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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

#21

Post by namanyayg »

ozim wrote: post #18
theodric wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 someon…

That's a contrived example; the jobs of most people reading HN can (and will) be outsourced.

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

#22

Post by tester34 »

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.

That's what I miss.

I used to commute by train basically 2.5h daily, so I could spend that on e.g reading books

But on the other hand vision of waking up around 8:30 instead of 7, and then being at home around 16:30 instead of 18 is so good.

I just need to improve my work ethics(personal, not an actual work)

I think the best trade off is like 2-3 days of WFH and the rest on site.

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

#23

Post by Philip-J-Fry »

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…

For some people (me included) the office is a very productive environment. Some things I am really interested in can be smashed out at home with no problems. But boring work is a chore unless I'm at the office where I can get my mind to say "you're at work, you're getting paid for this". I can do boring work well at work, whereas at home I wanna do anything just to get it out of my face.

Not only that, for some people the commute is 1h each way and for others it's 10 minutes. So some people don't see the issue with going into the office every day.

And unless everyone is going to work from home, if you're someone working from home but most other people are in the office then that can stifle your career development for internal promotions. Like it or not, the managers and higher ups will be in the office, it's easier to get to know someone in the office, it's easier to get inside knowledge on what's going on, what projects are happening, etc. I work for a company who has remote developers and none of them are leading anything or have any sort of significant power to influence decisions. They are just man power to get work done, even if that is wrong, that's how it is and I don't see it changing.

For as long as this is the case I don't see fully remote working as a viable career choice. I would only do it for a company which is all remote or all software dev is remote.

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

#24

Post by tester34 »

namanyayg wrote: post #21
ozim wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 someon…

That's a contrived example; the jobs of most people reading HN can (and will) be outsourced.

Exactly, here I'm - nasty eastern european that's about to take your jobs /s

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

#25

Post by jjav »

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 work office is not the only way to have an office.

In these times, I'm renting a small one person private office a few minutes away (by bike) from home. It's the best of all worlds. Quiet space to work, it is outside of the house for separation, but very close so the commute is minimal on a bike and don't need to drive.

I don't love having to pay for the space but objectively it is less than the cost of fuel I was spending every month on the commute so I'm still saving money. And my commute is ~7 minutes on a bike instead of 60 minutes driving. And I'm so close to home I can come back mid-day to see my son. Win-win-win.

So yes, I'm planning for permanent remote, life is so much better.

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

#26

Post by nullsense »

mnahkies wrote: post #13
nullsense wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm smart enough to think up those ideas on my own. Unfortunately I can't get my brain to do them. WFH is a real net loss for me. I can't enforce boundaries on my own, so the natural ones are incredibly important to me.

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

#27

Post by Smithalicious »

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.

Then just don't do that

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

#28

Post by nullsense »

theodric wrote: post #15
nullsense wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Only way I could actually do that would be to have a physical shutdown/timed power switch that cut me off. I have that for my personal devices in order to get to bed on time. If I had to WFH long term, I'd institute that for sure, else there's no way I can just switch off. I can't really set my own boundaries.

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

#29

Post by raducu »

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…

Because a lot of people, the kind that matter politically, don't like to sit and think of concise messages, actions and implications, in fact, don't like deep thought at all, they just like to interrupt, ask stupid questions without doing any basic research first and like others to see them as appearing busy -- that is wasting the time of people who actually do do deep work.

That and socializing, getting away from kids/stressful homes.

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

#30

Post by nullsense »

Smithalicious wrote: post #27
nullsense wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then just don't do that

Solid advice mate. Why didn't I think of just not doing it? It's so simple it's almost genius. Just don't do it. Wish I'd thought if that sooner. It was staring me in the face the whole time. Just... Don't do it! Of course. Silly me. Silly me for continuing to do something day in day out that I obviously don't like or want to do, but could just opt not to but for some reason don't. I wonder why that is...
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