Now that Millennials are fully and firmly integrated into the American workforce, many businesses are setting their sights on the newest influx of workers: Gen Z. These Digital Natives were born into the world of WiFi which means their strengths (and weaknesses) will vary greatly from those of previous generations who were born into much more analog worlds. Their technological prowess will become increasingly necessary for companies to stay current which is shifting the dialogue from “Do we want to hire Gen Z?” to “How can we recruit more Gen Z?”

With the mass hysteria about the outbreak of the COVID-19 aka the Coronavirus, a lot of major companies are asking their employees to work from home in an effort to try and lessen the spread of the virus.

Microsoft recently asked its employees in Silicon Valley and Seattle to work from home, as did Facebook and Google. Amazon asked its employees worldwide to stay home if they can. Even schools and universities are closing and asking students and teachers to carry on with online-courses instead of meeting face-to-face.

Given the mass amounts of employees now working from home, the effectiveness of telecommuting is being tested for the first time on a large scale. It has been talked about for the past 20 years as being the next new wave of work culture, as telecommuting has been found to have a lot of benefits for companies and employees. Even though the amount of those who work from home has increased immensely (in recent years with around 43% of American’s work remotely) the world has never seen this number, until now.

So, how exactly does telecommuting benefit not only companies but also employees as individuals? Here are some ways telecommuting has been proven to be beneficial.

To hire a smoker or not to hire a smoker? That is the question! But is it discrimination not to? The answer is surprisingly yes and no, and primarily depends on where you happen to live. It’s a debate that has been recently reignited as U-Haul—the company best known for renting you a truck to help you move—has implemented a nicotine-free hiring policy. As of February 1^st of this year, if you a candidate submits an application to work for U-Haul and they smoke cigarettes; they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. While this isn’t the first time a policy like this has been implemented, U-Haul (with its 30,000 employees) is the first major company in its field to do so. Let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on here, shall we?