Teleworking: The New Normal
More North Carolinians than ever are working from home, or “teleworking,” according to a new study.
More than 200,000 people across the state now work from home, including Brad Bednar. He has been working at home for almost a year now but when Bednar first started, he said it required discipline to separate his job from usual household tasks.
“There’s that desire and urge to sit here and then at 1:45 realize, oh you know what, I need to pop a load of laundry in, I want to go run or mow the lawn or things like that.” said Bednar. “I realize that, for myself, I need to be really regimented about it.”
When Bednar recently moved into a new house in Durham, he decided to dedicate a separate room entirely as his office space.
“The only thing I do in here is work related, at five o’clock or six o’clock because my office is in Kansas, I close the door and I leave and I don’t come back until eight o’clock the next day.” said Bednar.
Bednar works as a business systems analyst for Civic Plus, a technology company that builds websites and other products for local municipalities, including Carrboro.
Every month or so, Bednar hops on a plane to Kansas to work in the company’s offices, but when Bednar is at home he connects with his co-workers in lots of different ways like video chat, instant messaging and email.
Bednar himself said he is more of an old school telephone guy but at his company, all ages are embracing the new methods of communication.
“It’s some of the oldest people in our company who love this technology the most,” said Bednar.
The benefits of working from home can include no commute, all of your things within reach and for Bednar, productivity.
“I think I am a lot more productive and it’s a lot of things,” said Bednar. “There’s less of that coffee talk, less of that time in the break room, my lunches are shorter, I’m able to tune out the distractions,” said Bednar.
Rebecca Tippett is the director of Carolina Demography at UNC, who compiled the study on teleworking. Tippett said she believes working from home will continue to become more popular but it will first take employers recognizing it as a possibility for their business.
“We like to think telework is going to increase quite dramatically but that entails in many places a significant culture shift of how work is done or where work is done,” said Tippett.
Bednar said he sees himself working at home for the rest of his career.
“There are days where I can’t imagine going back into an office everyday for the rest of my life,” said Bednar.
21st Century Mom
People work at home for many different reasons. For Sylvia Steere, it was to take care of her baby daughter Miranda. It gave her the flexibility she needed for life as a new mom.
“I have a heck of a lot more freedom as far as, you know what, I can make my own lunch, I can plan my day the way I want to,” said Steere.
Steele works for Rise Biscuit Company. She was working at their store in Durham when she learned she was pregnant. During her pregnancy Steere wrote a proposal to the owner of the company to create a new position that she would be able to do from home. She now helps new Rise Biscuit stores get their sales system off the ground.
For larger companies with many employees working from home, it can affect a sense of workplace cohesion but that isn’t really a problem for Steere. Rise Biscuits is a relatively small company so she meets regularly with her coworkers, which she said is plenty.
“We do have a once a week meeting when everyone in Rise franchising gets together with the CEO and have a check in meeting and that’s nice,” said Steere, “I hate to sound too anti-social but it’s not really a much of an issue for me; I don’t miss it that much for it to be a serious problem.”
While Rise Biscuits has stores locations, they don’t have a central office space. Most of the meetings, Steere said, take place at her boss’ house or over the internet, so working at home is also cost effective.
Tippet said lower cost can be an incentive for employers to allow employers to work from home.
“Real estate is expensive, maintaining full-time offices for employees who may capable of working from home allows for both flex-work as well as cutting some cost on the employer’s side,” said Tippett.
For Steere, the biggest perk is more time with her daughter. But working at home and being a new mother is a never-ending job.
“To a certain extent, all the time is work time and that’s one of the major differences,” said Steere.
Steere has a lot on her plate no doubt, but the ability to work at home is opening up opportunities for new lifestyles, albeit very busy ones.
Those who work at home seem to enjoy it for different reasons. From the technology industry to the restaurant business, people are doing jobs at home that not long ago would not have been possible. For some the benefit is productivity, for others it’s the ability to use their time how they want.
Now, for many people across the country, working at home is the new normal.
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