More of us than ever before are working from home. The ongoing popularity of hybrid working means more employees have been given the option to work away from the office for at least part of the week. And although the number of people working from home dropped by 7% between 2021 and 2022, remote workers still account for 30% of the UK workforce.
But if you had to choose one day to work from home, which would you choose?
Many businesses have moved to a hybrid system – part-time home and part-time office – which means you may be able to choose which days you work from home. Is Monday and Friday best as it means you miss the first and final commutes of the week? Or how about Tuesdays – being at home on officially the worst day of the week has to be a good thing? Or what about breaking up the week with a work from home Wednesday?
Let’s try and work out which day is best for you to work from home.
We ran a poll on LinkedIn to find out what you thought was the best day to work from home. It was close, but Friday edged it with 60% of votes compared to 40% for Monday.
Can you work from home?
It used to be the case that UK employees only had the right to request flexible working if they were a registered carer or had children under the age of 17, or children under the age of 18 if they are disabled. But following introduction of Flexible Working Regulations, which came into effect on June 30, 2014, anyone aged 18 or over who has been in their job for at least six months can request flexible working, and their employer has got to consider their proposal – so that’s one potential hurdle overcome.
To find out how to put a proposal to your employer, check out How to request flexible working.
And before you take the plunge, it’s worth considering that working from home isn’t for everyone – the sheer number of distractions alone can be enough to cut productivity, so first work out if working from home will work for you.
What’s the best day to work from home?
Everyone will have their own ideas on the best days to work from home, let us know your preferred option by voting in our LinkedIn poll.
Good Friday?
If you’re looking at working from home one day a week then the chances are Friday will the first day that springs to mind as not only will it give you a long weekend, most people are on the wind-down by Friday anyway so you’ll not be missed in the office.
The trouble is, if your boss already sees Friday as one of the week’s less productive days they may want to treat it as a team day and have all hands on deck.
And given that everyone is winding down towards the weekend, Friday can be one of the more fun days to spend in the office.
So there’s Friday ruled out, as is the prospect of a long weekend away from the office. Not necessarily…
Manic Monday?
Is there anything worse than dragging yourself out of bed on a Monday morning? There are many reasons why Monday is the worst day of the week, so wouldn’t it be great to be able to stay at home miss the mad commute and tales of co-workers wild weekend?
Not only that, taking Monday away from the office – when said co-workers won’t shut up about how many tequilas they slammed or the length of the walk they went on that weekend, depending on their leisure time preferences – means you can take advantage of some much need thinking and planning time from the comfort of your own home.
Just make sure you don’t replace office based distractions with home based ones, such as the lure of daytime TV or that pile of ironing.
There is one sticking point though, and that’s the number of people who schedule meetings for a Monday mean that working from home at the start of the week can put you on the back.
An easy way around this though is to simply set up a conference call and join in the meeting from the comfort of your own home.
Keep it flexible
Another option, and arguably the best one, is to keep your options open and work from home on a different day each week so you can plan your day out of the office around the demands of that particular week.
And if you take a day in the middle of the week, this can be a great way to break things up and take some of the drudgery out of your work schedule.
Whatever day of the week you decide on, check out our section on working from home for hints and tips on everything from what to wear to ways to keep yourself motivated.
