The pandemic is commonly viewed as a sea change in the prevalence of remote work in the United States.
Though it is estimated that approximately 11 million people (7.3 percent of the U.S. labor force) worked from home before the pandemic, for many workers whose jobs could be done remotely, the pandemic provided them with their first opportunity to work from home.
And they LOVED IT!
- A 2022 Pew Research Center survey of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work in America found that more than half of workers surveyed said that, when the outbreak was over, given the choice, “they’d like to work from home all or most of the time.”
- The 2022 McKinsey & Company “American Opportunity Survey” reported that, if offered the opportunity to work from home some or all of the time, 87 percent of the 25,000 Americans polled would take it.
- The U.S. political website The Hill announced “a dramatic rise in the share of Americans who prefer to work at home at least part of the time.” According to a 2022 Gallup poll, The Hill wrote, it was a “near-unanimous 94 percent” up from 40 percent in 2019.
- In October 2023, USA Today observed that American workers were willing to “give up about 8% in annual pay for a job that is partly or fully remote” according to researchers.
And while a 2024 article in Fortune proclaimed that Americans were now expressing a preference for hybrid work over fully remote work, the article concluded that this was mainly because most companies planned to have employees “return to the office in some capacity by the end of 2024” and that workers, realizing they “just don’t really have a choice in the matter,” had simply “stopped resisting the change.”
Why do Americans overwhelmingly love to work from home?
Because, as the Pew Research Center reports, the switch to remote work changed their lives:
[M]ost (64%) of those who are now working from home at least some of the time but rarely or never did before the pandemic say it’s easier now for them to balance work with their personal life.
Working from home helped Americans create work-life balance.
Maintaining work-life balance while working from home.
What is work-life balance?
Does working from home help with work-life balance?
• Working from home doesn't decrease the hours your work.
• Working from home doesn't lessen domestic responsibilities.
Maintaining work-life balance while working from home.
• Establishing boundaries.
• Establishing expectations.
• What you give up affects your work-life balance too.
What is work-life balance?
So, Americans believe that working from home has made it “easier” for them to achieve and maintain a good work-life balance.
But what is work-life balance?
Despite its widespread use in popular discourse, there is no universally agreed upon definition.
The concept of “work-life balance” is generally used to describe an ideal equilibrium between work life and personal life. This equilibrium is sometimes conceived of as a mutually beneficial, enriching expansion of roles. More often it is thought of as a conflict – a competition between professional and personal spheres for the finite resources of a single human being.
Work-life balance is highly individual. One person’s work-life balance will not look the same as another’s. For each person their balance is composed of the unique details of their work life and personal life.
And, of course, there is no perfect work-life balance. (Some scholars – deeming the ideal too elusive and the concept too flawed – avoid using the term “work-life balance” altogether.)
Details and limitations aside, a good work-life balance may be thought of as an equilibrium that allows you to work productively while still having ample time and energy for family, friends, leisure activities, and self-care. A good work-life balance should enable you to meet the commitments of both your professional and your personal life with minimal stress.
We all know what it’s like to feel unhappy and overburdened.
If we are part of the workforce, we will likely point to friction between our work life and our personal life as a major source of those feelings. Our work-life is out of balance.
Does working from home help with work-life balance?
Does working from home make achieving and maintaining a work-life balance easier?
Not necessarily.
And this shows up in two big ways.
Working from home doesn’t decrease the hours your work.
Working from home is often associated with working longer hours.
- Research published in 2023 in BMC Public Health found that working from home was associated “with greater volume and intensity of work and thus a longer and heavier workday compared to conventional work.”
- “Time Savings When Working from Home,” a 2023 brief by researchers from the University of Chicago, reported that in 2021 and 2022 working from home saved workers about two hours per week in time commuting. BUT workers gave 40 percent of the time they saved back to work, the authors found.
The Hill article cited above reports similar findings.
Describing a study of 60,000 Microsoft employees, the article noted that remote work increased weekly work hours by 10 percent for those employees and added a night-time “peak” to conventional morning and afternoon peaks in work. Working from home had allowed employees to flexibly tend to family issues; it had allowed them to work after the kids were put to bed. But it hadn’t contributed to their working less. On top of that, flexibility had blurred “the old work-home divide,” The Hill wrote. And this could “throw an employee’s work-life balance out of whack.”
The precise reason that workers work more when working from home – even giving back time they save – remains unclear.
The Hill writes, “Some workplace experts theorize remote workers have an incentive to work harder: They don’t want to lose the privilege of working at home.” Other research has pointed to anxiety about missing out on advancement opportunities. Remote workers feel compelled to work harder to prove their value to employers who don’t see their work in-person.
Whatever the motivation, working from home clearly does not automatically lead to less work. Indeed, it seems the opposite is often the case.
Working from home doesn’t lessen domestic responsibilities.
Working from home doesn’t decrease work hours. Likewise, while it may facilitate juggling professional and personal responsibilities, working from home doesn’t decrease the burden of caregiving duties and domestic chores.
““Remote work is central to allowing people with caregiving responsibilities the flexibility and control over their schedules that they need to provide that care,’” notes assistant professor of sociology Caitlyn Collins in a 2021 Vox article titled, “For women, remote work is a blessing and a curse.”
