One COVID-19 Positive? More Flexibility at Work

We have certainly been hard-pressed to find a lot of silver linings during the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020.

It has been devastating from both a health and economic perspective and doesn’t show signs of going away anytime soon.

Some ‘glass half full’ folks out there will no doubt point to the additional time spent with family during a protracted period of ‘sheltering in place’ as a good thing, but even then, not everyone believes that’s been all that great.

But one unintended consequence of the pandemic may be paying dividends for quite some time.

Having to do a majority of work from home has not only changed the attitudes of a lot of American employees, but it’s also having a huge impact on the cultures of many businesses in the country.

More and more employers who were once adamant against having their employees work remotely now not only understand that’s it’s possible but have also found there may be some tremendous benefits to this non-traditional approach.

A lot of businesses are actually saving money by not having to maintain buildings full of people and by relying on technology to now replace the costs of business travel.

That’s music to the ears of workers everywhere.

A recent survey by the career website Flexjobs found that an astounding 95 percent of people say having more flexible jobs would make them happier.

Broken down even further, 89 percent thought a less rigid work schedule would help them take better care of themselves, 86 percent pointed to lower stress levels, while two-thirds said it would help them exercise more.

Other respondents even talked about more work freedom helping them to be better spouses and some even said it would improve their sex lives!

There’s even research to back up some of those claims of mutual benefit to employees and employers.

A Stanford University study showed a 13 percent improvement in performance from people working at home and a whopping 50 percent drop in resignations.

It sounds like it could be one of the few lasting positives from one of the darkest periods in recent memory.