COTC - 16 Dec 2025 - Remote Work Study

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Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is Mike, and

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this is Cup of Traverse City for the

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12/16/2025.

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And we're getting a little break in the

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weather here, so that's good.

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Yeah, today a slight chance of snow showers

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between one and three, then a slight chance

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of rain showers after three. You don't hear

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rain in December all that often.

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Anyway, mostly cloudy

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with high near 36. South wind is 10

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to 15 miles per hour with gust as

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high as 35,

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so still a little breezy out there.

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A chance of precipitation

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is 20%.

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Tonight, a 10% chance of showers before 7PM,

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mostly cloudy with a steady temperature around 35.

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Southwest winds

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10 to 15 miles an hour with gust

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as high as 35, still breezy.

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And

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for Wednesday,

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partly sunny.

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Oh, sun? What is that? Haven't seen that

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in a while. Anyway, partly sunny with the

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temperature falling to around 31

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by 5PM, west wind five to 10 miles

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per hour becoming southwest

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in the afternoon, hence the warm up.

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So that's,

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that's actually rather good.

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We've got a little more of a regional

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story here.

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The headline reads, remote work is here to

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stay, new local study says. But it says

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43%

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of the regional

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workforce would prefer to work remotely full time.

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So it says a newly published study from

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Networks Northwest.

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The study includes data from the 10 county,

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Traverse

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Region. I don't know what 10 counties, but,

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all around here,

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of course. But,

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yeah, it, it

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it says that, you know, about 23%

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of the local 10 county workforce force works

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remotely in some way, shape, or form, and

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about half of them

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are full time.

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And a good portion of them started before

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COVID

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working remote. You know, a lot of people

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think that working remotely was just kind of

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a COVID thing,

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and I've been working fully remote full time

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since 2015.

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And, you know, so don't plan on going

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back to any offices,

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although we do get to travel a little

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bit.

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But it's interesting. I

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I wouldn't have thought it was that many.

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I mean, looking at the the traffic around

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here even in the off season. I mean,

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it's not super heavy traffic, but a lot

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of people are moving around on rush hour

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and including me sometimes because I always tend

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to have to do something right after work.

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You know? But,

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yeah, I

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I think that's

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a a good a good,

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take on it. You know?

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It's here to stay, and, it's gonna,

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you know, it's just gonna be the way

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things are for

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a lot of workers. I mean, there's a

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lot of stuff that can be done from

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home now. A lot of banks.

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A lot of their, banking people are working

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remotely.

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A lot of,

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you know, utility companies, you know, people that

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are on the phone all the time. Well,

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what the difference does it make whether they're

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in the phone at the office or on

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the phone at home?

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You know, with what I do, I spend

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a lot of time, you know, on the

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phone, on the computer,

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talking to people, definitely on Zoom a lot.

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You know, some days I have Zoom meetings

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stacked up

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and call it death by Zoom day, but

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I

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I I wouldn't have it any other way

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if I could help it. You know, this

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is this is a much better lifestyle

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for, you know, as they say, work life

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balance.

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You know, there is a little bit of

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a danger

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with working from home where you spend all

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your time, you know, half looking at work,

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even if you're not on the clock and,

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you know,

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I'm pretty strict about it. I do, you

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know, check-in,

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but, you know, I'm more of in a

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management

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management position, so I do sorta have to

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keep an eye on what's going on.

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But I don't

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you know, there there's times where I don't

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look at anything,

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you know, from 05:00 until 08:00 the next

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morning.

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You know, I just

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it it's not it's not hard to do

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that,

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especially now the way I've got it set

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up. I have a a office studio

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in my backyard that's separated from the house,

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you know. So I've got a 30 foot

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commute. Sometimes I gotta shovel my way in

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here, but

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it's separated

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from all the activities

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and and whatnot at the house and

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still

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at home. You know, if I need to

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do something in the house, I go in

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the house and do something. You know?

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And and it's a much

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more

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laid back and but I think, you know,

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overall, I work

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a little harder because I can do it

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from here. I don't have to plan for

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a commute. I don't have to warm up

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the vehicle and scrape ice off the windows

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if I don't want to. You know?

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It it's the way to do it. But,

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anyway, check out that, study.

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I read it in the ticker, but there's,

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other

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places that it is around the web.

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And, I will have that in the show

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notes over at cupoftraverscity.com.

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Everybody have a great day. We'll see you

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tomorrow.