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Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

reuters.com

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Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#11

Post by mkl95 »

carlmr wrote: post #4
quaintdev wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While saving money on fuel and avoiding pollution. If you can avoid pollution in India you can literally increase lifespan. The problem here in India, when I brought up "WFH is future", all the experienced manager above 10yrs were not happy with idea. Why? Probably because they are paying EMIs for hefty loans they took for buying flats. People like me who are relatively less experienced don't want to take that risk a…

I think the other issue is that middle managers see that people working from home barely interact with them, which means that their middle man role is visibly unnecessary. A recipe for getting scared.

I couldn't agree more. Compared to my previous job at an office, where my manager's role seemed to be to draw developers into pointless arguments he had won beforehand, as a fully remote developer I find myself only interacting with management a couple of times per day on Slack and the odd Zoom call.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#12

Post by nullsense »

panny wrote: post #7

The article is light on reasons for increased productivity, but according to anecdotes I've heard, it's due partly to even longer working hours at home. Concretely, when salary employees WFH, all hours have become working hours for them. I've read accounts where people are having mental issues due to the dystopic new reality where they are always at work. They end up working around the clock, because they are constan…

My 1 hour commute where I got much needed downtime during which I would read books was replaced with sitting in front of my screen working. Basically wound up working additional 2 hours a day. Just totally unable to switch off either. Fucking hate it. Muh happier commuting and working with real people in an office.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#13

Post by mnahkies »

nullsense wrote: post #12
panny wrote: post #7

The article is light on reasons for increased productivity, but according to anecdotes I've heard, it's due partly to even longer working hours at home. Concretely, when salary employees WFH, all hours have become working hours for them. I've read accounts where people are having mental issues due to the dystopic new reality where they are always at work. They end up working around the clock, because they are constan…

My 1 hour commute where I got much needed downtime during which I would read books was replaced with sitting in front of my screen working. Basically wound up working additional 2 hours a day. Just totally unable to switch off either. Fucking hate it. Muh happier commuting and working with real people in an office.

I understand the desire to work with people face to face, but regarding the lack of downtime on your commute: have you considered simply reading at home, or going to a coffee shop for an hour before/after work? I've found replacing my 1 hour subway journey with a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood with a podcast to be much better for my wellbeing

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#14

Post by theodric »

xwdv wrote: post #8

Personally I feel the push for the right to work from home without being treated as a second class citizen is more important and will do more for society than policies such as raising the minimum wage.

If you can work from home, you are now competing with the entire global labor force for your job. Expect your salary to go down as a result, since you are now much more replaceable.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#15

Post by theodric »

nullsense wrote: post #12
panny wrote: post #7

The article is light on reasons for increased productivity, but according to anecdotes I've heard, it's due partly to even longer working hours at home. Concretely, when salary employees WFH, all hours have become working hours for them. I've read accounts where people are having mental issues due to the dystopic new reality where they are always at work. They end up working around the clock, because they are constan…

My 1 hour commute where I got much needed downtime during which I would read books was replaced with sitting in front of my screen working. Basically wound up working additional 2 hours a day. Just totally unable to switch off either. Fucking hate it. Muh happier commuting and working with real people in an office.

Clock in when you would normally arrive at work, and clock out when you would leave. Even my employer, a big, ancient, conservative firm, has started telling employees to set boundaries.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#16

Post by qz2 »

bobthepanda wrote: post #6
tudorconstantin wrote: post #2

Summary: "The survey said information technology decision-makers expect permanent remote work to double to 34.4% of their companies’ workforces in 2021, compared with 16.4% before the coronavirus outbreak, a result of positive productivity trends. About 72% of their companies’ total global workforce is currently working remotely, according to the CIOs." Honestly I would expect it to remain at more than 34%. Who would…

This is great if you have a house with lots of space. Personally as a single young adult I like living in the city with lots of amenities nearby. I would hate being forced to WFH, the same way some hated being forced to go into the office.

