For those who say office work is valuable, consider the following: Forgoing a commute has turned back 60 million hours on the clocks of those who work from home every day.
That’s according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, published on Tuesday. The Fed’s data comes from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which tracked how employees spent their newfound influx of free time. Sorry, bosses: he revealed that most of that time was spent on sleep and personal activities, not work.
Younger workers tended to spend more hours a week in leisure activities, ranging from socializing in bars or restaurants to working out through a long run or going to a gym class. Older workers, on the other hand, spent more time on housework and childcare.
However, in all age groups, everyone slept more, a something indisputably good. Experts say that long-term sleep deprivation creates a host of adverse workplace outcomes, including reduced productivity, weaker attention span and short temper.
The report’s findings “lend credence to various reports on employee preferences for flexible work arrangements, given that reducing commuting allows people to spend their time on other activities,” the Fed research team wrote. “This added benefit of working from home, for those who want it, will be an important consideration for the future of flexible work arrangements.”
important consideration may be subsidizing it. A survey of 28,000 people conducted by Cisco earlier this year found that 78% of workers said remote work improved their overall well-being. Most employees said they spend their extra time with family, friends, and pets, followed by “personal care.” Three-quarters of workers said working from home improved family relationships and more than half said it strengthened friendships.
Not to be overlooked, a thoughtful hybrid work arrangement that allows for maximum flexibility also makes workers significantly less likely to quit smoking. After all, being able to log in from a home office not only saves millions of hours; it also saves a good amount of money. according to a LendingTree 2021 Reviewfull-time employees in the 10 largest US cities lose an average of $5,679 commuting to work.
In other words, if the tug of war back to work is showing signs of resolve, the proven drawbacks of the trip only add fuel to the fire of the stay-at-home crowd.
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