How soon before starting remote work should one wake up? According to TikTok user Kevin, the correct answer is as late as possible.
In a now-viral comedic video, Kevin (@kev.well) claims that he’s “never had a late start in [his] life.” The secret to his success, he jokes, is waking up just one minute before his supposed start time of 8am.
Kevin’s video currently has over 2.1 million views.
@kev.well Never had a late start in my life 😂 #wfh #wfhlife #remotework #workingathome #workfromhome ♬ original sound – Caelan Ralston
In the comments section, users shared their own work-from-home wake-up times.
“Bro I wake up at 7:59 to clock in and go back to sleep until 9:30,” one user shared.
“From 8am-10am I’m sleeping but still available on teams,” another added.
“Same,” a third shared. “When I wake up early at 7:55 I feel unstoppable.”
Others said that, despite the quick proximity between wake up times and work start times, they feel more productive working at home, and say that the amount of lost time that comes from going into an office more than makes up for any late starts.
“[I] still get started before I would at the office getting distracted by 5 people first,” a commenter offered.
“That’s true,” Kevin agreed. “everyone wants to chat it up.”
“But seriously the amount of lost sleep due to travel time is ridiculous,” another user said.
This feeling is borne out by data. A team that included Stanford University professor Nicholas Bloom polled employees who worked remotely about their work habits and productivity in April of this year. Those employees “reported being about 9 percent more efficient working from home than they were working from the office,” per Vox.
The same article cites additional evidence of this productivity increase, including “more calls per minute for call center workers, engineers submitting more changes to code, and Bureau of Labor Statistics data on growing output per hours worked,” to back up its claims.
This said, commenters shared the sentiment that getting a few extra minutes of sleep in whenever possible is bliss.
As one user described it, “best freakin feeling in the world.”
In a TikTok direct message to the Daily Dot, Kevin clarified the video is a joke and does not actually apply to his work life.
“No, this is not something I actually do,” he admitted. “I wake up about an hour before I start working so I have time to get ready and get my brain working properly.”
He also echoed the many benefits of working from home.
“The primary benefit is the flexible work schedule,” he shared. “I’ve learned that I do some of my best work later in the evening, so having the flexibility to go to the gym in the early afternoon is really nice. Additionally, I find myself less distracted when I am working at home because there aren’t coworkers coming up to my desk talking to me like there would be in the office.”
He cited increased leisure time as an upside to working remotely.
“The fact that I don’t need to commute to an office saves me time and money which is extremely valuable,” he writes. “…It gives me extra time to do things that I want to do like making TikToks, running errands, catching up with friends, etc.”
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