When you think of what gift to give people, you usually try to imagine how these people’s days go by—what they need, what they use, what makes a day convenient for them, etc. So, your mind imagines them commuting or driving to work. That is the gist of a person’s life anyway—either studying or working. But what if the person you want to give a gift to does not leave home for days? What if they work in their pajamas since they’re remote working from home right now?
The challenges of remote work are often overlooked because people think working from home is the most convenient thing to do. It is not. Distractions are everywhere at home—from kids and dogs running around the house and arguing to the dishes in the sink and the washer in the basement that’s beeping because it is out of soap. Home-based workers don’t know when to work and when to relax and when to do house errands. They can’t figure out what time to start their jobs and what time it needs to end for the day. Staying healthy and eating right are both a challenge for them because the lines are unclear when you are working from home.
So if you’re wondering what kind of gift you can give them, think somewhere along the lines of how to make them more productive at home and how they can avoid distractions. Although they are lucky enough not to need to face the torture of daily commute to and from work, they also face challenges in terms of productivity and work-life balance. Here are some great ideas for holiday gifts for home-based workers:
Noise-canceling Headphones
Concentration and focus are important when you are working from home, especially for parents. Noise-canceling headphones will make a nice gift because they can tune out the distractions from outside your home office. Or if you do not have a home office, they’ll help drown out the noise that the kids are making in the kitchen while you are working there. You can play some kind of white noise, so you can better focus on your work.
Coffee Maker
You might want to check out a coffee set for your loved ones. It will include a coffee maker or cold coffee brewer and some packs of coffee beans or coffee pods. If you want to go far, you can even have a monthly subscription to different coffee products. This will be like a gift for the whole year. Why coffee? Home-based workers need a lot of caffeine in their system if they want to survive working at home.
Keyboard Vacuum
People who work from home tend to eat at their desks, so imagine all those breadcrumbs over their keyboard and laptop. A small keyboard vacuum is nice to have to keep the workstation clean and neat. If not the vacuum, then the cleaning gel is another option. You don’t even have to wait for the holiday season to give someone this gift.
Under-desk Elliptical
People who work from home don’t have the time to exercise. You think they do, don’t you? The fact is that they do not have time because they are tied to their desks and to household chores. They can’t squeeze in the time to go to the gym or even run for 30 minutes on the treadmill. An under-desk elliptical machine is a handy device because it’s small enough to fit under the desk and non-intrusive enough that workers can exercise while working.
Ergonomic Chair
Ask your loved ones what they complain most about because they work from home. They’ll tell you they often have severe lower back pain because their seats are uncomfortable. Having a good posture is essential when you want to be productive at home. An ergonomic chair is designed to alleviate back pain because it contours to the body.
Healthy Snacks
You can also give them healthy snacks such as trail mix, nuts, dried fruits, vegetable sticks, and others if you want something affordable. You can pay for a snack box subscription that will get delivered to their address every month. This is an excellent gift because it runs all year round. Plus, it will help home-based workers keep track of their fitness journey.
There are a lot of other gifts you can buy for a home-based worker. You just have to think of what will make their lives convenient at every stage—from waking up, preparing their kids for school, and working to preparing meals and picking up the kids in the afternoon. Now more than ever, with so many distractions at home, they need all the help they can get.
