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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

#61

Post by Maakuth »

theshrike79 wrote: post #9
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…

For others it's a hellscape and for others - like me - it's a blessing. I can work in the morning, make some lunch, work a while after lunch. Then the kids come home, I can help with their homework and keep working for a bit more. I can even assist colleagues in different time zones, since my computer is near me at all times. Just a quick chat during my evening (their morning) will speed things up immensely by unbloc…

How are you ever unwinding if you do work around the clock? For me I'm quickly feeling stress symptoms if I start to do work tasks after hours. I have a family too, so in theory it would be great for me too to do family stuff in the middle of the day and then return to work in the evening. But in practice if I do that, work will soon intrude my dreams, my mood worsens and I have less energy.

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

#62

Post by visarga »

wastedhours wrote: post #54
nullsense wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I don't quite get your flippance - you weren't doing it before, and are now doing it. What's changed? Why are you working extra hours at home when in the office you wouldn't have? What's the externalities here? Why has 2 hours downtime turned into 2 hours more work, rather than 2 hours of downtime at home? I admit the OP was blunt, but it's not a ridiculous question - where has the time gone?

It's not a problem of time being gone, but a problem of being harder to control how much we work at home.

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

#63

Post by jbjohns »

terramex wrote: post #58
jbjohns wrote: post #57

Some additional things to consider: 1) Remote work does not necessarily mean WFH. It means work where is most effective for you instead of going to some office. These days there are many different kinds of solutions for having office space if you want/need it. It also becomes more of a commodity that you can simply use when needed (e.g. a final push before release, a workshop preparing for a big new project, etc.). 2…

I think autocorrect changed "WFH" (work from home) to "WTF" in your comment.

Ack, thanks. Corrected.

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

#64

Post by jbjohns »

disiplus wrote: post #59
jbjohns wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You already have been for decades at this point. The high salaries seen in some places is not due exclusively to locality but the quality of the employee. What I'm seeing is people from low cost locations which traditionally migrated as soon as they could to get western salaries are not getting those western salaries without having to leave. I would say if you were at the highest compensation level you may see a decr…

it's both, but location plays a bit role, just go to the gitlab salary calculator and try to enter london and another east europe city. even for the same level role and expertise and assumed same productivity the east europe one will get a smaller compensation, thus costing the company less.

And we should resist this. Do other global products cost less if purchased in cheaper locations? The value we bring to a company is the same regardless of where we're working from. We shouldn't accept lower compensation because of irrelevant "cost of living" arguments.

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

#65

Post by theshrike79 »

free652 wrote: post #46
theshrike79 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one can see me wrap up when I'm at home. I can go about my business around the house and get back in minutes if someone pings me on Slack. If I'm at the office, I can still just walk out when I'm done, but I can't get back to work as quickly if I'm needed. So it's just polite to be physically present for the full work day.

> I can go about my business around the house and get back in minutes if someone pings me on Slack. So your phone alerts you about every work email?

Emails aren't for urgent stuff. I read those only when I'm at my computer.

Slack messages come through when I want to - usually when I'm on the clock. I can quickly check them from my watch of phone and decide if I need to react to it or if it can wait until the next day.

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

#66

Post by cableshaft »

free652 wrote: post #46
theshrike79 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one can see me wrap up when I'm at home. I can go about my business around the house and get back in minutes if someone pings me on Slack. If I'm at the office, I can still just walk out when I'm done, but I can't get back to work as quickly if I'm needed. So it's just polite to be physically present for the full work day.

> I can go about my business around the house and get back in minutes if someone pings me on Slack. So your phone alerts you about every work email?

Mine does. Has both Teams and Outlook alerts. During the work day I'll check if I see it ping, or have Teams up on a laptop and next to me where I'm doing something else in the house (usually cooking lunch or dishes).

If it's after hours I tend not to pay much attention to my phone, maybe glance at it when I have to look at it for something anyway. My boss knows to call me if there's an emergency after hours.

And that happens because we're now a tiny department within a large corporation that supports multiple call centers, and there's periodically network issues we have to help diagnose and fix or we risk breaking our contracts with our clients.

It's been a challenge at times, I've spent some long nights trying to get the right people from other departments on the call to fix the problems, since I don't have full access to everything in our data center (corporate likes to keep things siloed), but when that happens I just do my best to give myself the time back over the next couple of weeks during the work days. On balance I'm probably still only working 40 hour weeks (maybe even less some weeks).

We've been full remote for two and a half years though. We've been doing this since before the pandemic started.

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

#67

Post by jlokier »

meheleventyone wrote: post #49
baskire wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who pays for that? For many remote work involves less take home pay.

Companies usually have budget for setting up remote workers and IME are happy to pay for work spaces.

IME they are not happy to pay for work spaces.

A nice chair, a desk, a monitor. (Not that I have space for a nice chair at home!)

But an office? No way.

Perhaps it's because renting an office costs similar to renting a flat where I live (even though you get less space when renting an office).

I have had positive signals towards paying for a desk in a shared workspace... But wait, aren't we working at home to avoid sharing workspaces at the moment?

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

#68

Post by christophilus »

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.

Being forced to work from home is better than being forced to work from an office. In the former case, you can (and I did) rent an office, join a coworking space, work from coffee shops, etc. In the latter case, you have one choice and one choice only, and that choice sucks for a whole lot of folks.

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

#69

Post by ondee »

nullsense wrote: post #30
Smithalicious wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Because you haven't talked to your doctor about your possible mental health difficulties or a therapist about personal patterns you find it hard to break from?

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

#70

Post by jeremyjh »

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…

The productivity gains are self-reported. No one can measure this objectively so the CIO can say whatever they want. It is not surprising that they want to say something to make themselves look good, instead of bad.
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