A recent study by Swiss economists came to the demotivating conclusion that long commutes destroy happiness. According to the research published in The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, people with longer commuting times report lower subjective well-being, even when regarding a number of alternative explanations. Conventional wisdom among economists was that long commutes are based on the economic principle of rational choices, with commuting being a tradeoff one was prepared to put up with, even if tedious or over long-distances, in order to hold a job or take advantage of more-affordable housing choices that benefitted general wellbeing. But the Swiss economists’ hypothesis has been further reinforced by subsequent research which shows that long commutes also can have significant effects on people’s physical health. According to a study from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R), a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, a person’s likelihood of becoming obese increases by 6 percent for every hour spent commuting, which also was connected to an increased risk of high blood pressure. Long commute times were linked to factors such as insufficient physical activity and poor sleep habits. In other words, it appears millions of workers across the country are reaping the mental and physical health benefits of no longer having to commute. More sleep, for one, appears to be a big health benefit. A survey of more than 1,000 employees by mental health and wellness performance company 1AND1 Life found that 46 percent of respondents say they use the extra time of not having to travel to sleep in a bit longer, while 20 percent spend it making a healthy breakfast before work. Nearly one in 10 enjoyed the added benefit of being able to have a proper workout in the morning. The most highly cited benefit of not commuting was being able to spend more time with family (such as having breakfast together), named by 58 percent of respondents. Study: WFH Improves Worker Welfare Research Suggest Most Companies Feel Ill Equipped for Remote Work Instacart, Office Depot Partner on Same-Day Delivery Insightful, a workforce analytics and productivity software provider, released a survey revealing that despite increased acceptance and adoption of remote work, many company leaders still don’t feel fully equipped to operate optimally in this environment. What’s the biggest challenge with remote and hybrid work? Difficulties with collaboration and communications 21% Being in a different time zone than the rest of the team 18% Distractions at home 17% Hard to track employee productivity 15% Staying motivated 14% Not being able to unplug 13% Other 0% Source: Insightful, 2022 Among a wide-ranging series of findings, almost two-thirds of respondents stated they don’t have the tools they need to effectively manage and ensure the productivity of team members working remotely. Nearly four in 10 company leaders believe employees are less productive in a remote or hybrid environment. Not surprisingly, the top challenge with remote or hybrid was “difficulties with collaboration and communication,” cited by 21 percent of respondents. Despite the challenges expressed, 65 percent of company leaders stated that remote and hybrid work will become a permanent fixture in their organization. Online grocery platform Instacart and Office Depot now offer same-day delivery from more than 1,000 Office Depot and OfficeMax stores across the U.S. as Instacart continues to broaden the selection of household goods on its marketplace. Now, via Instacart, more than 70 million U.S. households can shop from a wide selection of office and school supplies from Office Depot including printer and ink supplies, computers and electronics, notebooks, desk organizers and more, to be delivered from the store to their doors in as fast as one hour. To begin shopping from Instacart for same-day delivery of Office Depot products, customers can visit www.instacart.com/ office-depot or select the Office Depot storefront on the Instacart mobile app. INTELLIGENCE 8 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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