Gen-Z’s new favorite way to work?

As Gen Z graduates high school and joins the professional world, we have a choice that our parents didn’t have when they entered the workplace. A large part of Gen Z workers are jumping on this opportunity.

In 2020, 49 million people worked from home, not including those who had already worked remotely. My dad has worked from home since 2017, and I noticed that he is way more involved in my and my siblings’ lives than if he had a commute anywhere. Working from home has pros and cons, just like any other job style.

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The first positive thing is that the company and the employees save money. If you have 40 employees, you need an office space for them to meet. The employees need to get there, whether by public transportation, driving, or Uber. They need to eat and drink. I think you get it. USA Today says the average employee saves around $4k to $5k annually on transportation.

Another good thing about working from home is more work flexibility. I’ll use my dad as an example again. He had to take a break in his workday to take me and my sister to a dentist appointment. He would not have been capable if he had been in the office or had to take the whole day off.

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The third and final point about working from home is it provides more job opportunities. Since you can work from home, home is anywhere. For example, my uncle is a tenured professor at City College in New York City, and he lives with his family in Kauai, Hawaii.

Even with all the positives, working from home is not all sunshine and rainbows. One of the negative aspects is you have distractions from family or pets. We’ve all seen videos of people on a Zoom call interrupted by their cat. It’s not good for a professional environment, especially for an important meeting.

Another criticism is the risk of overworking. You had to clock out and physically drive home before COVID-19, but now you can just close your laptop. You can work long into the night on work you are just getting ahead. And since you have no commute home, any stress from the workplace comes into the family time. Many people I know who commute use their commute as a decompression from work and get back into the mindset of being home.

My assessment of working from home is that it is suitable for some jobs but not others, depending on the personality type. I couldn’t work at home. I like working with my hands and with other people. But others can work as they choose. I hope this helps!