DENVER, Colo. — Since March many employees have made the transition from working at the office to working at home due to the pandemic. According to Stanford economist, Nicholas Bloom, “an incredible 42 percent of the U.S. labor force is now working from home full-time.”
At first, it seemed like things would only be like this for a brief period, and then all would go back to normal. We now find ourselves in mid-October, with many people still working at home. It begs the question, is working from home working out?
Matthew Romanchuk, a distribution specialist at Applied Control, made the switch to working at home back in March like most Americans. Romanchuk stated that although he didn’t have high expectations going into this transition, his experience hasn’t been too bad overall.
“I mean there’s certain things that I like, like being able to get stuff done around the house when there’s downtime throughout the day, but at the same time I also kinda miss getting to talk with coworkers, and being able to kinda disassociate from work whenever I leave the office.”
Before the pandemic, a lot of employees had the luxury of being able to leave everything behind them at the office. However, these are different times we are living in. Nowadays, office work can take place in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc.
Noah Griffin, a clinical research coordinator at The University of Colorado Cancer Center, has had a difficult time adjusting to working at home over the long term.
“Working from home enables my self-destructive habits so bad. I pretty much have to be forced to wake up early or else I just won’t do it. I’m also just the type of person that does a lot better when I have structure ingrained into my life, and when I work from home I just have way too much wiggle room cause they can’t really hold me accountable as much.”
Everybody is adjusting to this new system differently, but it seems that there is still a bit of a learning curve months into this transition. It will be interesting to see how this will play out in the months to come.
Matthew Romanchuk, a distribution specialist at Applied Control in Denver, Colorado, sits in front of his house which has become his new office. 
Matthew Romanchuk takes a work-related phone call while making breakfast. The work from home lifestyle promotes multitasking like this. 
Matthew Romanchuk, a distribution specialist in Denver, Colorado enjoys his breakfast while working from home. 
Matthew Romanchuk, a work from home employee, stays organized with a giant to-do list. 
Coffee plays an essential role in the work from home lifestyle. 
Noah Griffin, a work from home employee, taking a call on his roof to get some fresh air. 
Noah Griffin, a clinical research coordinator at The University of Colorado Cancer Center, poses for a candid picture with his pager and employee badge. 
Noah Griffin, a work from home employee, still rarely ever uses his employee badge months after a lot of people made the switch from working at the office to working at home for COVID. 
Noah Griffin, a clinical research coordinator, sits down for work inches away from his bed at home. 
Ian Sans, a marketing operations employee at Remax Capital in Denver, Colorado, does a bulk of his work from his couch in his living room.
