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More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

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Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#31

Post by throw1233212323 »

douche wrote: post #25
pawelwentpawel wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After working from home alone for about a week I start to feel less and less motivated too. For the couple past weeks I was working on my own project and to keep my energy levels up I rented a desk in a almost next door coworking space. It is definitely boosting my productivity and is great for networking too.

I feel exactly the opposite. Working an entire week at the office will have me so demoralized and burnt out by Friday that I have to go get away from everyone in the woods for the weekend. The most effective mix for me is going into the office on Monday, and getting all of the meetings and planning and face-to-face busywork out of the way, and then working from home the rest of the week. It's easily 2-3X as productiv…

I'm fine with a few friends (who I also interact with solely remotely as they live a few hundred miles from me), working remotely and just seeing my wife daily. I love it and have never been happier with a job or my living situation.

As with anything. YMMV. I've never been an ambitious person though, and my job to me is just a 'do what is needed, and no more' type of thing. I'm never out there trying to network or dig up leads on new opportunities either though, so if I wanted to do those things or were more ambitious I guess I could see the appeal of going into the office.

We (my wife and I) do get out quite a bit though, although we're eachother's best friend so we're not out socializing with out couples in our off time (thankfully).

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#32

Post by mtberatwork »

wrigby wrote: post #24
jonheller wrote: post #17

I consider myself, without doubt, to be an introvert. I hate parties with a passion, and am perfectly happy in my own head compared to even hanging out with a good friend. But I hated working at home. The isolation was terrible, not to mention the challenges of working on project teams (even with Slack etc). I felt lonely and less motivated. It is funny though, because my wife is the opposite of me on the social scal…

I'm relatively extroverted, and I can relate to your experience really well after working from home for the last year. The isolation and lack of human interaction can be downright depressing, and I've been led productive than ever. I'm curious to know if people with families have a different experience with it than single people. I'm a single guy in my mid 20's, and I suspect that if I was married and had kids at hom…

> I suspect that if I was married and had kids at home the experience would be more positive.

Positive, yes. But it's hard to be productive with young kids in the house.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#33

Post by ekianjo »

CydeWeys wrote: post #26
jonheller wrote: post #17

I consider myself, without doubt, to be an introvert. I hate parties with a passion, and am perfectly happy in my own head compared to even hanging out with a good friend. But I hated working at home. The isolation was terrible, not to mention the challenges of working on project teams (even with Slack etc). I felt lonely and less motivated. It is funny though, because my wife is the opposite of me on the social scal…

I'm with you in regards to how my mind responds to working from home (not well). Humans evolved as social animals. Everything we've always done has been in groups. When you are growing up, you spend most of your waking time in the company of other people (school). The ones who don't, who are homeschooled alone, turn out "weird". Until the modern advent of telecommunications, working has meant being physically colloca…

> Everything we've always done has been in groups

erm no, there are numerous accounts of people living ar ermits or away from the groups in History. why do you assume everyone has to live with the herd ?

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#34

Post by matt_wulfeck »

I biked to work in the Bay Area for awhile. The mediterranean climate here is perfect for it.

Except people here drive like maniacs. I was tired of feeling like I was taking my life into my own hands from people regularly going 20 or 30 over the limit and treating me like a road obstacle.

Off-lane bike paths are important. Sane driving practices are also important.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#35

Post by jankotek »

cozzyd wrote: post #8
jankotek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... because they can not afford to buy a car.

Have you been to Copenhagen? Would you prefer it look like downtown Atlanta?

Yes, I have been there. But winters are cold & rainy and cars are taxed to oblivion.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#36

Post by qqg3 »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #34

I biked to work in the Bay Area for awhile. The mediterranean climate here is perfect for it. Except people here drive like maniacs. I was tired of feeling like I was taking my life into my own hands from people regularly going 20 or 30 over the limit and treating me like a road obstacle. Off-lane bike paths are important. Sane driving practices are also important.

> mediterranean climate

Have you been to the med?

