Even before the global pandemic of 2020 made working from home commonplace for millions, a growing number of employees had been saying goodbye to their onerous commutes. Thanks to ever-evolving technologies like Skype, FaceTime, Slack, Zoom, Google Hangouts, authenticator apps, and cloud computing—not to mention texting and email—it’s no longer necessary to be in an office full time to be a productive member of the team. Many types of work can be done just as effectively, if not more so, from a home office.
As appealing as remote work is to employees, employers also recognize the benefits from their side of the desk. Companies with work-from-anywhere policies can boost employee productivity, reduce turnover, and lower organizational costs, according to research at Harvard Business School.
Telecommuting workers with very complex jobs who don’t require a lot of collaboration or social support can perform better than their office-based counterparts. Also, in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, a distributed workforce is in a better position to keep operations running, even if some of the group goes offline.
Key Takeaways
- For employers, working from home can boost productivity, reduce turnover, and lower organizational costs, while employees enjoy perks like flexibility and the lack of a commute.
- To work effectively from home, you’ll need to make sure you have the technology that you require, a separate workspace, and internet service that meets your needs.
- It's important to set up a workable schedule you can stick to and to find ways to connect with others.
- Top fields for remote work include information technology (IT), education/training, and healthcare.
How to Work Remotely
Whether you’re working remotely a few days per week or full-time either by choice or because of a health situation or weather event, it’s essential to ensure that your setup meets your needs.
Having a designated workspace with the right technology, such as videoconferencing, child care arrangements, pet care, and a schedule that allows for the social contact and stimulation that ordinarily comes from being present in a workplace with others can make for a successful remote work experience. Here are strategies and tips for telecommuting.
1. Know the Ground Rules
Does your employer require a nine-to-five schedule, or is there flexibility? Your employer must ensure that you have the appropriate equipment, such as a laptop, network access, passcodes, and instructions for remote login, including two-factor authentication if necessary. Be sure to do a trial run and work out any problems that might impede your work.
2. Set up a Functional Workspace
Not everyone has a designated home office, but it’s critical to have a private, quiet space for your work. If you can, separate your work area from your personal spaces and use it only for work and not for other activities.
3. Get the Technology You Need
From laptops to software and internet speed, determine the technology tools you will need, including apps such as Zoom, Slack, or Microsoft Teams.Wondering if your most-used website is down? Check isitdownrightnow.com, which monitors key websites and services to see if they’re working.
4. Minimize Distractions
A barking dog may disappear with noise-canceling headphones and arranging your schedule around your family's schedule also helps to ensure you get the dedicated time you need for your work.
5. Get Outside
Some individuals who live alone love the thought of working in solitude, but even the most introverted among us may feel claustrophobic after a few weeks at home solo. Schedule some time to connect to the outside world through lunch dates or an exercise class.
35%
The percentage of workers with jobs that can be done remotely who are working from home full time, according to the Pew Research Center. That contrasts with 41% of those whose jobs can be done remotely who are working a hybrid schedule.
Where Are the Remote Jobs?
Improved technology, low overhead costs, and the 2020 global pandemic have encouraged businesses of all sizes and in a variety of fields to create more work-from-home opportunities.
FlexJobs researches, vets, and posts remote, hybrid, and flexible jobs. Each year, the company compiles its list of the top 100 companies with the most remote job openings.
It also compiles a top 30 companies with zero location restrictions. In 2024, the list included a mix of industries, including computer, IT, education, training, marketing, relocation services, and finance.
Remote Friendly Firms
Keeping up the demand for remote opportunities and flexibility, here are five of the top 10 companies with the most expected job openings in 2024:
•Working Solutions. Industry: Sales and Customer Service
•Liveops. Industry: Customer Service
• CVS Health. Industry: Healthcare
• Robert Half International. Industry: Professional Staffing and Consulting
•Williams-Sonoma. Industry: Retail
Other Remote Opportunities
While many employees now have the opportunity to work remotely for large corporations, telework options exist for freelancers and small business owners. As flexibility increases, many companies are outsourcing and turning to these independent contractors to fill a variety of positions.
Here are some of the most common, and fastest-growing, work-from-home options. Many are entry-level positions, while others require specialized training and expertise.
Sales
Sales jobs are best for people who have strong interpersonal skills. The work focuses on understanding customer needs and offering tailored solutions. Networking, lead generation, and customer service are key in sales jobs. Salespeople rely on email, phone, and in-person communication for their work.
Client Services
These professionals often have sales management and customer service skills, which they apply to helping clients resolve complex issues and identify areas of opportunity. They may work as a liaison between a company and a client to ensure that projects run smoothly and on schedule.
Business Development
Managing organizational strategic development is the realm of people who work in business development. This may include developing and retaining clientele to achieve departmental financial goals, recruiting and supervising administrative or business professionals in their daily operations, and handling marketing efforts and customer service to maintain corporate standards.
Medical and Health Workers
There's a wide range of opportunities for remote health workers. These jobs may provide medical research and services, lifestyle management, or support to patients. Or they may be involved with insurance, billing, coding, transcription, and scheduling, or support personnel in handling medical records, insurance claims, and billing.
