[Real Beat] Saved 'Commute' Time with Remote Work... Half Still Work During It [Office Shift]⑨

The Top Reason for Preferring Remote Work, but There Are Advantages Too
40% of Extra Time Gained from Remote Work Is Spent on 'Work'

Editor's Note[Jjinbit] is a shortened form of 'Jung Hyunjin's Business Trend' and 'Real Business Trend,' a segment that showcases trends in changes in work. The segment within Jjinbit called 'Office Shift' carefully examines changes in offices triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to establish a foundation to explore answers to work styles through experiments we have experienced together. It will be delivered to you every Saturday and Sunday morning. After 40 installments, it will also be available as a book.

"Honestly, shouldn't they just let us work from home?"

Right after the Lunar New Year holiday ended on January 25, when a record-breaking cold wave with temperatures plunging below minus 20 degrees hit the Seoul metropolitan area, office workers mentioned the necessity of working from home on internet communities. They expressed dissatisfaction, questioning whether it was right to brave the severe cold to go to the office when COVID-19 had already proven that working from home was possible. Would such complaints have easily surfaced before COVID-19? They were stressed by the cold they had to face while commuting between home and office.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

While working from home was a wish for Korean office workers, the situation in the United States was somewhat different.

Social networking service LinkedIn announced that in a survey conducted from January 14 to 27 this year with about 247,000 U.S. office workers, the proportion of working from home increased from 25% in October last year to 28% in January this year. The response "mainly go to the office" decreased from 58% to 50%. Over the past year, the trend had been a decrease in working from home and an increase in returning to the workplace, but this atmosphere reversed. A similar pattern was observed in the previous winter as well.

LinkedIn analyzed that the seasonal factor of "harsh winter weather" might have influenced work styles.

◆ Number One Reason for Wanting to Work from Home: 'Commute Issues'

For office workers, commuting is a daily journey and a battle. From waking up in the morning to stepping out the door and heading to the office, various things happen. They walk, run, sit, and stand on the way to the office. They use various means of transportation including private cars, buses, subways, trains, and even airplanes.

The average commute time for office workers in the Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi metropolitan area is 53 minutes. Assuming the same time for the return trip, metropolitan office workers spend an average of 1 hour and 46 minutes on the road daily.

Of course, commuting is not a problem unique to Korea. According to a report submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), as of 2021-2022, Asian countries such as China (1 hour 42 minutes), Japan (1 hour 40 minutes), and India (1 hour 39 minutes) had relatively longer commute times compared to other regions.

U.S. office workers spend an average of one hour daily commuting. The proportion of those who spend more than one hour commuting was about 7.7%, and in urban areas like New York, the proportion of workers commuting over an hour increased to over 10%. In a 2021 U.S. survey, 4 out of 10 office workers said they would rather clean the bathroom at home than commute to a store or office.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Commute issues are cited as the primary reason office workers want to work from home.

In a survey conducted by the employment platform Saramin in June last year targeting 4,534 adult men and women, 81.3% of respondents said they preferred working from home because it saved commuting time. The reason for including 'work from home availability' as a criterion for choosing a company was most frequently 'to be free from commuting stress,' at 61.1%. This reflects office workers' desire to avoid the so-called 'Hell Subway (Jiokcheol),' where passenger numbers explode during commuting hours.

For this reason, it seems natural that the longer the commute, the more office workers want to work from home. According to data recently released by the European Central Bank (ECB), workers who commute more than one hour one way wanted to work from home ten days a month. This was four days more than workers whose commute took less than 15 minutes. The ECB evaluated that "excluding job characteristics, commute time was the most important factor for individual workers in wanting to work from home."

◆ How Did They Spend the Extra Time Gained from Working from Home?

With the spread of working from home due to COVID-19, office workers were freed from the commuting battle. As a result, they gained over an hour of free time daily. How did they spend this time?

According to the 'Time Savings from Working from Home' report published by NBER in January, among 19,000 office workers from 27 countries including Korea and the G7 during 2021-2022, the average time saved daily by working from home was 72 minutes. Of this, the largest portion, 29 minutes (40%), was spent working. Although freed from commuting, nearly half of the saved time was devoted to work. However, leisure time such as reading or exercising accounted for 24 minutes (34%), and caregiving time including childcare was 8 minutes (11%).

