliveries, and again this isn’t taking away significant work time and serves as a nice little break from screen time – certainly more productive than 15 minutes standing around the coffee machine in the office.

It really is the small things that add up, and by not having to waste precious holidays or time chasing around collecting things you’ve missed by being at work, it does improve your overall wellbeing.

#4 – Increased Productivity at Work

A nice benefit for your employer is that working from home will certainly improve your productivity, for one you have removed your commuting time so are much more likely to put in a bit of overtime as you are already home. I have definitely found this, and whilst you need to keep a check on how much extra time you are working (see the downsides section for more on this!), doing an extra 30 minutes/day adds up to increased output for your company.

I personally think that meetings and interactions are just as effective over video conferencing systems such as Microsoft Teams, and again massively increased productivity. How many meetings have you sat around for 10 minutes waiting for everyone to turn up? On Teams, you join the meeting and because you’re at your desk you can carry on with whatever you were working on while you wait for people to join the meeting. Again, only a relatively small gain but I have found myself being much less annoyed waiting for people to come to meetings when I can still get on with my work and ‘wait’ in the background. I know, in an ideal world people wouldn’t be late for meetings, but we all know the reality of that…

I think the overall positive impact that working from home has on your wellbeing for the reasons discussed in this article, undoubtedly increases your productivity at work. If you feel valued as an employee and that your efforts are being noticed, you will be inclined to work harder and put in more hours without feeling like you are obliged to. A happy workforce is a productive workforce, and I believe that by giving your employees some flexibility in their working arrangement you will have a group of employees with very high job satisfaction, which at the end of the day is a huge win for everyone involved.

#5 – Opportunity to Improve Fitness

For many people, a ‘lack of time’ is the main barrier to them being able to exercise to the level they would like to. Life throws a lot of time-sinks and responsibilities at us, and for too long it has been our physical health that has taken a back seat and suffered. I am a huge advocate for maintaining a high level of exercise in our lives, because of the positive impact that this has on our physical health but also our mental wellbeing.

By removing your commuting time, this is an ideal opportunity to free up some time to be able to exercise and improve your physical fitness. Getting up at the same time you are used to, but going for a run or walk instead of travelling to work is the best way to set yourself up for a great day. I love exercising in the morning and used to go to the gym before work when I didn’t have to drive so far, and I have really missed having this routine in my life. When I have been working from home (especially last summer), I was getting up with Jack and going for a run in the morning before starting work. I feel so energised and set up for the day when I could do this, which I think is especially important as working from home can mean you spend much longer sat at your desk compared to being in the office environment.

By not having to commute home after work, it might mean you are able to make a class or training session that you wouldn’t have been able to before, which could open the doors to starting an entire new sport for you. I know I have always been limited by the classes I could join at the gym because of the time I could get there, so working from home would really increase the available options.

#6 – Extra Time for Hobbies and Activities

This benefit is a bit of a continuation from the opportunity to improve fitness I have just spoken about, as there are plenty of other things you can use this extra time to do. Personally, working from home gives me 3 hours/day of my life back, which has meant I’ve been able to add in a good mixture of extra activities into my days. I have really enjoyed having extra time to read, and through the winter instead of going for a morning run in the dark I have spent my time reading books. I’ve also used a lot of this extra time to get this blog off the ground, write articles and complete courses to keep improving on my new skills I’m learning! There is no limit to what you can choose to fill your ‘extra’ time with, so you can finally pick up that hobby you’ve been trying to start for years.

Not having to travel home from work in the evenings will also allow more opportunities to join in classes, which again improves morale by learning a new skill and increasing your social networks. Many people will not get home until late, when a lot of classes have already finished or you have to rush there from work without having any tea…you can just make things fit in with your working life a lot easier if you have more flexibility.

#7 – Improvement in Employee Morale

We spend such a huge amount of our lives working, I think it is so important that this experience is as good as possible, because if you have high job satisfaction your overall morale and wellbeing will be hugely improved. As an employee, if your company tells you that you can choose to work from where you want to as long as you get your job done, this is a huge morale booster. Your management are effectively telling you that they trust you, as a responsible professional adult, to do the right thing to ensure your productivity is as high as possible. That’s always going to have an impact on your morale, even if you don’t take the offer up it is a testament to your working integrity and professionalism that you are given that option.

Whilst the direct morale boost from being given this choice is arguably the largest contributor, the other benefits that I have shared in this article also have a massive impact on your overall morale and job satisfaction.

