The last few years have seen the trend for remote working really take off – ONS figures show that from September 2022 to January 2023, almost half (44%) of employees worked from home or did hybrid work.
But if you do spend some of your working week at home, are there any implications as far as insurance claims are concerned? And are we now all more at risk from insurers not paying out on home insurance claims?
More of us than ever before are working from home. The ongoing popularity of hybrid working means more employees have been given the option to work away from the office for at least part of the week. And although the number of people working from home dropped by 7% between 2021 and 2022, remote workers still account for 30% of the UK workforce.
But if you had to choose one day to work from home, which would you choose?
Back in 2016, there were more than three million workers whose commute took longer than two hours a day. The pandemic and a switch to hybrid working have changed the routine for many of us, and the latest figures from studies by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) show that average commuting times are on the up.
We all know that getting to and from work can be an inconvenience, but did you know it can actually be bad for your health?
Did you know that if you work from home, you may be able to claim tax breaks on certain bills and expenses?
On the face of it, working from home is the eco-friendly way to do the nine-to-five. There’s no commute, no office energy consumption, and everyone is in control of their own energy efficiency. This also seems to have been proven by the fact that air quality improved massively when we were all locked down in 2020.
But the reality isn’t quite that straightforward. And what about those soaring household energy bills being added to by the extra burden of running work equipment during the day?
Monday (January 16, 2023) is Blue Monday – said to be the most depressing day of the year. The reason it’s so glum? It’s the perfect storm of bad weather, post-Christmas debt levels, failing New Year’s resolutions, low motivation and distance from payday.
Although we’re no longer threatened with lockdowns, soaring energy prices and the cost of living crisis could conspire to make this one of the toughest we’ve faced.
If you work from home, your outlook can be even more gloomy as you’re stuck between the same four walls for the best part of every day, chasing invoices from work that you hoped would be paid before Christmas. If you’re suffering from work from home fatigue, our top tips to battle work from home burnout could come in handy.
Here are some top tips to help you beat the Blue Monday blues.
If your business is planning Christmas drinks and parties while getting ready for the seasonal wind-down, the atmosphere around the office will be getting very Christmassy over the next couple of weeks. But spare a thought for those freelancers who work tirelessly all year but never get to see any of the fun stuff.
OK, they don’t have to contend with the commute or the office politics, and they can work in their pyjamas should the fancy take them, but that doesn’t mean those that work from home should be left out of the festive revelry.
So, this year, why not get your freelancers involved in the festive fun?
We’ve been banging the work from home drum for years now, but even we can see that it’s not for everyone – at least not full time. Since the pandemic kicked off, many workplaces have adopted a hybrid model where possible – that’s when employees work a couple of days at home and spend a couple in the office.
But if you’re having to work at home all the time, there’s a chance that you could be getting tired of being stuck in the same spare room and sick of staying at home all day. If this sounds like you, here’s how to beat work from home burnout.
It’s been a glorious week across most of the UK, and temperatures in London are due to hit the 30s today – far from ideal conditions for spending your day in the office.
And if you work from home, the temptation to down tools can be even greater.
So to make sure you stay at your most productive as the temperature rises, here’s how to keep your cool whether you’re working from home or the office…
Mental health problems are more common than you may think – figures from Mind, the mental health charity show that 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year.
The effects of the coronavirus lockdown might even make this figure higher – being stuck between the same four walls can have a negative impact on mental health at the best of times, feelings that will be exacerbated by the pandemic ad talk of death and illness, not to mention insecurity over jobs and personal and business finance.
May 9 to 15 is Mental Health Awareness Week, a campaign designed to help encourage people to talk about mental health and address and issues head on. This year’s campaign will focus on the problem of loneliness.