I've been working from home for the past month, and honestly I'm tired of it. Perhaps I'm just more outgoing than I thought, but this whole forced WFH episode is really proving to me the importance of face to face communication.
Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
81–90 of 295 posts
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#82I've worked from home since 2001, except for a brief 2 year stint at Google. I think I'm far more productive at home because I have: - An office, with a door I can close This was going to be a big list, but I actually think that just about sums it up. The cube environment at Google was utterly intolerable, and made it hard to concentrate. It didn't help that the guys in another group next to us had a game where they…
What I wouldn't give for a cube. To my left and right in our open office are engineers who are normally quiet. The row in front of are all business strategy people. They never stop talking. They're on the phone, they're having meetings, they're casually chatting. There's nothing at all to block the sound or the sight of them grouping up in 2s and 6s at each others desk. One even has a rare sight in the office, a desktop phone.
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#83I heard on WFH opinions there are two groups of people, one that think this will usher in a new age of productive freedom working from home never having to commute again, and the group with kids.
Right now, there's not just wfh but also kids from home. Under normal circumstances they'd spend their day in school.
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#84I wonder if this is related to the long commutes Americans have gotten used to. I'm not in the US, and while I would say I definitely appreciate the flexibility of being able to work from home (or from "not the office") every now and then, and I do like the present drop in meetings, I cannot fathom how people stay sane without a variety of other people around. My productivity has definitely dropped, and it feels like…
I did when I started working from home. I was lucky to have a manager who knew about habits and patterns to fix that. A lot of this isn't about going to work but about our habits and patterns. For example, I have a room I go into and close the door. When I am in there I am working. When I am out of there I'm not. It's like a mental switch. I also use some tricks to keep be from being distracted like a pomodoro timer.…
Yeah I hear you, but I've been unable to make it work so far. Sometimes when this happens in the office, I would go exercise, and more often than not the flip would be switched afterwards. Doesn't work at home.
I've noticed the same tends to happen in the office if others are not around (if, say, I swap a holiday for a work day or something and am alone when I go in).
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#85Who are these people? I've been working from home and I've noticed a steep dip in my productivity.
I think it depends on your type of work and personality. I personally was already half WFH, and all WFH is way too much for me. I just need at least a day where I can go into meetings in person. I get a motivation boost from interacting with everyone and getting feedback in person in meetings, but it's not like I need that every day. It's not the same on the phone or web conference, and that might just be something that will evolve.
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#86I suspect this is going to have a pretty profound impact on the commercial real estate world. Aside from workers wanting to WFH, anecdotally I know of a few now cash-strapped start-ups that are very seriously considering breaking their leases and having much more of the work force WFH.
If you live in a city right now, just peer out at all of those sky scrapers. A huge amount of that is currently empty office space that costs a fortune. For many companies the idea that this space was truly optional was absurd, but right now companies everywhere are seeing that they have to be able to do 100% remote to survive.
Within a month an office space has gone from essential to being more and more of a luxury, way more expensive per employee than a automatic espresso machine.
I suspect a small but non-trivial number of companies will break their leases in the coming months. But far more companies will emerge from this crisis no longer believing that every employee needs a desk in an office.
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#87TL;DR: A job search website (Zippia) surveyed 500 people about their work from home preferences during the Coronavirus-related quarantining period.
No mention of the study methodology. Given that this was performed by an online job search website, it's not clear that they invested effort into collecting unbiased samples. Visitors looking for new jobs on a somewhat obscure online job search site aren't exactly an unbiased sample.
Regardless, I think the important takeaway is that work from home preferences vary. Not everyone enjoys working in an office. Not everyone enjoys working from home. And not everyone has made up their mind on the topic yet.
They also asked whether or not people thought they were more productive working from home. 44% said yes. When asked if people thought their companies would move to permanent WFH after this, 17% said yes.
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#88I heard on WFH opinions there are two groups of people, one that think this will usher in a new age of productive freedom working from home never having to commute again, and the group with kids.
I'm a 26 year old male and I prefer going in office over working from home.
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#89I wonder if this is related to the long commutes Americans have gotten used to. I'm not in the US, and while I would say I definitely appreciate the flexibility of being able to work from home (or from "not the office") every now and then, and I do like the present drop in meetings, I cannot fathom how people stay sane without a variety of other people around. My productivity has definitely dropped, and it feels like…
I feel the same. I've found that having a dedicated work environment can help, e.g. a separate office room with a proper desk, chair and monitor, although realistically that's not possible for a lot of people including myself currently.
I currently don't have that, but I did in the past, and it sadly didn't help for me.
It seems to be people related: I've noticed the same tends to happen in the office if others are not around (if, say, I swap a holiday for a work day or something and am alone when I go in).
Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll
#90Let's note that distributed companies almost always clearly make the distinction between "remote work" and "work from home". Some of them are openly "against" work from home.
As a freelancer, especially in between on-site projects, I made a habit of getting a workplace outside the home, explicitly to avoid all the distractions of the home. For a while, I rented a desk at an office, but I've also worked in the lobby of a work-friendly hotel, I've tried working in the library (but their wifi sucks) and various other places. Anything but home.