I find this benefit of working from home one of the greatest, which was totally unexpected when I started on this journey 12 months ago. I didn’t realise the positive impact it would have on my morale to be trusted to deliver my job from wherever was appropriate (and safe, given the current situation). Conversely, the message that is then sent when a company brings everyone back into the office full time with no opportunity for flexibility, tells employees that you aren’t trusted to do your job ‘unattended’. I have a strong opinion on this because I believe that you should be trusted to do the right thing to deliver your results to the expected standard.

Downsides to Working from Home

Now it’s not fair to talk about the benefits of working from home without discussing the downsides…like everything there are disadvantages that are important to be considered. I’ve split this into different sections because I do think some of the negative sides that have been experienced are very closely related to the current world situation and living through a pandemic. Once you’ve got a couple of the key items sorted and know what to look out for, I think the remaining downsides can be managed successfully.

Pandemic-Specific Downsides

The social isolation has undoubtedly been the hardest part of working from home for me; being in lockdown it has made it very difficult with never seeing any actual humans! I have found that because everyone is under a lot of pressure at the moment anyway, that conversations over Microsoft Teams (chats and calls) are always straight to business and you miss out on the general chat and catch ups that naturally happen when you’re physically in the office. I don’t think this would be such a big deal if we had an open society, and were able to meet friends in evenings and weekends…not having any kind of social interaction has definitely amplified this isolated feeling which I don’t believe would be as extreme in the ‘normal’ world.

Potential Long-Term Downsides

Having a proper work area is so important, and something I had never considered before being thrust into the world of working from home when the pandemic hit last March. I spent the last 12 months working from my dining table, which made it very hard to switch off properly at the end of the day and on weekends. My laptop and screens were always out so when I was eating dinner I was sat in the same space that I was working in during the day. I didn’t have an option for this situation to be any different, but I would definitely recommend making sure you have a proper space to work from that you can close the door to at the end of the day. This has a huge mental impact as it really feels like you’ve finished work for the day and can differentiate between work time and leisure time. Again, I think this is emphasised by the pandemic and having no other options – in the normal world you could work for a few hours in a coffee shop or something to mix up your environment and not feel trapped at home.

Ensuring you have a good balance with screen time is super important, and something that again I think is harder when you’re working from home. Whereas in the office you might walk to make a coffee and then get talking to a colleague, when you’re at home you don’t have this distraction so you end up spending so much more time at your computer screen. Additionally to this, is having all of your meetings and conversations via your computer, when in a normal office environment you get a break from your screen when you’re in meetings or having a conversation with someone. This is another thing that I believe is exaggerated by the pandemic, as with limited things to do in evenings and on weekends we are all guilty of spending more time looking at screens in our spare time as well as work time. Once the world opens back up again, I think it is easy enough to manage screen time overload by making sure to have conscious breaks throughout your day, as you would naturally have when based in the office.

Not having a commute does have a downside – it means you don’t have your end of day decompression time, as you are instantly at home and having your downtime. I think building in an end of day walk (again, great for dog ownership!) is a brilliant way to wind down from the workday, and set you up for an evening of whatever you want to fill it with.

The final downside is again something that is within your control, but it’s something that is a very easy trap to fall into. Whilst doing a bit of overtime because you haven’t got a commute is great, it’s important to not let that slip into putting in several hours every evening and even opening your laptop on a weekend. Some jobs may require this of their employees, but personally I am an advocate for having clear boundaries between work time and leisure time – you aren’t as productive an employee if you aren’t relaxing and having some time away from work over your weekends. Having your IT equipment at hand in your house is definitely a big temptation, so you need to be really clear to set those boundaries for yourself – this is where I think having a separate room works really well because you have to make a conscious decision to go in there and boot your computer up.

Summary

Overall, I think the benefits of working from home massively outweigh the disadvantages, but I do believe that the optimal solution is a mixture of the two. In our usual life without lockdowns and general social isolation, the freedom to choose where you work from to deliver your job to the required standard should absolutely be the norm.

I think the key pointers to being a successful remote worker are having a great work environment that you love being in, but then can close the door and switch off from at the end of the day. The other part would be making sure you build in some outdoor time/exercise into each day, to improve both physical and mental wellbeing whilst increasing your productivity in your workday.

It is very much down to the individual to make it work for you though, as you consciously have to make an effort to make the most out of it. If you roll out of bed 10 minutes before you’re meant to start work and then spend the evening on Netflix, then you won’t reap any of the benefits that I’ve outlined in this article. I honestly believe that giving employees flexibility can change people’s lives for the better, create a more productive and positive workforce, and massively increase job satisfaction for everyone involved.

What are your thoughts on working from home? Have you always done this as part of your job, or have you started this in the last 12 months too? I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences, as it’s something that works so differently for everyone and is a hotly discussed topic as the world is returning to ‘normal’.

Emilie

The Female Engineer