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Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

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Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#141

Post by shric »

deevolution wrote: post #100

I think alot of people will want to go back because they've now associated working remotely with being in an isolated jail cell. Also I'm sure couples and people with kids are ready to jump out their windows. I wont be going back to the office for a number of reasons, however, and I think everyone should boycott the office as well. Weather you want to work in the office or not should ultimately be the employees choic…

Not everyone has all these downsides when working in an office.

1. I walk to work. 2. It's a 25 minute walk each way. I don't consider it lost time, Agree with 3 and 4. 5. I can and do go to the gym whenever I want. Typically at 2 or 3pm to avoid the lunch crowd.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#142

Post by PragmaticPulp »

keiferski wrote: post #111
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone feel the same? The study headline is that half of Americans prefer work from home. The other half either prefer working from an office or haven't made their minds up yet. In my experience managing remote teams, including some people who are new to WFH, many people struggle with the isolation of WFH. For others, the honeymoon phase is short-lived as cabin fever sets in. During normal times, the solution…

It's not a matter of "they haven't come around to my opinion yet, but they will." Some people just like working with others, in person, face to face. And some activities are impossible to do from a computer screen, miles away (fashion or product design, for example.)

> It's not a matter of "they haven't come around to my opinion yet, but they will."

Exactly right. That's my primary problem with all of these opinion pieces that WFH is the future.

Having managed remote/WFH teams for several years, including a lot of WFH veterans, I've seen a lot of the downsides of WFH that aren't immediately apparent in the first few months.

It's difficult to convince people that long-term WFH has downsides because so many people want to believe that they are more productive and happier never leaving their own homes, when in reality that's not true for everyone. Especially over the long-term.

For example: In my experience, the people who were most confident that they would be more productive at home were most likely to have performance issues after several months. Ironically, the people who were concerned that WFH might negatively impact their work were more likely to succeed because they made no assumptions and instead put in the effort to make their WFH experience a success.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#143

Post by danielrpa »

flatline wrote: post #112
gspr wrote: post #29

I 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…

My work is all meetings all the time, now. I’m on the phone most of the day. Little things that used to take 20 minutes now take an hour. I used to enjoy working from home a couple days a week because I got some peace and quiet and knew I could catch back up with people when I returned to the office. I went from loving to hating my job in the last three weeks. I am also constantly distracted by having the kids around…

I think that you are just generalizing something that can't be easily generalized. I'm not happy with what's happening in the world - as I hope most aren't - but the work from home situation isn't a problem for me. I'm loving it. I have an older kid and both him and my wife, who's a stay-at-home mom, are doing a great job maintaining a quiet environment in the house.

One thing that makes a huge difference is having a dedicated room for work. I'm fortunate to be able to afford an extra room just for myself and I set up a mini office in there. It's so much better than an open office environment, I can't even compare. I really get "in the zone" there and instead of getting interrupted every minute in my sad FAANG open office environment, I can actually get stuff done.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#144

Post by drchopchop »

rb808 wrote: post #45

I 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.

It's also more problematic right now because of the lack of childcare/school. If that resumes, then the child distraction problem goes away (but leaves other issues like: lack of social interaction, sub-par home office situation, etc).

Personally, even though my commute sucks, there is something to be said for having 8+ hours around adults. I've also noticed I am less eager to interact with my 4-year-old now because she's always around, always needs something, always loud (even with the office door closed), and I feel guilty that she's not getting the attention she needs. Schools re-opening would totally change this.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#145

Post by tilolebo »

cjrp wrote: post #42
andarleen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time for a lifestyle change I suppose.

I have friends and hobbies outside of work, but I still miss my "work friends". If you're going to be somewhere for ~8 hours a day, I find it's nice to have some company.

I bet if remote work became the norm, many people would co-rent shared offices with their friends, relatives, neighbors, etc.

Social interactions at work without the burden of hierarchy, work etiquette, etc. That would be the dream.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#146

Post by tom_mellior »

lawlorino wrote: post #76
gspr wrote: post #29

I 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've found that having a dedicated work environment can help

I would also definitely recommend that if you work from home, you get a separate office room. But I also struggle with bouts of not feeling motivated to work. The office is no miracle cure for that.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#147

Post by FalconSensei »

mfer wrote: post #78
gspr wrote: post #29

I 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.…

> I have a room I go into and close the door

That would be awesome to have, unfortunately, I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment. So I either work on the living room, were the TV and my wife are, or on the bedroom :(

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#148

Post by nck4222 »

willvarfar wrote: post #40
nck4222 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children probably. Don't get me wrong, I love being home and spending time with the family more, it's really the best part of this experience for me. But there's no way I'd be able to be as productive as expected under normal circumstances. I'm lucky if I get 4 hours in.

Presumably if you continue to work from home after the crisis, then your children return to school...?

Not in my case, no. They're not school aged, and are at home during the day. Elementary schools where I am run roughly 9-3 as well, except on Thursdays when they run 9-2.

Maybe I could make it work, but I would still prefer to have an office to go to most days.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#149

Post by mark_l_watson »

drewg123 wrote: post #54

I'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…

I also worked at Google after almost 20 years of working at home. I didn’t mind the cube environment because I worked from about 6am to 3pm, giving me a few hours of quiet heads down time every day. My last job before retiring at Capital One was the same, I started work early in the morning for heads down work time, was available for brainstorming, etc., then knocked off work mid afternoon. I really recommend time shifting for people having problems concentrating in a cube environment.
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