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#37

Post by s73ver »

The biggest hurdle to biking and walking, for those who are already comfortable doing those activities, is showering. I don't want to show up to the office drenched in sweat, making the work area smell like a gym. And there are some things that you can do, like the wipes and that, but they don't feel anything like a shower. The more offices that either put in showers, or locate near gyms and places that do have showers, the better.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#38

Post by jerf »

ekianjo wrote: post #33
CydeWeys wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you in regards to how my mind responds to working from home (not well). Humans evolved as social animals. Everything we've always done has been in groups. When you are growing up, you spend most of your waking time in the company of other people (school). The ones who don't, who are homeschooled alone, turn out "weird". Until the modern advent of telecommunications, working has meant being physically colloca…

> Everything we've always done has been in groups erm no, there are numerous accounts of people living ar ermits or away from the groups in History. why do you assume everyone has to live with the herd ?

And they have always been considered weird, even when respected by their local culture, and to number very few. We have a word for such people. We do not actually have a word for people who are not hermits, because that's how normal it is. We have words for being excessively group focused, like "gregarious", but not for "not a hermit".

Slightly less extreme, many cultures have had some sort of monk experience, where the monks do not live alone but often have some sort of highly restrictive vow of silence or something. It is certainly a thing in humanity that is popular enough to at times create social institutions for those who wish the rather different lifestyle, but it has also been a radical minority of people who choose it.

What's my point? Is there anything wrong with those choices? No. The point is that trying to arrange a social order that tries to push the majority of people in that direction isn't going to succeed.

I consider "everything is going to become telecommuting in the future" to be up there with "mobile games are going to completely destroy PC and console gaming". If it was going to happen, we should not still be speculating about it... it should be happening right now, visibly obviously, not something we have to go parse through trends and sort of squint at to see.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#39

Post by bphogan »

CydeWeys wrote: post #26
jonheller wrote: post #17

I consider myself, without doubt, to be an introvert. I hate parties with a passion, and am perfectly happy in my own head compared to even hanging out with a good friend. But I hated working at home. The isolation was terrible, not to mention the challenges of working on project teams (even with Slack etc). I felt lonely and less motivated. It is funny though, because my wife is the opposite of me on the social scal…

I'm with you in regards to how my mind responds to working from home (not well). Humans evolved as social animals. Everything we've always done has been in groups. When you are growing up, you spend most of your waking time in the company of other people (school). The ones who don't, who are homeschooled alone, turn out "weird". Until the modern advent of telecommunications, working has meant being physically colloca…

You talk about how your mind works, but then make generalizations based on that, even saying "it doesn't work for a lot of people". You're generalizing and stereotyping based on your own feelings and thoughts about how humans work. I especially take issue with your assertion that people turn out "weird" in relation to homeschooling.

I'm an introvert. I wasn't home schooled. But extroverts think I'm weird because like the OP, I don't enjoy social events with people who aren;'t my friends, I don't enjoy large groups, and after a long day of work I just want to be home with my family or alone in silence to recharge. There are lots of people like me. The "weird" you see? Probably just different than what you're used to.

The approach should be that if you want to work remotely, you should. And if it doesn't work for you, then you should go to an office. We shouldn't force whole groups of humans to do things they are uncomfortable doing. You shouldn't be forced to isolate yourself if that doesn't work, but you shouldn't force me into sitting in an office when I could do the exact same job remotely and be more secure and comfortable.

And neither one of us should call the other "weird" for feeling that way.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#40

Post by e40 »

jonheller wrote: post #17

I consider myself, without doubt, to be an introvert. I hate parties with a passion, and am perfectly happy in my own head compared to even hanging out with a good friend. But I hated working at home. The isolation was terrible, not to mention the challenges of working on project teams (even with Slack etc). I felt lonely and less motivated. It is funny though, because my wife is the opposite of me on the social scal…

I found a great balance by working at home 1-2 days a week. I get shitloads of work done on the work at home days, and I get the socialize with coworkers on the at work days. For me, it's a good balance.
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