Working From Home Not So Hot After All

At Synergy Merchant Services, we speak to Canadian business owners each and every day. Many of these individuals started their companies off with a dream. And while not all who have had this dream realize it, starting your own business is something that can be very rewarding if you put in the work to make it successful.

Some people dream of owning their own businesses so that they can work from home. Why get up early to go into the office every day if you don’t have to, right? Well, that’s not exactly a sentiment that is shared throughout Canada. At least according to QMI Agency’s Julia Skikavich and Sheena Goodyear.

Earlier today, they reported that most people actually prefer to clock in hours at the office rather than work from home. Based on a just-released Statistics Canada report, only 19 per cent of those polled work from home instead of at the office. Even though technology allows for more work to be done outside of the office, this hasn’t deterred employees from showing up at work.

Self-employed individuals, however, tend to work at home more often. According to StatsCan, 60 per cent of business owners who were polled work from home. Their employees, however, are just fine showing up to the office. The QMI report notes that the number of employees working from home in 2008 was 1,748,600. That’s a small jump from 1,425,700 from eight years priors.

Said Statistics Canada: “Many tend to believe that most employees like the idea of working at home. According to some sources, however, numerous employees have found working at home to be an unsatisfactory experience for a variety of reasons.” Among those reasons are “a lack of workplace interaction, feelings of isolation…and difficulties separating job-related activities from home life.”

Interestingly, the study did find that employees who worked from home did not have a better sense of balance between their jobs and their home lives. If fact, in 2008, those who worked at home for more than 10 hours a week reported that they were more dissatisfied with their work-life balance than those who did not work from home.

Apparently, many people feel that when the lines between one’s work life and personal life are not clearly drawn, it causes problems. Perhaps, those who clock hours in the office every day shouldn’t be so quick to wish they were back at home during the work day!