When the pandemic began and toilet paper was in short supply, it was easy enough to blame hoarders filling shopping carts (and basements) with all the TP they could get their hands on.
The real culprit was a bit more complicated, experts at North Carolina State's Tissue Pack Innovation Lab (yup, it's real) deduced.
Sure, people were panic buying the shelf and warehouse stock faster than it could be replenished, but what we saw as millions of Americans suddenly sat at home instead of going to work or school was simply that they needed more toilet paper ... at least more of the kind that's made for home use.
There was plenty of commercial toilet paper still out there. You know the kind — that scratchy, impossibly thin paper propped on the sides of stalls and designed to make going to the bathroom at work or in public as unpleasant as possible, so you do it less.
At home we get smaller rolls that fit on our own toilet paper holders and the cushiness — or lack thereof — is guided by our own wallets.
It isn't just the toilet paper that's different.
Working from home, we're paying for our own Internet to email our co-workers, covering our own electric bills when we turn on all the lights, footing our own oil bills when we jack the thermostat up to 72 to beat the cold.
There's more water being used in our sinks and toilets, more ink being used in our pens ... more of everything really.
A recent analysis by Global Workplace Analytics estimates companies can save around $11,000 per employee per year if they allow their employees to work remotely even 50 percent of the time. That money, they estimate, can be recouped not just through spending less on utilities and office supplies but less on employee absenteeism too.
Not every job can be performed remotely (although plenty more can than you might think). Not every worker wants to work remotely (although more and more do).
But as I continue to hear employers complaining that they just can't find anyone to work in Sullivan County at a time when workers are finally beginning to have leverage over employers, it bears reminding all that there are benefits on both sides to allowing employees to spend more time at home.
And I don't just mean the cushier toilet paper!