Images: Guillermo Martinez, head of story on The Mitchells vs. the Machines (formerly Connected), shares his working-from-home adventures in a fun YouTube video for Sony Pictures Animation last year.
Due to the pandemic, many people have been translocated from their cozy cubicle at the office to a work-from-home scenario. In some cases, even permanently. While this may be exciting for some, it may be equally as harrowing for others.
For those that are resistant to acclimating your once serene domicile into a highly effective production studio, truth be told, there are some pretty cool things about working from home.
Never Commute Again
Many people travel 30 minutes, an hour, even two hours one-way to get to their office. Much of this time is often spent stuck in traffic, on a subway car sharing a strap with Mr. Sneezy, scurrying for a seat on a bus or arranging other transportation.
Working from home means no longer wasting time travelling and more time sleeping, relaxing and being productive.
Additionally, this puts less strain on the transportation infrastructure, saves you gas or fare money, and keeps you healthier as your stress will be reduced and your daily exposure to bacteria and viruses from hundreds if not thousands of fellow travelers will be eliminated.
Increased Productivity
In addition to the indirect boost in productivity due to healthier team members, working from home has been proven to be more productive overall.
With less people around chattering, less peripheral activity and distractions from a busy office and not needing to deal with Milton Waddams’ blaring radio in the cubicle next door, your home office can be a much calmer, far more Zen working environment which allows you to be more focused — which in turn makes the time spent working more effective.
Schedule Flexibility
Working from home affords the possibility of a more flexible schedule as production managers in this type of arrangement tend to be more interested in results, rather than considering punching in and punching out exactly at the right moment the most important thing in the whole world, ever.
What this means is if you need to blow off some steam, clear your head, run a quick errand or maybe take an early lunch, you’ll have a much greater chance of implementing the aforementioned flexibilities if you work from home — even with the blessings of your supervisor.
Breathe Easy
When working from home, while you will more than likely be required to be logged in for the full duration of the work day to a remote server that periodically checks your activity, there will be no supervisor breathing down your neck in a literal sense.
As long as you log in when required, deliver your work on time and to spec, the roving Eye of Sauron will oft pass you by.
Boost to the Bottom Line
With less people in the office, there is less wear and tear on office equipment, furniture, carpet, water, paper products — the list goes on and on.
Less overhead expenses being hemorrhaged by your company equates to less money wasted and more money kept to produce the same or greater amount of work. The positive benefit of this could manifest in many different ways, but one possibility could be increasing your chances of raises or bonuses.
More Friendly to the Environment
In addition to reducing strain on the transportation infrastructure and reducing polluting emissions from trains, planes and automobiles, people that work remotely tend to use much less paper.
Being able to submit all of your work electronically saves an untold number of trees and reduces the amount of precious resources used to harvest, process, ship, and recycle paper.
Dress for Comfort
Do you avoid suits like the plague? Do you feel uncomfortable in “casual professional” attire and wish you could just wear something comfortable? If you work from home you just may be in luck — each and every day could be Hawaiian Shirt Day if you so desire.
While you may need to temporarily spiffy-up for a Zoom call now and then, working at home means you get to wear anything you like, corporate dress codes be damned.
Rock Out with Your Mouse Out
Do you ever wish you could blare your favorite tunes as loud as you like from your cubicle but are expressly forbidden to do so according to rules of conduct at the office? Working from home means there is no limit to the type of music nor the volume by which said music can be blared (as long as it doesn’t violate local noise ordinances or annoy your next door neighbor).
If you’re not quite yet onboard with the concept of working from home, I suggest you give it a try. You just might like it and even achieve a new level of productivity and happiness.
Martin Grebing is the president of Funnybone Animation Studios. He can be reached via funnyboneanimation.com.
