By: Carla T. Santiago
The term “work from home” (WFH) or as others call it “WFH” informally, refers to work that is completed remotely rather than in an office. Though the home is coined in the phrase, one can basically work anywhere as long as the hours needed and the job assigned are completed and satisfied.
Working from home is not new. Some industries, like online retail companies, had been taking advantage of this work concept in the 2000s, however, it wasn’t during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that work-from-home employment started to become commonplace for many businesses and industries. Many companies had to immediately adapt to a work-from-home model in response to the pandemic to keep their staff secure and healthy at the same time keeping their income coming in. As a result, a large number of people who had never worked remotely before were suddenly forced into it.
According to an article on FinMasters, in May 2020, among US citizens (aged 20 to 64 with annual earnings of at least $10,000), 61.5% of paid working days were spent doing so from home. This only equates to the number of companies turning to remote work during the height of the pandemic. This, of course, has gone down to 27.7% as of Feb 2023 as the nation eases out of the global health problem. [1] Despite that, one cannot deny the fact that working from home did change the way many companies run their business. As of January 2023, 12.54% of new US online job listings mentioned remote employment options.[1]