Nowadays, to work remotely all you need is a computer and an Internet connection. According to a new study, employees who can work from anywhere are generally happier than those who work onsite in an office.

Video conferencing company Owl Labs surveyed 1202 full-time U.S. workers from the ages of 22 to 65, and discovered that 62 percent of respondents worked remotely at least some of the time and 38 percent worked onsite. Of the remote workers, 49 percent worked remotely full-time.

As it turns out, working remotely — or the idea of it — makes people happy. Eighty-three percent of survey respondents “agree that the ability to work remotely would make them happier,” and 71 percent of workers who do get to work remotely said their job makes them happy, compared with 55 percent of office-only workers.

In the study, full-time remote workers said they’re happy in their job 22 percent more than people who never work remotely. The reasons respondents said they decided to work remotely were better work-life balance (91 percent), increased productivity/better focus (79 percent), less stress (78 percent), and to avoid a commute (78 percent).

One reason remote workers might be happier is that they were more than twice as likely to earn more than US$100,000 per year.

And the higher they were on the corporate ladder, the more likely survey respondents were to have the privilege of working remotely: The job levels with the greatest percentages of remote workers were founder/C-level and vice president.

Loyalty is another factor: Remote workers are 13 percent more likely than non-remote workers to stay with their current gig for the next five years — making remote work a win-win for employees and employers alike.

Not only are remote employees happier, but they are prepared to work longer hours, according to the report. Remote workers said they work over 40 hours per week, 43 percent more than on-site workers do.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【总裁级别的】 zǒngcái jíbié de C-level with high-ranking executive titles within an organization, “C” for “chief”

【工作】gōngzuò gig a job, especially one that is temporary or that has an uncertain future

现如今，要想远程工作，你只需要一台计算机并连上互联网。一项新研究发现，可以在任何地方工作的员工通常比待在办公室工作的员工更快乐。

视频会议公司Owl Labs对1202名22岁至65岁的美国全职工作者进行了调查，发现62％的受访者至少在某些时候会远程工作，而38％的受访者只在办公室内工作。在远程工作者当中，有49％的人全职远程工作。

结果发现，远程工作（或远程工作的想法）令人们感到快乐。83％的受访者“一致认为能够远程工作会令他们更加快乐”。在远程工作者中，71％的人表示工作让自己感到快乐，而在办公室工作者中，这一比例仅为55％。

在这项研究中，全职远程工作者对工作的满意度比从未远程工作过的人高出22%。受访者决定远程工作的原因包括更好地平衡工作和生活（91%）、更高的工作效率/注意力更集中（79%）、更小的压力（78%）和避免通勤（78%）。

远程工作者可能更快乐的一个原因是：他们年收入超过10万美元（约合人民币69万元）的可能性是办公室工作者的两倍以上。而且他们在公司的职位越高，拥有远程工作特权的可能性就越大：远程工作者的头衔大多是创始人/总裁或副总裁。

与此同时，忠诚度则是另一个要素：相比于非远程工作者，远程工作者在未来五年内一直待下去的可能性高出13％，这使得远程工作对于雇员和雇主而言可以获得一种双赢的结果。

报告显示远程工作者不仅更快乐，而且愿意付出更长的工作时间。远程工作者称，他们每周工作时间超过40个小时，比办公室工作者多出43%。

(chinadaily.com.cn)