I must have seen about a million “suck it up lol why can't you just go back to the office, what does it matter?!” type comments recently – likely because of the larger and large amount of extremely ill-advised public officials who seem to have forgotten that there's still a pandemic raging, and that people are still rightfully scared of the outside world.
Here in NY, we have a moron for a mayor who insists that not only does he want to REMOVE the mask mandate, he also wants to stop checking vaccination status. Because clearly, when you're taking pills to feel better, the second you start to get better is when you stop taking them. /s
So to all of these people, I want to point out the obvious stuff you can't seem to grasp:
Commute. Working from home saves people time – time that their jobs already do not pay them for. The average commute time is one hour – so you're working 2 hours unpaid every single day before you even clock in. And that's not even counting the cost of commuting – gas, tolls, and/or fares.
Other people. Working from home means you're not risking bringing Covid back to your loved ones, especially those that can't be vaccinated. You're also not bringing home the flu or any other diseases.
Childcare / Pet care. Working from home means you're not hiring childcare or a petsitter to take care of your family while you're at work. And you can potentially be in a scenario where you're actually paying money to keep a job, because the babysitter is working 2 extra hours on average thanks to the commute times.
Food. Working from home means you're not spending money on overpriced low quality meals, or using unpaid personal time to pack a lunch to eat at the office.
Other responsibilities. Working from home means you can do laundry, clean your house, run to the store, or perform other errands during lunch.
Time with family. Working from home means you actually SEE your family during the day, and even those five minutes between meetings is way more than when you're working from the office.