4 Reasons Why You Should Work From Home After The Pandemic

 

The pandemic is imminent. Once it strikes, you'll be stuck at home, with no office to report into and no travel allowed. But that's not necessarily a bad thing! It will be the perfect opportunity to set up your own remote work environment. To help you get started, here's our guide on how to make working from home easier after the pandemic hits and more companies provide this benefit to their employees as a way of keeping productivity going.

1. 4 reasons why you should work from home after the pandemic

1. You’ll have more time to spend with your family and friends. 2. You’ll save money on gas, time and parking. 3. You’ll be a healthier person. 4. You’ll be safer.

It's understandable that if you lose the company or office hours then everyday life will be more chaotic. So try to make it work.

According to Laura Goodhand from Vice, many remote workers can indeed bring home a tidy sum (around $300 per week), but the money’s not all sunshine and rainbows (as they say). According to Goodhand, most remote workers will have to pay towards their health insurance. Meanwhile, those who have a permanent office job who sign on to being a remote worker will have to pay fair-quarter-of-the-annual-base salary towards their health insurance as well, making them an extra $500 per year, on top of their standard health insurance premium.

It’s a similar story for car insurance, which can cost almost as much to insure on a daily basis as a car rental. Though it may seem like a small issue, it may be the deciding factor if you choose to remain home after the pandemic lifts, and the salary you can get from your new job is significantly less than in the office.

Obviously, having a safer workplace is important. But so is making it work for everyone. If you’re planning on opting for remote work then you’ll have plenty of time to focus on sports, books, creative projects, meditation sessions and really, anything you can fit in without the company catching a wind of your activities.

After a year or two anyway, when sanity returns to the system, you’ll be glad that you’re in the position to do something like this. Not many have this option right now.

2. How much will you save by working from home?

Working from home is a great way to save money. By working from home, you can save money on transportation, office supplies, and even working lunches. Additionally, if you work from home, you can save money by not paying for a commute.

Before you even think about exploring remote work options, it pays to take a moment to think about how remote work benefits your productivity. How well are you able to work?

We’ve created a questionnaire that will help you score the optimal working environment — yours, using a combination of factors that will help you feel more fulfilled and boost your bottom line. Take the quiz, then take a few minutes to answer the following questions to find out how well you’ll work post-pandemic.

Before you tackle answering this question, you should read through this website's articles on the most common remote-work personality types — the three types you will be working with most likely, unless you decide you don’t care for no interruptions.

Everyone is expendable in the age of automation. Automation reduces the man-hour value of labor in order to increase productivity — meaning a greater output per hour of labor performed. It goes hand in hand with reducing risk: fewer decisions, fewer mistakes, and less risk taking.

Conversely, during this age of automation, there is increasing risk. You could get sick, the role you perform could be eliminated, or your job could become redundant or obsolete due to technology advancements. To be perfectly frank, there is a very small possibility that you’ll be able to return to a more traditional working schedule. Worryingly, the same research conducted by Melbourne Business School’s Future Work Lab found that 88% of Australian workers aren’t sure of their work status 3 years after the introduction of the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote work simply isn’t a safe option right now.

To start working from home in 2021, all you need to do is:

Of course, each remote-working scenario is different.

3. How will your commute change?

Our remote working guide will make it simple to set up a home office in 2021, no matter what the Covid-19 situation looks like. For more great stories, visit Insider’s homepage.

A mother displays her son’s artwork during a Fast Company remote working event in May. Remote working has become popular among parents with children, many of whom are working from home to protect them during the pandemic.

4. Will you lose your job and insurance benefits?

When you leave your job, you have to decide whether to continue your insurance coverage through COBRA, which will cost you about $800 a month for insurance coverage. If you don't have the money to pay these costs, you could have to go without insurance coverage.

With employer-sponsored health insurance, you may think that you automatically get care until you are seriously injured or die. But, that’s not the case. Depending on which health insurance program covers you, you may need to go into the health insurance plan’s emergency room after you get hurt or sick to see if your COBRA coverage will pay for your medical expenses.

For obvious reasons, COBRA doesn’t pay for problems that can be easily preventable with preventive care. For example, if you get a new, sexually transmitted disease, your normal doctor visit is likely not covered, and you could be stuck in emergency care without insurance coverage. But you could take private or corporate health insurance and pay for it part of your COBRA premium instead. You know you’re getting preventive care, and you’re not hesitant to go to the doctor when being sexually active anyway.

When it comes to COBRA, you still have to pay premiums even if you don’t go to the hospital. According to Covidintelligence, the average premium for Covid-19 care in 2021 is $335.50, and it rises with age (for example, the average premium for a 45-year-old woman is $429.82 for Covid-19 care). You still have to pay the same premiums whether you get sick at work or not — provided you still show up for work or find another way to pay your premiums.

If you work in construction, sure, you may get sick at work. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you will need to go to the hospital to recover. Most construction workers are self-employed contractors, or salaried employees, and union contracts don’t typically cover more than a few days of care.

5. What is an Internet cafe?

An internet cafe is a place where people can access the internet. The term was coined in 1995 when the first internet cafe was opened in New York City. Today, internet cafes are popular all over the world. They are often used by people who do not have access to computers or the internet in their homes.It used to be that using the internet meant typing in someone’s home address and pressing enter. It’s one of the most time-consuming tasks I ever had to perform in my life, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, my productivity dropped by about a third. Instead, I now just open my laptop and surf the web with no delays.

A laptop is another device that has become connected to the internet since it became connected to the internet. Unlike a desktop, a laptop can function without the internet. Laptops will, however, need to remain connected to the internet for two main factors: to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots and to connect to a remote desktop program, otherwise you won’t be able to access your files from anywhere.

Normally, when I’m working out of my home and my internet connection is slow, I use my laptop to access emails and Docs on a tablet. But now, turns out, I can also use the internet cafe to access the internet. Even better, this means I can access nearly 100 PDFs, over 70 webpages, and up to five public Wi-Fi networks from home, all from a freemium laptop that I bought for $30!

Of course, finding a wifi connection can sometimes be difficult, especially before the pandemic. Learning how to access the internet while staying at home and using the wifi you have means you will be able to surf the web, figure out how to remove a hard drive from your computer, and even watch YouTube videos.

Coffee shops and Tim Horton’s already provide you with internet access, so getting online isn’t that hard. It might even be easier this year when many more offices start operating their own wifi networks.