Is it time to transition away from online and back to traditional in-person workdays?
By: Matthew Walsh
Excluding active-duty military personnel and postal service workers, more than 2.9 million Americans work for the United States Federal Government. Of those 2.9 million workers, approximately only 54% of those workers work in the office full-time. In an executive order signed on inauguration day, President Trump mandated that all federal workers return to the office full-time—with select exceptions to be made by Department Heads. With the President’s executive order, the question arises as to whether the time has come for online workers to suit up and head back to an in-person workplace. Although working in an office can foster more connected teams through face-to-face communication, working from home is more advantageous for both the worker and the employer. Online workers have a healthier work-life balance, and employers reap the benefits of longer and more productive workdays from their online employees.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-executive-order-federal-workers-return-office-hiring-2018047
Trump signs an executive order, all Federal Employees to return to in-person work.
By cutting commute times out of the workday, remote workers can have more efficient workdays due to longer time spent on the job. According to the U.S. Career Institute, remote workers in the U.S. save on average 55 minutes per day by avoiding commutes. As a result of the extra time in the day, online workers can dedicate more of their time to their work and boost company productivity. In 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study of over 60,000 Microsoft employees found that workweeks increased by 10% on average as a result of working online. Furthermore, online workers are 35-40% more productive and make 40% fewer mistakes than their in-person colleagues. This data shows that working online directly correlates with increased worker efficiency and that remaining online is a more strategic option for companies to optimize their profit.
In addition to increasing productivity, working from home creates a stronger work-life balance for online employees. This principle is supported by the fact that 91% of online workers report having increased work-life balances and are 22% more likely to enjoy their jobs than in-person workers. Most notably, working online provides additional freedom to employees by allowing them to alter their work schedule to match their daily personal needs, such as walking the dog, taking their children to school, going to the doctor, and more. While fitting one’s work schedule around their personal life would seem to imply that less time would be spent on the job, in reality, regardless of whether in-person or online, only 39% of the average 9-hour work day (2 hours and 53 minutes) is spent being productive (i.e. completing company assigned work) anyways. On top of this statistic, in-person workers were found to waste about 4.3 hours per week—clocking in hours without actively working—whereas online workers wasted only 2.25 hours per week. Since online workers waste less time on the job, they are more likely to reach or surpass that 39% daily efficiency rate than their in-person counterparts while also maintaining a healthier work-life balance—a win-win for both them and their employers.
While President Trump has warned that all federal employees must end their online arrangements and return to the office by February 6th or face termination, it is still up in the air if employees will agree to the terms or look elsewhere for online work. Similarly, it is unlikely that this mandate, if successful, will set a precedent for the rest of the nation, as online work currently benefits both the workforce and the business by strengthening work-life relationships and optimizing the workday.
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