Looking at Korea separately, the average commuting time saved by working from home was 86 minutes daily, more than 10 minutes longer than the average of all 27 countries. This means Korean workers have longer commutes. Korean office workers spent 34.4 minutes (40%) of their saved leisure time working, 33.5 minutes (39%) on leisure, and 5.2 minutes (6%) on caregiving. Compared to the average of 27 countries, Korean workers used more of their reduced commuting time for work and leisure but significantly less for caregiving.

The countries that devoted the most extra time gained from working from home to work were Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, mainly Asian countries. All used 53% of their free time for work. In Singapore, although 94 minutes of commuting time was saved, more than half, 49.8 minutes, was spent working. Countries that spent more free time on leisure than work were mainly European countries. However, Japan was an exception among Asian countries, spending 32% of its 100 minutes of free time on work and 39% on leisure.

Some studies also show that working from home has increased sleep time by removing commuting burdens. Since turning on a laptop at home counts as starting work, people can sleep a little longer in bed. According to data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in October last year, U.S. office workers' sleep time increased by about one hour. Leisure time also increased, with younger age groups reporting more social gatherings and exercise, while older age groups reported more childcare and housework.

◆ Why Employees Are More Sensitive to Commute Issues than Companies: 'Productivity'

When working from home, employees gain free time like this. Even if half of it is devoted to work, the other half can be used freely. Above all, for salaried workers, commuting itself is a kind of investment cost involving their time and effort, so saving it is valuable. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, office attendance was taken for granted, so employees rarely felt the direct cost of commuting.

However, the situation changed after the pandemic. Commute issues became one of the major points of disagreement between companies and employees when judging the productivity of working from home. Contrary to employees' feelings, companies do not consider commuting time as part of work because actual work and results are not produced during commuting. This difference in perspective between management and employees is considered a factor hindering return to the office.

In this context, a claim worth examining was made. Nicholas Bloom, professor at Stanford University; Jose Maria Barrero, professor at Instituto Tecnol?gico Aut?nomo de M?xico (ITAM); and Steven Davis, professor at the University of Chicago, analyzed in an article published in Harvard Business Review (HBR) on January 5 that there is a fundamental difference in perspective between managers and employees regarding whether to include commuting time when judging productivity.

The researchers presented a hypothetical example of an employee working 9 hours a day with 1 hour commuting before COVID-19, earning a salary of $1,000 (about 1.3 million KRW). In this example, the employee considers their hourly wage to be $100, including commuting time. Generally, hourly wages are evaluated excluding commuting time, but from the employee's perspective, they calculate considering their time, cost, and energy. Under the same conditions, the manager excludes commuting time and evaluates the employee's productivity as $111 per hour.

When working from home, the total work-related time including working hours and commuting time is calculated as 9 hours by both employee and manager. The employee's time reduces from 10 hours to 9 hours by removing commuting time, raising their perceived hourly wage to $111. The manager, who did not include commuting time before, sees no change in hourly wage.

Adding one assumption: if the employee's daily salary is reduced from $1,000 to $950 due to working from home, the hourly wage is calculated as $106 for 9 hours of work without commuting. The employee perceives productivity as increased compared to the previous $100 hourly wage, but the manager evaluates productivity as decreased from $111 to $106.

The researchers explained, "This is a hypothetical case and many workers do not calculate this way in reality," but "commuting inclusion explains the difference in productivity perspectives between the two sides."

◆ "Commute Has Advantages Too... It Separates Work and Daily Life"

Then, is commuting only a source of pain? A recent paper suggested that the commuting process itself provides psychological recovery time by creating a boundary that separates work space from daily life. This is understandable considering that working from home, which spread during the COVID-19 era, was criticized for blurring the boundary between work and daily life, leading to worker burnout.

Professor Krispy McAlpine of Rutgers University and others evaluated in a paper published in October last year that commuting itself is a 'liminal space,' a boundary point linked to temporal and spatial changes. Since it is a space and time free from both office and home, it allows psychological closure of work or detachment from household chores, enabling mental recovery.

Professor McAlpine suggested that to achieve this, it is better to relax by listening to podcasts or favorite music during the commute rather than worrying about work. Also, using carpooling to talk with others during commuting or making phone calls with someone are good ways to create psychological separation.

In an interview with NPR, Professor McAlpine said that after publishing the paper, she received angry reactions from office workers asking if she was paid by companies. She emphasized, "I am not saying commuting is good. I mean that commuting itself can have positive aspects, and when you have to commute, think about it in a way that benefits you."