Why Do You Want to Work From Home?
Why do you want to work from home? There are many reasons you may be interested in working from home. There’s a chance you feel that your productivity would be higher as a remote worker. You may also recognize that your costs (travel, food, clothing) have the potential to decrease significantly.
In the event that management of your organization wants a clear understanding of your desire to be based remotely, you should be ready to answer the question “why do you want to work from home?”
Increased productivity
Does working from home help productivity or harm it? While some swear they can’t work without the background chatter of water cooler talk and ringing telephones, others say working from home has increased their productivity by as much as 49% — according to one study.
If you feel that you may benefit from an increase in productivity by working from home, that’s as good a reason as any to approach your employer about transitioning to remote work.
Flexibility
Your responsibilities at home may be changing, necessitating a shift to flexible or remote work.
In many ways, remote working allows employees to have greater autonomy over their schedules. This flexibility enables them to be caregivers for their children, look after for elderly relatives or other family members, or achieve better work-life balance overall. And employers recognize this.
One recent survey even revealed that 60% of businesses let parents adjust their schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic — with 22% even allowing parents to switch to part-time if needed.
Geographic freedom
Life happens. Your current base may not be your base in a year or even six months from now. The good thing about remote work is that it opens up positions beyond geographic borders.
In a virtual Future Human event, Hubspot’s VP of Marketing Kieran Flanagan reiterated this idea.
“I think your career shouldn’t be defined by your geography,” Flanagan explained. “It also shouldn’t be defined by the work environment that you have to adhere to.”
Cost savings
We probably don’t have to tell you that work is expensive. When you have to commute each day, buy food each day, and interact with the outside world each day, costs can quickly add up. Combine that with the cost of “professional clothing” and other superficial expenses and you may recognize that even a couple days of flexible working can make a difference.
Though you don’t have to share details of your finances, you can let your employer know that you’d like to better manage things in your personal life and explain that remote work would be a significant step toward that.
You may want to begin working from home for many different reasons, but whatever you decide, it's important to have the right tools at your disposal for a seamless transition to remote work. Learn more about the benefits and challenges of remote work in the rest of our Remote Work guide.
