Remote working used to be a benefit given to high-ranking officials in a business. CEOs, Regional Team Leaders, or anything who was considered essential to the company.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, industries across the world started questioning the “perk”. They didn’t want to offer their subordinates a remote working opportunity believing their employees would steal the equipment or refuse to work when no one was watching them.
This mentality caused an uproar as thousands were forced into dangerous situations all because their company didn’t trust them.
Soon the business world had no choice and allowed their employees to work from home. Since then, very few people want to go back into the office.
Survey Data
Looking specifically at the US Engineer workforce, we have studied the survey created by pdh-pro.com. In this survey, the researchers compared data from before the pandemic and after the pandemic.
Before the global crisis, only 20% of engineers worked from home. Now in 2023, that figure has risen to 70%.
The survey also dived into people’s thoughts on the change and how they see it affecting their future.
85% of the people surveyed believe that working from will become part of their job for the foreseeable future. That could mean full-time or part-time.
67% of the workers believed they were more productive when working at home, 7% believed they were less productive and 26% saw no change.
74% of workers believe their work-life balance had improved, while 9% believe it worsened. 17% didn’t see a change.
62% of workers believed their mental health had improved, while 11% believed it worsened. 27% didn’t experience a change.
The only negative figure to come from this survey was based on colleague dynamics. 47% of the engineers believed their relationships with colleagues improved while working at home.
This suggests that 53% believe it worsened, however, this data hasn’t been shared. We are unaware of how many people saw no change, and how many people experienced a negative change.
Despite this lacking data, we can see that the majority of engineers enjoyed working from home and it helped them create a better work-life balance and a better mental health balance too.
Neil Harper, the owner of pdh-pro.com, said, “The pandemic has forced many industries to rethink the way they work, and the engineering industry is no exception. Our survey shows that engineers have adapted to remote work and believe it will be part of their job in the long term. This presents opportunities for employers to hire talent from a wider pool of candidates and for employees to have a better work-life balance.”
Why Is Remote Work Popular
Working from home creates a healthy work-life balance and a healthy mental health experience as long as we know how to separate ourselves from our workplace.
No Commute
If your office is downstairs, then you don’t need to spend hours in the car or on the train trying to get to your destination. Instead, you can wake up at a reasonable time, and still get to your desk when you need to be.
Start When You Want
Because you don’t need to be in the office, you don’t need to arrive when the office security guards allow it. This means many remote workforce managers allow their employees to start and finish their day whenever it makes sense to them.
Of course, these employees still need to meet their deadlines and be available for video calls, but if they don’t need to speak to anyone that day then they can start or finish at a time that suits them.
For parents, this means they don’t need to hire babysitters to look after their children as they work late.
For dog owners, this means they can walk their pets when the sun is out and not hire a dog sitter or be forced to stroll in the rain.
With no office schedules to adhere to, you can move your work day around your personal life, not the other way around.
You Don’t Need To Book Days Off To Receive A Parcel
Life admin can get in the way of your working day. Before the perks of remote working became available to everyone, you had to book days off to go to the dentist, pick up a parcel or complete basic admin jobs.
When everyone was working 9-5, that meant no one had time to complete these basic tasks.
Remote working means you can complete these jobs without losing working days!
Final Thoughts
It looks like remote working is here to stay!
