Have you considered asking your boss to work from home; however, you didn't know how to communicate the advantages for the company if you worked from home?
Certainly, many employees must commute each day. If I was still working as a chemist, I would have to be at the lab every day in order to test our daily samples. I could not analyze samples from home. Yet, many employees could work from home.
Assuming that a work-at-home employee should commute to work at least once a week just to check in, get updates and prepare for the upcoming week, the employee might have the option to work from home 4 days a week.
According to the 2010 census, the average commute time in Los Angeles County was 29.5 minutes, nearly 1 hour per day on the road. For the average commuter, that equates to 4 hours a week or 200 hours per year (assuming a 2 week vacation time, i.e. 4 hours per week times 50 weeks in a year). Dividing 200 hours by 8 hours per day would equate to 25 workdays. Assuming 5 days per work week, the employee's work time would equate to 5 work weeks. That's more than one work month. Of course, if you are one of the more than 500,000 who travels more than an hour each way, then that's more than 2 work months. I know a few people who travel 1 1/2 to 2 hours--each way. For them, that would equate to one quarter of the year.
Assume your commute time is only 30 minutes each way. What if you told your boss that you would work an extra half hour per day just to be able to work from home, i.e. you would split the extra 5 work weeks gained from not commuting? For the year, your boss would get an extra 2 1/2 weeks of work from you.
Additionally, productivity, other than the extra 2 1/2 work weeks, would also increase. You would not have the stress of being alert during the entire commute to your work 4 times a day. If you have children, you would not have the stress of being concerned about what's happening to them during your work hours. You would have the flexibility to be at home when your children arrived from school--rather than wondering if they made it home or to an afterschool program. At the end of the workday, even if you put in 8 1/2 hours rather than the normal 8 hours, you would be less tense and your personal life would be more amendable; which in turn, would increase your productivity.
Would you also consider a reduction in pay to work at home? According to Metro, if you drive 30 miles round trip 4 days a week, the total estimated commute cost is $285.46 per month. This estimate includes gas, maintenance, insurance, license, depreciation, finance costs). Perhaps you might ask your boss to reduce your salary by $125 per month resulting in a savings of $1,500 per year for your employer. If your employer allowed 10 employees to work from their homes, 4 days a week, that would be $15,000 additional profit for the company.
Thus, when you ask your boss to work from home, let him/her know that he/she will receive at least 2 1/2 more work weeks from you per year, you will be more productive because you will be less stressed while commuting, etc., and you would offer to take a reduction in pay. It will be a win-win situation.
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