This Is the Best Day of the Week to Work Remotely
What’s the best day to work from home? “Every day,” some of us would like to answer. Or if that’s an impossibility, what about extending our weekend with a Friday or Monday option to work from home, we would like to tell our skeptical superiors.
But if you want to successfully negotiate for a remote day of work, listen to Shari Buck, an executive who recently made the case for Wednesday, citing how her company has instituted this midweek remote work policy. Writing for Quartz, Shari Buck, the co-founder and chief product officer at Doximity, said that Wednesday gives employees the flexibility of staying at home along with the accountability of knowing that the work week is not yet done.
Wanna WFH? Choose Wednesdays
“It breaks up the week nicely: two days in the office, one day working remote, and then two more days back in the office,” Buck writes. “This leads to a consistent workflow that balances a number of planning meetings early in the week, a productive Wednesday working from home, and two equally productive and collaborative days on the tail end of the week.”
In other words, picking Wednesday is a win-win for employers and employees. It gives you the reward of a work-from-home day without office distractions while still communicating to your boss that you’re engaged with your job.
“WFH Wednesdays have boosted work-life balance for all of our employees. At the same time, they have kept our business productive and on a path of positive growth for nearly a decade,” Buck wrote.
She is not alone in advocating for the use of Wednesdays. One employee successfully negotiated for a Wednesday work-from-home day in her employment contract to lessen the pain of a long commute.
“I have a one-hour commute (45 miles) each way, which is why I negotiated for a work-at-home day when I was hired,” Sharon Glazer, an academic medical center employee, said. “Wednesdays are good because I like to break up the week. Although I am working, my day is so much more relaxed, not to mention two hours shorter, that it’s like a mini-weekend.”
A one-day relief from commuting may not seem like much, but every minute counts when it comes to your job satisfaction. One study found that a 20-minute increase in a worker’s round-trip commute time felt like a 19% pay cut to employees. Give yourself a midweek pick-me-up and ask for that work-from-home Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Ladders.
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