Education and Training
If you have experience as a teacher and enjoy helping people learn new things, there are remote jobs you might consider. You may be tasked to give virtual presentations or classroom or individual instruction. The work will require planning, developing, and assigning lessons and then evaluating students on their understanding of those lessons. The settings may be in corporate, private, or virtual environments.
Avoiding Scams
Do your research when applying for remote opportunities and get to know the employer. Be sure to investigate and test contact information using online sources like LinkedIn.
As with any opening, there should be an application and probably an interview. Any firm that is legitimately looking to hire someone wants to meet—or at least talk to—its applicants.
You shouldn’t incur any out-of-pocket expenses to be hired. If a work-from-home opportunity requires you to pay a fee upfront or buy a “start-up kit” or make any other sort of sizable cash outlay, it’s probably a scam.
Tips for Working Remotely
Though the idea of flexibility, setting your hours, and operating within your own four walls has merit and benefits, it comes with a few drawbacks as well, for both the self-employed and the telecommuting employee. Here are three tips to help strike a healthy balance.
1. Stick to Your Work Schedule
Every person who has spent time working from a home base will have to deal with a lack of understanding from people who think working from home doesn’t mean working, although the pandemic helped to change that dynamic. The burden is on you to set your working hours, stick to them, and actually work during those hours.
Unfortunately, home life has its distractions that can burn precious daylight and put well-meaning homeworkers behind on important projects. In addition to the typical interruptions in the nine-to-five (vendor calls, power outages, accidents, pet or child needs), there are personal boundaries that will continue to be pushed.
Close family members have to understand that you can’t help them move during the workday or even chat on the phone for an hour. Setting limits if you have children at home can be especially tough. On the positive side, letting kids see you work hard at something you love—and even at the parts that you don’t love—can greatly influence their future career choices and entire attitude toward work.
2. Beware of Workaholic Tendencies
Efficiency and flexibility are some of the top reasons why people want to work from home, along with shorter hours (what might you accomplish with eight straight hours of keyboard pounding, uninterrupted by emails or daily staff meetings?). But sometimes flexibility is too much of a good thing. When your office is always there, waiting, with that deadline looming over your head, it’s pretty hard to just close the door and pretend that you’ve left for the day. Many home-based workers find themselves working more hours, not fewer, logging in work time on nights and weekends, just because it’s there and they can’t ignore it.
Many work-at-home professionals indeed keep a five-hour day, as opposed to eight hours. However, this does not mean that they work less. Hours are often calculated as “billable hours,” meaning that for every hour spent performing a task for which they charge, there are many minutes spent doing uncompensated administrative tasks.
3. Don’t Bet on Saving Money
Without a daily commute, mandatory lunches, and the cost of office-appropriate attire, it may seem that working from home will peel some costs off your budget. But additional outlays can crop up. The expense of setting up an office may include laptops, printers, internet service, cellphones, business cards, web hosting, business services, and software. Forget about using your existing equipment for your business if you plan on taking the full cost of each as a tax write-off. Personal and business purchases need to be kept separate to comply with tax law.
For starters, you can only deduct for a home office if you are working freelance or as a contractor. Since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), you can no longer deduct non-reimbursed work expenses if you are an employee, including any home office deduction. That makes it especially important to try to get extra costs covered by your employer.
So, hold on before you try to deduct half of your mortgage for “office rent” or the entire cost of your internet. There are strict limits on what can be claimed as deductions or credits on your return. You can deduct valid work-related expenses, but only the percentage used for your work. So if you pay for an internet service that is also used by your spouse and children—and by you for non-work-related matters—you can’t deduct the full cost, only the (estimated) portion that is exclusive to employment-related matters. The same goes for office supplies, telephone bills, and utilities.
If you’re an independent contractor, you have to pay your own Social Security tax (the self-employment tax) and payroll taxes (an expense that most employers pay half of). You can deduct the employer half of your payroll tax as a business expense, but, generally, a sole proprietor won’t see drastic cuts to their tax bill.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Working From Home?
Research has found that the positives of remote work include the lack of a commute and greater job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and engagement with work, which all lead to lower turnover rates. The negatives are isolation and loneliness, and an increase in work-to-family conflict from job pressures, and blurred work-life roles.
Is Working From Home Less Stressful?
It can be. Research during the pandemic found that remote work decreased both psychological and physical stress. But it's important to set work/home-life boundaries, get adequate amounts of exercise and sleep, connect with friends, and have good relations with your boss and colleagues to maintain healthy stress levels if you're working from home.
The Bottom Line
Working from home can be exciting, empowering, and even profitable, provided that you are realistic about the pros and cons. Whether you are a freelancer, a company part-timer, or a full-time employee who just doesn’t hit the office on certain days or at all, it’s a way to escape the daily commuting grind.
But added responsibilities come with freedom, not to mention planning, foresight, self-discipline, and focus—and, yes, hours of uninterrupted hard work. As many home-based employees will tell you, it’s not easier to work from home; it’s just a different location.
