Work Life Balance Improving With Remote Working

Life has been very different for people across Ireland over the last few months. Lockdown has kept us apart from our friends and families, it has forced us to put our travel plans on hold, and it has heavily impacted our social lives. One of the biggest changes that many Irish people have experienced during the coronavirus pandemic, however, is having to work remotely (although there are still sectors such as retail, healthcare and transport where people have not been able to work from home).

It has not always been easy to make this transition from an office to the kitchen table or spare bedroom. However, remote work has also provided many positives to people across Ireland. In particular, very few people are now having to travel to work. With the average commute now being just a few steps from your living room to your desk, many people working from home have gained a lot of additional time in their personal lives.

Using the latest data from the CSO Census, Chill has investigated just how much extra time people have gained across Ireland since lockdown. We studied the average commute time for employees in each council area and multiplied that by the number of working days that have been spent in lockdown at the time of writing. As such, we have been able to determine approximately how much extra time we have gained by working from home from 27 March 2020 to 23 July 2020.

Council Area	Average commute time per journey	Working days spent in lockdown (excluding public holidays)*	Total number of commuting hours saved
Meath	34.6 minutes	81 days	93 hours
Wicklow	34.5 minutes	81 days	93 hours
Kildare	33.8 minutes	81 days	91 hours
Fingal	33.4 minutes	81 days	90 hours
Laois	31.9 minutes	81 days	86 hours
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown	30.6 minutes	81 days	83 hours
South Dublin	30.6 minutes	81 days	83 hours
Galway County	29.3 minutes	81 days	78 hours
Dublin City	28.9 minutes	81 days	78 hours
Offaly	28.9 minutes	81 days	78 hours
Westmeath	28.8 minutes	81 days	78 hours
Carlow	28.5 minutes	81 days	77 hours
Cavan	28.5 minutes	81 days	77 hours
Louth	27.7 minutes	81 days	75 hours
Leitrim	27.4 minutes	81 days	74 hours
Wexford	26.7 minutes	81 days	72 hours
Cork County	26.6 minutes	81 days	72 hours
Longford	26.4 minutes	81 days	71 hours
Roscommon	26.4 minutes	81 days	71 hours
Kilkenny	25.6 minutes	81 days	69 hours
Tipperary	25.6 minutes	81 days	69 hours
Monaghan	24.9 minutes	81 days	67 hours
Clare	24.5 minutes	81 days	66 hours
Limerick City & County	24.2 minutes	81 days	65 hours
Mayo	23.3 minutes	81 days	63 hours
Kerry	22.7 minutes	81 days	61 hours
Cork City	22.1 minutes	81 days	60 hours
Sligo	22.1 minutes	81 days	60 hours
Donegal	22.1 minutes	81 days	60 hours
Galway City	21.7 minutes	81 days	59 hours
Waterford City & County	22.4 minutes	81 days	59 hours

*From 28 March 2020 to 23 July 2020 (inclusive), excluding Bank Holidays.

A new survey from Chill has also revealed how people are choosing to spend their newly acquired time. 368 people were polled about what activities they have been doing during the times that they would normally be commuting.

31.5% of respondents said they have spent this time exercising, suggesting that remote work is allowing people to be much more physically fit. 18.5%, on the other hand, said they spent that time watching television, reading a book or playing video games. Meanwhile, 16.3% said they have been spending their extra time cooking whilst 12% said they have been taking on DIY tasks.

Activities people have done during the time they would normally commute	Average commute time per journey
Exercise	31.5%
Entertainment (e.g. video games, television)	18.5%
Cooking	16.3%
Home improvement	12%
Learning a new skill	9.8%
Sleeping	7.6%
Arts and crafts (e.g. sewing, drawing)	4.3%

These are very challenging times, but being able to work remotely during lockdown has enabled Irish people to have a much better work-life balance. Not needing to commute, we have been able to spend that time with our families, taking on home improvement tasks we may have been putting off for years and even prioritising our physical and mental wellbeing.