Apparently, it’s National Work From Home Day today. I know this because a press release about it dropped into my inbox about a week ago. And although I wasn’t planning to work from home today, I’ve ended up doing so anyway. I did intend to work from home yesterday, and managed to finish the article I was working on as well as having a leisurely breakfast and even washing the dishes yesterday, so I’m completely happy that it’s possible to work from home and actually get things done, it’s just that… well, I’m not convinced the rest of the country was aware that it’s National Work From Home Day today, and thus many of the supposed benefits of the idea probably won’t pan out.

According to the press release, “with fewer commuters, the roads are clearer and public transport less crowded than usual. Stress levels have fallen, pollution levels are down and CO2 emissions reduced. People are happier, have a better work-life balance, and ultimately will be healthier.” Which almost makes me wish I was at work today, since it seems a shame to miss out on lovely spacious public transport and lower pollution levels, but since I’m at home, I’ll just have to take their word for it.

All of those things can only be true, though, if the day was well-publicised enough, and I’m not entirely sure it was. Obviously, there are only some professions that can allow people to work from home anyway, so it’s not like city centres will be deserted today; and the press release that came about National Work From Home Day was under embargo until today, which seems a bit counter-intuitive since by the time people are at work, it’s a bit late for them to arrange not to go to work. They needed to know about it last week, ideally.

Pfft.

Lack of awareness aside, I do think working from home can be beneficial. My brain tends to be most awake and capable between about 8am and 1pm, but factoring travelling to work into the equation means I can’t do much during my first phase of productivity. Working from home means I can leap out of bed onto my computer and be working away before I’m even technically supposed to be in the office…

Which explains why I’m writing this blog post at, well, it’s gone 9am now, but it hadn’t when I started. And I’ve already sorted out my work e-mail inbox…

Did anyone else know they were supposed to work from home today?