A few years ago, I decided to ditch working the corporate life, in favour of freelancing. There were a number of factors in that decision. Things like not enjoying my job, wanting to know if I could make it on my own and freedom to pursue passion projects and spend more time with my kids. The cost of that was the reassurance of a steady pay-packet each month. Telsyte’s Australian Digital Workplace Study 2017 suggests more than half of Aussie workers would trade cash for more flexible work arrangements.
The research came to me via nbnCo. Naturally, they have a vested interest in getting us to work from home as it helps them sell their mission of faster internet for all – within the constraints of the multi-technology mantra.
Modern workplaces and employment options have changed significantly. When my parents arrived in Australia in the 1950s, my dad got a job at the PMG, the forebear of today’s Telstra. He worked there until his retirement almost 40 years later. On the other hand, I changed jobs several times in the 20 years I was in the full-time workforce before going freelance.
While one of those job shifts was financially driven, the others were all about satisfaction and life balance – I even took a paycut along the way.
Would you trade part of your salary for workplace flexibility? Is a day working from home worth real money to you?
Comments
4 responses to “Would You Trade Money To Work From Home?”
I’ve done exactly this. I started working from home earlier this year. I could be earning more if I wasn’t but the flexibility is a HUGE benefit. For the most part they don’t care when I do my hours, as long as I do them.
Whether I keep doing it long term remains to be seen but at the moment it’s suiting me just fine.
Hi
I am looking for work from home since I had a child and yet unsucessful. Could you be able to help me with companies that hire for work from home jobs if you know any at all. I had no luck so far they are either scam or have irrelavant criterias.
Thanks that will be of a lot of help
I’d trade a bit of money for the ability to work from home. I drive to a train station and catch a train to work, which is about 8 dollars per work day (Brisbane), not including wear and tear on the car, petrol etc.
Apart from the smallish savings on the commute, I would also be reclaiming 2 hours of my day. While I try to use my commute time as productively as I can, let’s face it – working on public transport isn’t exactly easy.
Toss of a coin for me. I passed up promotions so I didnt need to commute, which was as much about quality of life as anything else. 15 minute walk to work versus 2 hour commute was an easy decision, the fact the cost of commuting was more than the payrise I’d get made it easier. Only issue was the higher wage would work better for me in retirement, but I’ll still be sweet.
As it is, even being 15 minutes walk I can work from home, and I find I dont like it. My entire job is computer based, and I can log into work from home, but the hassles of accessing what I need are just too frustrating, and I feel I get less done at home. My setup at work just feels more comfortable for getting work stuff done.
So for me, I’ll stick with being a mile walk from work. Thats close enough to working from home, the only thing WFH does is let me avoid getting work dressed.
I’d expect to be paid more to work from home. I’m paying for the infrastructure and environment to work there, I’d expect to be compensated for it.
That’s a great point. I had always thought of the reduction in cost to the employer only as a benefit to them to allow work from home.
Hopefully once a culture change occurs and working from home or shared offices is just as acceptable, or even expected, there will be some cost back. I guess tax deductions will suffice for now.
As a reply to the article, I’d personally love the ability to work remotely but only because I have a desire to move close to family and it would be less disruption and risk to maintain the same job. Also once we disconnect employment and residence in some industries I feel housing costs would be better.
Yes, but. It costs money to commute and business attire is much more expensive than the pyjamas I would work in. But I would need to spend a bit on making the office at home more secluded from what else is going on. Probably would work home for less but not a lot less.
Hi
Can anybody point me in the right direction for finding work from home jobs which are legit. I stumbled on this site by chance and read the article and it speaks my heart out.
Any information would ne highly appreciated.
cheers