Some Michiganders Prefer Working From Home
I am just now back in the office after working from my home studio since November. I worked from home last spring too. I like being back around my co-workers and getting out of the house to go to the office everyday. My step kids work for the State of Michigan, which means they aren’t mandated to go back until May, but they would continue working from home if allowed. They like it, just like many other people in our state who have enjoyed earning a living from home.
Governor Whitmer has formed a statewide committee whose job is to create recommendations on how to get more people back to in person working in a safe manner. However, some are saying they want to continue working from home. Dawn Atkins, a Program Assistant at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told WLNS that it was hard to figure out how to work from home, but that, surprisingly, she likes it more than she ever expected. Many are waiting to head back to in person work, but Dawn and her co-workers are wishing to continue working from home.
“We just wait in the wings and hope that we’ll all just still be home,” Dawn said. But, even with some hoping to stay home, there’s an initiative from the State to try and get people back into the office.
“This is a workgroup that the governor has formed,” Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said.
Mayor Schor is a part of Governor Whitmer’s committee to get more Michiganders back into office spaces. “She wants all of us to talk about the different pieces and the important pieces of returning people to work safely,” Mayor Schor said.
He said the sooner we get people back in offices, the better. My wife worked for Delta Dental for decades, and they would never let them work from home. Now the majority of their employees are working from home, and the company has cancelled an expansion project for their facility, opting to continue to allow staff to work from home permanently, and only coming into the actual building a few times a month.
The pandemic has taught corporate America and us that much of the work we do today can be done from home, and we will see a lot more of it in the future. Unfortunately those who can’t work from home are the ones who have suffered the most during this time.