Like many others, I've been working from home since the stay at home orders back in March. My job function is one that can be done completely from home, with no need to go into the office except for very few things. I find it ironic that it took the Coronavirus scare to push remote work into the limelight. My first job where remote work was allowed was working for Anthem, which I started in 2012. I was amazed and happy to be able to take advantage of it twice a week, as policy allowed. Most of my team were scattered over geographically diverse office locations, so a majority of our work was through the phone or WebEx. In 2016 I had problems with my back and was allowed to work from home as needed. I discovered that it was easily possible to do my job completely from home. For most of 6 months I worked remotely and managed to have the same or higher level of productivity. I was disheartened to find out that Anthem was actively phasing out permanent work from home positions, even though it was almost all positive for them to allow this to be done. They also discouraged more than 2 days per week allowance to work remotely. With other things happening that made working for Anthem no longer viable, one of my coworkers and I started looking for positions elsewhere. He ended up getting a position with a company that was completely working from home. It was for a UK based company that had no office in the state, so he didn't have to ever go into an office. That sealed it in my mind that there was no reason to not allow a lot of remote work for my type of position.
In early 2017 I obtained a position with IU Health, doing the same thing that I'd done at Anthem. Again, the position allowed working from home, but only 1 day per week. I had many discussions with my manager and his boss and we finally implemented working from home 2 days per week. We had no adverse impact from the extra day, but complaints were made from other teams who weren't allowed 2 days a week, so we had to go back to 1 day per week. Ironically, during the 65 road work project HR decided to let those who could work from home during the entire project, so I got to work from home for ~8 weeks straight. Fast forward to last week and we're told during a team meeting that due to that experiment and the recent remote work done during the Coronavirus scare, management has decided that positions that can work remotely will be allowed to much more often going forward. For my team, that means working from home permanently, with the exception of going into the office once every 2 weeks for face to face meetings. They determined that not only was this going to save them money for real estate, but that staff members were happier and more productive with the additional flexibility that remote work offered. I'm very happy because I've been a huge advocate for remote work as soon as I realized how beneficial it is for employees and employers both. I realize that not every position can offer remote work as an option and not every employee can take advantage of the option as some don't have the discipline to get work done while sitting at home. For those who can, it's a wonderful benefit. I think one of the biggest obstacles I saw to this was management. Too many managers didn't have a clue how to get a handle on the productivity of their workers, so they had the "butts in seats" mentality, as they considered their employees as working hard if they were in the office at the desks. I find that funny as I've always gotten much less work done in the office where there are so many distractions, than working from home where I can lock myself in my home office and crank out the work.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling. Just wondered if other people are seeing a rise in the ability to work remotely as well. I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one touting the benefits: https://www.forbes.com/sites/patric...st-work-at-home-experiment-ever/#29a7a9a56d2c. I have to laugh since we've had the ability, from a technical standpoint, to work remotely for a long, long time, but so many companies don't take advantage of it. Are you seeing an uptick in remote work at your job? Post your thoughts as I'd like to see what others think about this topic.
In early 2017 I obtained a position with IU Health, doing the same thing that I'd done at Anthem. Again, the position allowed working from home, but only 1 day per week. I had many discussions with my manager and his boss and we finally implemented working from home 2 days per week. We had no adverse impact from the extra day, but complaints were made from other teams who weren't allowed 2 days a week, so we had to go back to 1 day per week. Ironically, during the 65 road work project HR decided to let those who could work from home during the entire project, so I got to work from home for ~8 weeks straight. Fast forward to last week and we're told during a team meeting that due to that experiment and the recent remote work done during the Coronavirus scare, management has decided that positions that can work remotely will be allowed to much more often going forward. For my team, that means working from home permanently, with the exception of going into the office once every 2 weeks for face to face meetings. They determined that not only was this going to save them money for real estate, but that staff members were happier and more productive with the additional flexibility that remote work offered. I'm very happy because I've been a huge advocate for remote work as soon as I realized how beneficial it is for employees and employers both. I realize that not every position can offer remote work as an option and not every employee can take advantage of the option as some don't have the discipline to get work done while sitting at home. For those who can, it's a wonderful benefit. I think one of the biggest obstacles I saw to this was management. Too many managers didn't have a clue how to get a handle on the productivity of their workers, so they had the "butts in seats" mentality, as they considered their employees as working hard if they were in the office at the desks. I find that funny as I've always gotten much less work done in the office where there are so many distractions, than working from home where I can lock myself in my home office and crank out the work.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling. Just wondered if other people are seeing a rise in the ability to work remotely as well. I've been seeing a lot of articles like this one touting the benefits: https://www.forbes.com/sites/patric...st-work-at-home-experiment-ever/#29a7a9a56d2c. I have to laugh since we've had the ability, from a technical standpoint, to work remotely for a long, long time, but so many companies don't take advantage of it. Are you seeing an uptick in remote work at your job? Post your thoughts as I'd like to see what others think about this topic.