I thought the same for years and chased that dream. Eventually I found I ended up as a miserable isolationist to some degree. So roll on a number of years and I’ve got 5 people living in a tiny house in London. I sleep, eat, work and play in one room and have done for about 10 years now. It’s great and I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

The important thing is that you find activities to do outside the house because it doesn’t matter how big your space is; you need to get away from it sometimes.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#17

Post by bobthepanda »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #10
bobthepanda wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great if you have a house with lots of space. Personally as a single young adult I like living in the city with lots of amenities nearby. I would hate being forced to WFH, the same way some hated being forced to go into the office.

This is an often recurring argument on this subject. For example, I don't care about having a big garden but I don't necessarily enjoy living in a dense city. If I could WFH at least three days a week for the foreseeable future, I would gladly move to a town in the suburbs where I could have a bigger apartment for the price of my studio apartment. I bet a lot of people would do the same. This would lessen the pressur…

I mean, permanent remote is also not great (particularly in a context where there are no offices), because for people in my living situation that puts the onus on us to find our "work" zone. I'd rather not spend extra money on more real estate or a WeWork-type membership.

I just don't find it very surprising that ~60-70% of people don't particularly like permanent remote, since it's 1. a departure from the norm and 2. people usually build their home-work separation with the commute, and I would say people expressing missing the commute separation at least some of the time represent a majority, if not a plurality, of my direct coworkers. But we are also at a company that let people do partial WFH pre-COVID.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#18

Post by ozim »

theodric wrote: post #14
xwdv wrote: post #8

Personally I feel the push for the right to work from home without being treated as a second class citizen is more important and will do more for society than policies such as raising the minimum wage.

If you can work from home, you are now competing with the entire global labor force for your job. Expect your salary to go down as a result, since you are now much more replaceable.

No, you underestimate issues that come with hiring someone from another country.

I am not going to hire an accountant from Vietnam to do my taxes even if I would be able to pay him $1 instead of $100. Accountant from Vietnam is not going to learn US or some EU country tax code if he has customers in Vietnam. In case something goes wrong, like you would have to go to court to settle things, good luck on getting someone from other side of globe to the court and setting things straight.

Local regulations, local language plays huge role in a lot of jobs that can be done remotely. But they will be done 'local' remotely so you still compete locally not globally.

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#19

Post by ozim »

carlmr wrote: post #4
quaintdev wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While saving money on fuel and avoiding pollution. If you can avoid pollution in India you can literally increase lifespan. The problem here in India, when I brought up "WFH is future", all the experienced manager above 10yrs were not happy with idea. Why? Probably because they are paying EMIs for hefty loans they took for buying flats. People like me who are relatively less experienced don't want to take that risk a…

I think the other issue is that middle managers see that people working from home barely interact with them, which means that their middle man role is visibly unnecessary. A recipe for getting scared.

But that is about people who don't understand their role as middle management. They should set guidelines and enforce processes so employees that do job think only about working and when they forget about some rules there is management to guide them.

This does not have anything to do with meeting with people f2f, one can use tech tools and maintain policies. Of course having coffee with people all day is easier :)

Re: Permanently remote workers seen doubling in 2021 due to pandemic productivity

#20

Post by iam-TJ »

bobthepanda wrote: post #17
vladvasiliu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an often recurring argument on this subject. For example, I don't care about having a big garden but I don't necessarily enjoy living in a dense city. If I could WFH at least three days a week for the foreseeable future, I would gladly move to a town in the suburbs where I could have a bigger apartment for the price of my studio apartment. I bet a lot of people would do the same. This would lessen the pressur…

I mean, permanent remote is also not great (particularly in a context where there are no offices), because for people in my living situation that puts the onus on us to find our "work" zone. I'd rather not spend extra money on more real estate or a WeWork-type membership. I just don't find it very surprising that ~60-70% of people don't particularly like permanent remote, since it's 1. a departure from the norm and 2…

The solution to the home-work separation, which also has potential to improve mental and physical health, is to go for a 20 minute brisk walk at start and end of the work-day.
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