It’s not about work/life balance

Working from home can be a strategic advantage

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to The New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work where location and ours are more
flexible than in the past. This week, I'm sharing a
few tips from my new book that's also called The
New Corner Office. It's about how the most successful people

(00:25):
work from home productively and ambitiously. Today's tip is to
recognize that working from home isn't about work life balance.
While achieving a better work life balance is awesome, wise
people realize that working from home occasionally can actually be
a strategic advantage as you build your career. It's a

(00:45):
great tool to have in the toolbox as you build
your empire. There are a few ways this strategic advantage
plays out when you work from home. First, you might
be able to work longer hours, commute burn monstrous amounts
of time even though they accomplish very little. Skip the
commute a few times per week, and there's more time

(01:08):
available to work and to do other things. Second, surveys
find that most people consider themselves more productive at home. Partly,
this is because people can work how they work best.
If you like a certain temperature, a certain playlist a
certain scented candle go for it. Also, offices are distracting places,

(01:30):
even though you could theoretically watch Netflix at home, that
has nothing on the reality of Joe's stopping by to
talk to you yet again about stuff that just doesn't
matter or matters but wasn't what you were working on. Now,
when you work from home two days a week, you
can be more relaxed about those conversations with Joe at
the office because you know you have time to do

(01:51):
your work. Third, there's some evidence that people who work
from home exercise a bit more during the week. Skipping
a commune also raises the chances of getting more sleep.
Exercise and sleep don't take time, they make time. The
pace of modern business is swift. There's something to be

(02:13):
said for stewarding your energy properly. Fourth, when lots of
people in an organization can seamlessly work from home because
they're used to it, organizations can be more nimble, whether
road closures pandemics, business keeps going. That's definitely a strategic

(02:34):
advantage compared with organizations that are more precious about where
people work. And Finally, when you work from home, you
escape the group norms about who you're supposed to spend
time with. When you work in an office, you eat
lunch with your colleagues. That's great, But when you work
from home, you can more easily stop work an hour

(02:54):
before daycare pickup to meet someone who doesn't work in
your organization. This can make your network far more expansive
and robust if you're smart about it. So, yes, work
life balance is great, but it's a mistake to view
remote work as a perk for people who want to
take their foot off the gas for a bit approached, Well,

(03:15):
it's a good way to put your foot on the
gas a bit more a few days in the office
that a few days working from home can really be
the best of both worlds for people who want to
stay sane and grow their empires too. In the meantime,
this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's the succeeding
in the New Corner Office. The New Corner Office is

(03:41):
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