With the world’s largest work-from-home experiment well underway, much has been discussed about what the future of remote work will eventually look like. In 2019, 80% of workers wanted to work from home at least some of the time [State of Remote Work 2019, Owl Labs]. Now, according to a recent Gartner press release, 74% of CFOs intend to shift some employees to remote work permanently. Twitter and Square have already informed their employees that they can work from home permanently, and companies like Shopify an Upwork announced that they will become “digital by default”. As the shift to remote work continues, we thought it would be a good time to ask our wahves about the benefits and challenges of working from home.

About the survey

In May 2020, we conducted an online survey with 250 wahves. Of the respondents, 46% work from home 20-30 hours per week, and 36.4% work 30-40 hours per week. We asked each respondent to answer the survey questions as they applied to working from home prior to the pandemic. For more details, you can read the survey results  here.

No commute

Wahves agree that the most important benefit of working from home is no commute. Prior to working from home, 27.6% of wahves spent 41-60 minutes per day commuting to work, and 21.6% spent 61-90 minutes.  Rather than sitting in traffic, they’re now spending these hours of reclaimed time doing many other things they enjoy.

Flexible work schedule, less stress

Wahves rated the following benefits as the next most important:  having a flexible work schedule, no office stress, more time for themselves, and time to spend with family. When it comes to stress, 88.4% of wahves rated their stress level as being lower than when they worked in a traditional office.

Free time

A deeper look into how respondents choose to spend their free time revealed that all respondents are very likely to spend it with family and friends, followed by pursuing interests/hobbies. The next most likely activities are reading and exercising (which tied), followed by traveling. Surprisingly, wahves indicated that they are only “somewhat likely” to volunteer in their free time.

Cost savings

Another clear benefit of working from home is cost savings. Just over 36% of wahves save $5-10 per day on lunch. Wahves also save on clothes (32% save $301-$500 per year) and transportation costs.  The majority (67.6%) are saving anywhere from $51-$250 per month on transportation costs.

Unplugging is still a challenge

While there are many things wahves love about working from home, the survey also revealed what they find most challenging: the inability to separate work time and personal time (54.5%), followed by working across time zones (12.1%).  In fact, when asked to rate how often they encountered common work-from-home struggles, wahves rated “not being able to unplug” as the most common difficulty.

Work from home is the “wahve” of the future

Despite work from home challenges, wahves overwhelmingly agree that work-from-home is the way to go. When asked if they missed being part of a traditional office, 77.6% said no. If given the option to work in a traditional office again, 88.4% said they wouldn’t. And when asked if they’d recommend remote work to others, 95.1% said yes.

What do you most enjoy – or find challenging – about working from home? Share your thoughts with us below.