Five Surprising Reasons Why Working From Home Is Even Better Than You Thought

There are a lot of really wonderful reasons why working from home can be a great thing. You can completely eliminate your commute, which saves time, you can save money on things like gas, and you can avoid some of the meetings that are rampant in traditional office settings.

Those are the benefits most people think about when they think about working from home, but it turns out that there are a lot more reasons why working from home is even better than you thought!

Reduced Chance of Injury

There are quite a few ways you can get injured at work or on your way to work. Slips and falls are relatively common at work, while workplace injuries are even higher for those who work with machinery.

Even if you sit at a desk all day, driving to and from work can put you at risk of experiencing an accident. Not only can recovering from an accident be a nightmare, it may also require you to hire a personal injury lawyer.

When you work at home, you greatly reduce your chances of experiencing an accident. You spend less time driving in the car, and you have more control over your environment, which means fewer slips, falls, and other accidents.

Decreased Rate of Illness

Not only can you decrease your chances of experiencing an accident when you work at home, you can also greatly decrease your chances of experiencing an illness.

Workplace germs can’t be avoided, no matter how clean everyone is. Germs spread, and they spread fast the more people you are surrounded by.

When you work from home, you aren’t surrounded by anyone at all! When you aren’t surrounded by others who are touching shared surfaces, sneezing, and coughing, you are a lot less likely to get the common cold, flu, and other contagious illnesses.

Avoid Office Politics

If you have worked with others, you have probably interacted with coworkers whose part-time job is office politics. A few you may have dealt with include:

• The gossiper
• The one who takes credit for everything
• The flatterer
• The saboteur who throws everyone else under the bus

Not only can dealing with these kinds of people on a daily basis affect the quality of your work, it can also make life miserable. You don’t want to have to spend time in HR because a coworker keeps spreading rumors about you, and you don’t want to spend energy fighting over credit for your work.

When you work at home, you can avoid all the office politics because idle chit chat and breakroom conversations aren’t possible. Instead, people focus on their work, which means you can get more done with a lot less stress.

More Abilities to Volunteer

Fitting time to volunteer into your busy life can be nearly impossible. With a traditional job, you spend a lot of extra time commuting to and from work. You may also spend time waiting out the clock after you have gotten your work done. When you don’t have to drive to work and your day ends when your work is over, you can find more time to do things you want to do, like volunteer.

This is an especially great benefit for parents. Many wish they could spend more time volunteering at their child’s school. With a remote position, you are more likely to find that you have the time to volunteer at the bake sale or take the afternoon to go on a field trip with your child’s class.

Personal and Professional Development

Working from home also has the ability to foster personal and professional development. When you work from home, you’re completely responsible for your routine. That can force you into creating a schedule that addresses your procrastination problem head-on, enabling you to be more productive.

You will also be forced to think about what you need to focus instead of relying on supervisors and coworkers to craft your environment. From listening to music to ergonomic chairs and working during the day versus at night, you’ll learn a lot about your ideal working conditions.

There is a lot to love about working from home. It’s true that you can save money on gas and you can reduce the number of pointless meetings you’re required to attend, but that’s not all! From not getting sick to avoiding office politics and learning more about what you need to focus, there are many surprising reasons why working from home is better than you thought!