And, yes, as the title of the Vox article suggests, while this may be true for any caregiver, regardless of gender, among heterosexual couples where both partners do “paid work” women are more likely to assume a disproportionate share of caregiving duties and domestic chores once they finish their “paid labor.”
This phenomenon, termed the “second shift” by sociologists, “existed before the pandemic” the Vox article observes. “Even before the pandemic, women were clamoring for remote work” because remote work gave women the ability to handle childcare and do other domestic work that they were doing anyway.
“During the pandemic,” mothers in dual-career couples were twice as likely as fathers “to do an extra five hours of domestic chores per day,” the Vox article continues.
And after the pandemic, the article concludes, the second shift will continue to exist. “Remote work is an acquiescence to what is a reality for many women: doing more.”
A 2023 post from “DelaneyM” on Hacker News (a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship) illustrates this perfectly:
Though I'm no longer working, being able to shift to remote a few years ago let me move home and care for my parents + kids at the same time. It wasn't about working less, it's about being available in case of emergency and not having to do a commute. My hours worked didn't change at all - if anything, they increased, because I didn't have to rush home from the office as a precaution.
So long as the burden of domestic work is not shared equitably by household members, working from home will not improve work-life balance. It will just make “an untenable situation more possible.”
Maintaining work-life balance while working from home.
Working from home does make certain things easier.
Top Benefits of Working from Home
• Improves schedule flexibility
• Eliminates commute
• Saves money
But, as we see, it does not automatically guarantee work-life balance.
Maintaining work-life balance while working from home requires intentionally establishing appropriate boundaries and expectations.
Establishing boundaries.
The geographic separation between home and office provides a concrete physical divide between personal life and work life. When that vanishes, boundaries of a different kind must take its place.
Design a purposeful workspace. To maintain work-life balance while working from home, it’s essential to carve out a space that’s dedicated solely to your job. Select a spot that’s free from high-traffic family activities. It doesn’t need to be a large area – even a small desk in the corner of a room can suffice so long as the area is designated for work and work alone.
Minimize distractions. This can be one of the biggest challenges when working from home. It could be as simple as facing away from high-traffic areas or using noise-cancelling headphones. If you find yourself distracted by chores or other non-work tasks, set firm rules (for yourself and others) about what can and cannot be done during work hours.
Structure your day. Without the structure of the office you need to create a routine. There’s always more work to be done and, since you are already at home you may be more tempted to do it. But don’t. Start and stop your workday at the same time every day – turn off your computer and close the door to your office. Develop your time-management and project-management skills so you have an accurate idea of what you are able to accomplish during your workday. Remember to take breaks.
Establishing and maintaining work space and work time boundaries will help you cultivate a healthier work-life balance.
Establishing expectations.
Boundaries aren’t just physical. Setting expectations helps you establish the mental and emotional boundaries that are equally important to maintaining work-life balance while working from home.
Be clear about your availability. When you work from home people from both your personal and professional life may tend to view you as always available. You will want to make clear to both that you are not. Just because your office is now collocated with your residence doesn’t mean that you are now available for work on nights and weekends. Just because you are only a couple rooms away doesn’t mean your work won’t suffer if you are constantly asked to drop things at a moment’s notice to run an errand or to watch a funny cat video.
Be clear about remote work expectations. If you are working remotely, you need to establish and maintain a clear understanding of what is expected of you by your employer. Discuss expectations with your supervisor upfront and regularly. Ongoing, intentional communication will help you ensure that you are not assuming additional responsibilities unrelated to your job. This communication should also mitigate anxiety about being passed over for advancement because you are not present in-person to receive recognition for your work.
What you give up affects your work-life balance too.
With well thought through boundaries and clear expectations, working from home can be an important step toward achieving work-life balance.
But it’s wise to remember that when you work from home you give certain things up. And what you give-up can also affect your work-life balance.
Losing your commute (hurrah!) means you have not only lost a natural buffer between your work-life and personal-life. You have lost the convenience of a well-resourced office space (boo!) as well. Also, without co-workers and a place of work, remote workers can feel socially isolated and psychologically disconnected from their employer.
Top Benefits of Working from the Office
• Affords a well-resourced, dedicated workspace
• Improves access to advancement opportunities
• Provides collegial environment and promotes connection to co-workers
The benefits of working from home are many. But the things you give up can affect your work-life balance as much as the things you gain. Remember that work-life balance when working from home isn’t just about corralling your work. It’s also about making sure your work life itself remains productive and fulfilling.
Final Thoughts
When writing this piece, I kept thinking of Betty Friedan and Rosie the Riveter. (Sorry guys, but I am a woman working from home.)
For the feminist author and the World War II cultural icon, getting out of the house and heading off to work seemed so central to a fulfilling life. What would they think of working from home?
Not that I intend this piece to be only for women. It’s just that the author and the icon remind me that even though all of us Americans currently seem to love the idea of working from home (myself included) it was not that long ago that some Americans were just as passionate about escaping the domestic sphere.
Working from home can be liberating. But it can also be oppressive, even today, as the Vox article so clearly reminds us.
Achieving and maintaining work-life balance while working from home involves more than simply being out of the office. It involves intentionally setting professional and personal boundaries and expectations. Otherwise working from home may fall short of its transformative potential, amounting to little more than an opportunity to answer emails while caring for kids and getting an extra load of laundry done.
Has working from home helped you achieve a better work-life balance? If so or if not, why? PLEASE SHARE your thoughts in the comments below.