Working from home allows work life balance. It saves gas, time, reduces stress, is safer and more efficient. For those who prefer to work in office they should have the choice, but no one should be forced to go to office.

Everyone knows with inflation comes high gas prices. Driving to work, especially for those with far distances, can take a chunk out of our pay check to cover gas.

Waking up 2 hours early, driving an hour or so to and from work, adds up to 3 hours to the work day. That’s a total of 11 1/2 hour work day. This is inconvenient for people who have children and need to arrange for them to be picked up or dropped off from school or pay for daycare. It’s also inconvenient for people who have groups that meet after work. Working from home cuts out 2 hours of driving time allowing for more rest and time for other commitments.

According to driver knowledge.com, 6 million Americans get in car wrecks every year on average. 90 Americans die every day in car accidents. Requiring us to come to go to office is putting us at risk of car wrecks which can be fatal. Think about the morning traffic, people running late and speeding. We can drive safe, but we aren’t in control of how other people drive. Driving in traffic also adds stress which affects our mental state going into the work day.

Working from home is more efficient, especially if you work in a call center. There is less background noise so you can focus and hear the person you are talking to. There are less tech issues because you don’t need to move your equipment around. On the other hand, going to office, especially in a call center, creates distraction. Everyone in the room is talking on the phone which creates background noise and makes it hard to hear the participant which in effect makes their experience not as stellar. Going to office creates tech issues. The home set up is different than the office set up, so when we connect our lap tops the applications don’t open the same way they did at home. This creates more stress and causes us to take time with tech works or trouble shooting when we could be focusing on our work and assisting participants.

We understand that some people prefer to go to office if they live close or maybe they enjoy being around people in person. This is why working at the office should be an option, not a requirement. That is in reference to dynamic work week and any future plans of going back to office. If an associate wants to go to office, more power to them. If they want to work from home, then they should be allowed. Work is meant to provide income so we can live our lives. Work is not meant to take precedence over our safety, out of work activities, family time, or mental health. It certainly should not create a financial strain.

Lastly, Fidelity makes an effort to take care of the environment which you’ll notice by the recycling containers around campus. However, requiring thousands of employees to drive to the office, unnecessarily adds green house gasses to the air. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.” In our current climate crisis, Fidelity should do more than offer recycling containers. Fidelity should not force its employees to add to the air pollution by requiring us to drive to work for jobs that are done more efficiently at home. 

We need the leaders of Fidelity to recognize this petition and give us the right to choose where we work!