See the backyard home offices these Utahns built, as hybrid and remote work are here to stay

Jonathan Hitzhusen worked from home “before it was cool.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced almost anyone who worked from a computer to turn their kitchen table into a desk, or to make a home office out of their living room, Hitzhusen worked in tech sales from a desk in the corner of his bedroom.

It was 2019, he said; he had four kids, three bedrooms and was losing his mind.

Hitzhusen cashed in a month of paid leave and built an office in his backyard. It was, essentially, a fancy shed — a detached structure, but not so big or well-equipped that it required any extra permitting.

“I loved it,” he said. “It was kind of life-changing.”

His backyard office would become the first of dozens he’s now scattered across Utah. In 2022, when remote work had become the new normal, he built one in someone else’s backyard. Backyard Office Utah then became a full-scale business.

And two years later, Hitzhusen said, there’s no sign of slowing down. He’s booked until January — offices take three weeks to a month to build, he said — and he’s already on track to build 20% more than last year.

Remote work is here to stay — at least in some capacity. Roughly 284,000 Utahns worked from home in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The number of remote workers nationwide has decreased slightly since its peak in 2021, according to an analysis of census bureau data from Coworking Mag. But the share of remote workers in the Salt Lake City metro area — 18.5% — is higher than the national average of 13.8%, and higher even than the peak national average of 17.9%.

Some flexibility is still popular. Most workers who are able to work remotely say they prefer at least a hybrid model, and businesses have responded accordingly.

More companies offered remote or hybrid work in the first quarter of 2024 than in the first quarter of 2023, according to Scoop, a San Francisco work management software company. And fewer companies are requiring employees to come to an office five days a week.

It’s why most of Hitzhusen’s clients found him, although he also builds craft sheds, golf simulator sheds, home gyms and music studios. Many of his customers are remote or hybrid workers — people like Kyle Clements.

A backyard commute

Clements’ job as a project manager in tech used to mean riding his e-bike to the Frontrunner station in Lehi, taking the train to Millcreek, then biking the rest of the way to his office. His family of five shares one car. And bikes and transit are his preferred means of transportation anyway, he added.

Now, his commute takes just a few seconds. The 200-square-foot office building in the backyard offers a quiet place to work apart from his three kids and home life.

“I’m still just as busy as ever in the middle of the day,” he said. But the proximity means he can take some time out to do laundry, or pick his daughter up from preschool, or cook dinner.

“That’s just changed our whole family’s life that way,” he said.

Clements’ backyard office is also multifunctional. It’s his office first and foremost, he said. But it’s also a home gym, an occasional playroom for the kids, or a hosting space apart from them.

“I think outside of sleep, I probably spend more time in this room than I do in my house,” he said. “At least on weekdays.”

It’s also a piece of home that feels, mostly, like his, he said. There’s a dart board on the wall; a bookshelf adorned with video game paraphernalia; a poster by his desk of different world maps and his favorite motto, “All maps are wrong.” Most of his office decor was “in a box somewhere” until recently.

“It’s kind of fun to have a space to make my own,” he said. “I didn’t have that before.”

Clements doesn’t know if he’ll work remotely forever, he said. But he would hesitate to go back to a job that required him to spend hours of his day traveling to and from an office.

“I’m really particular about what that commute would look like,” he said.

Plus, Clements said, he is proof that remote workers can be at least as productive as their in-office colleagues. He has more hours in the day to devote to his job, he said.

And when he’s done, all he has to do is take a few steps through his backyard, and he’s home.

A dream job

For Sydney Jones, the silver lining of the pandemic was that it brought her to her dream job.

Jones was working for a marketing agency in 2020, she said — an office job in a building she commuted to from her home in Midvale.

Jones loves baseball. Pre-pandemic, she had worked for the University of Utah’s college team. But she always dreamed of working for a Major League team, she said.

She didn’t care which one — she’s loyal to the sport, not any particular city. “That was my whole dream,” she said. “And I thought it was over for a minute.”

When her marketing job shifted to remote work, Jones said, she realized she could work, effectively, from anywhere. So when the Cincinnati Reds was hiring a project manager, she applied.

Now, she’s had that job for almost three years.

Remote work allowed her to land her dream job and do it from Utah. The green office in her backyard lets her do it peacefully. It separates her family life from her job, even if just by a few yards and four walls.

Jones has a three-year-old and another baby on the way. It wouldn’t have been sustainable, she said, to work out of a bedroom or at a desk in the living room. Her choices were to find a new home, or make her home work.

“Work from home is a requirement of our house, so how do we make our house work with that requirement?” Jones said.

Having the option to work from home, even part-time, is now a requirement for Jones.

“I think I’ve proven to myself, and to other people, that I can work remotely, even if it’s a hybrid setup,” she said. “But I think hybrid, honestly, is the most I can see myself going.”

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.