Working From Home

For over 146 million workers in the United States, 16 years of age or older, their job starts when they leave their homes to commute to work. Yet, there is a growing percentage of Americans who are now working from home. In 2018, 5.3% of workers (over 8 million people) worked from home. That is up from the 4.6% of workers (close to 6.8 million people) that were home-based workers in 2015 and from the 4.3% of workers (more than 586 thousand people) in 2010 (United States Census Bureau).

Working from home or home-based workers usually do not perform their jobs at their workplace and instead work at another location, such as their home. The United States Office of Personnel Management "defines telework or teleworking as a work flexibility arrangement under which an employee performs the duties and responsibilities of such employee's position, and other authorized activities, from an approved worksite other than the location from which the employee would otherwise work”.  According to Krantz-Kent for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019), those who were more likely to work from home were professionals, such as lawyers or those who work in management. While other jobs, such as those who work in the service industry or construction, were more likely to be at their workplace, which is understandable.

The concept of working from home is not new. In fact, there was a higher percentage of Americans working from home in the 1960s than today. However, what is new are some of the professions that can work from home thanks to technological advancements in secure computer networks, cloud computing and communication applications. Through these developments, professionals like educators can provide tutoring services to students in different countries, or realtors can research and develop their rapport with clients.

For many, the prospect of teleworking sounds appealing. The opportunity to work from home, thereby skipping the commute, is enough for most people to request, from their employers, such a work arrangement. In addition, Vega, Anderson and Kaplan (2015) found that workers who teleworked reported increased job satisfaction and increased job performance as well as performed better on objective creative tasks. Those who work from home tend to have greater autonomy in structuring their workday, which means those workers need to manage their time effectively. Working from home also permits employees to focus on their work without the distractions that come from the workplace. Therefore, one of the expectations of Vega, Anderson and Kaplan (2015) was “that the reduced amount of distractions and interferences during the work day will lead to perceptions that one is able to accomplish more work when working at home than while working in the office” (p.315) which could be reasons why employees in their sample study reported increased job performance teleworking.

But working from home does have its drawbacks. Less face-to-face opportunities to demonstrate performance to managers means that workers who work from home need to develop a trusting rapport with their direct supervisors. Teleworking can impact career growth and the peer-to-peer learning that comes with being immersed in a particular discipline with colleagues. It can also impact work-home balance, particularly if an individual cannot manage their time effectively without supervision.

Therefore, working from home depends on the individual. Every person has different skills, different expectations of themselves and different needs. A determination of whether it would benefit an organization to have some of their employees work from home, needs to be taken after consulting with employees.