On the upside we’ll see our colleagues again and we’ll stop wearing pj’s all day long, but on the downside we’ll lose a significant benefit: the lack of commuting. A survey by Hubble showed that 79% of respondents consider the lack of commute as one of the biggest advantages regarding working from home. Interestingly, the office rental company identified that there’s a direct correlation between employees’ commute time and their enjoyment of working from home. It comes as no surprise that the farther the employees live from the office, the more they appreciate working remotely. To further illustrate, the graph below shows how the distance from the office affects the experience of working from home. Of those surveyed who live over two hours from the office, 84.2% said they’d had a positive experience working remotely, compared to only 56.4% who live less than 15 minutes away. Similarly, the negative experience of working remotely is minimal for the employees who reside more than an hour away from work, while it reaches 15.4% for those who live under 15 minutes away. With this trend in mind, it’s only expected that the staff who need to travel the most prefer to work from home more often, with nearly half of them preferring doing it on a daily basis. What’s most striking though is that the majority of all categories would rather work remotely at least twice per week. If, however, there was a workspace closer to the employees’ residence, a significant number of those living between 15 and 120 minutes from the office would like to use a coworking space at least once a week — even those who live 2+ hours from the office would like to use one “occasionally.”
So what is it that makes us dislike the commute?
Apart from the Covid concern, the survey revealed that employees appreciate their gains in personal time, money, and freedom. Notably, 55% of respondents said that “financial savings” were among the top three things about working from home. To give you an idea, a recent study by Totaljobs found that the lack of commuting could save Londoners up to £14,000 over the course of their careers. Personal benefits aside, the lack of commuting can also do wonders for the environment considering that transport accounted for 24% of global greenhouse emissions in 2020. And while ditching the office altogether can have a negative psychological impact and affect work-life separation, perhaps a hybrid model or workspaces that can be reached on foot or by bike could combine the best of both worlds. Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up?
