My mom does her work from home. She went back to school close to a decade ago so she could become a medical coder, and here she is today logging in hours from our dining room with our dogs at her feet.
I say this because I'm also a telecommuter--more specifically I'm a digital nomad. I'm travelling the United States while working from my laptop. The freedom this lifestyle affords is clearly paying massive dividends, but is the work from home trend going to continue in the years to come?
Statistics sure point in that direction.
The folks over at Global Workplace Analytics came up with a report regarding this data. They found that businesses could save $11,000 per person per year if they decided to let just half of their employees who could work remotely start to work from home. Not only that, but the employees themselves would save $2,000 to $7,000 per year in transportation costs.
This simple shift in thinking would benefit the environment, too. Again, if those with compatible jobs to work remotely worked from home just half the time, then that would be like taking the entire New York City workforce off the road. The grand finale is that it would save the country $700 billion per year.
So, if it benefits the business, the worker, and the environment, that's why I believe that this trend isn't just going to continue, it's going to explode.
If you think about it, the American workforce has really only had personal computers readily available for a few years now. And with the new advances in technology we see every year, it seems as if devices like hybrids between tablets and laptops are going to continue driving this trend.
This isn't even taking productivity into account. My commute every morning consists of a walk to my microwave to make coffee. Two hours are easily saved every single day. I don't dress up. I don't drive in traffic to work. I sit at my desk and work five minutes after waking up.
That gives me more time to work.
The report states that the regular population of work-from-home employees who aren't self-employed has grown 105 percent since 2005. About 2.8 percent of the workforce works from home, and 50 percent of the workforce has a job that allows for them to work from home at least part time.
That's a lot of opportunity if you asked me. Let me give you an example.
I work from home for a company that has no office. They don't pay for rent, overhead, or office supplies. We all call into a number in the morning and chat for thirty minutes about what our schedule looks like. I haven't met anyone from my team, yet we all have fun talking on the phone.
If this can happen successfully, then it can be duplicated. The work from home trend is going to continue. It just makes too much sense environmentally and economically. The reason why it hasn't caught on is because our society hasn't taken a second to look around and think about it.
We all have computers. We can login and do our work anywhere. The trend is gaining momentum, and if it continues I believe our country and the environment would benefit exponentially from the work-from-home lifestyle.