At least in spirit, I feel like this idea was WeWork's business model.
Exactly. I wonder if this trend will create a meaningful turnaround for them. What a wild world.
What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
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Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#12As long as I still have a quiet, private office and don't spend an hour+ per day in traffic and am not expected to give up evenings for "not mandatory but really you should show up to play politics" office happy hours, I don't care where I work. Currently working from home gives me all of that and I haven't been happier with a job ever.
Regarding the Happy Hours:
In 2019, my team would occasionally need to work long hours or would deliver something awesome. I would reward them with HH and dinner/late meal. It gave me a chance to say "thanks" and for us to bond over the challenge we overcame.
I can't do that anymore! I've don't virtual HH, but it isn't the same! I would REALLY like a virtual solution to "bond with your team" and "say thanks in a meaningful way" - cost be damned.
As a side note, politics suck. I really like WFH. Working long hours is bad - bonding is good.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#13I do this exactly. I rented a small apartment very near (fifty meters) from home, declared it my “studio” and set up my workplace. I can work there with my older daughter (studying at home) and my younger daughter (a toddler) is safely separated and home is not a work place. Literally, I don’t have a “computer” at home; only my iPad and a 25 year old Nintendo. 10/10, strongly recommend.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#14What if organizations just let employees do what they want and offered them a number of options.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#15If work still has to be conducted by videocall they may as well just be at home it's just an inefficient either way and you still lose the ability to have creative ideation discussion that just doesn't work over videocall because of the time delay and forced one at a time speaking.
I do think WFH is here to stay but I also see an uncomfortable divide is going to form both in the types of work given to the two sides and the promotion and salary opportunities.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#16In nice weather, I just grab my laptop and go sit on a bench in a nearest park. Best work environment that I've ever had in my entire life.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#17Yes. I've done this for the past 4 years and it's the best of both worlds. Right now I rent a private office that's ~10 minutes walking from home. Close enough that there's no traffic; far enough that I have a routine. Love it.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#18Works out best if "near home" = "the actual office of my company".
An underlying issues nobody is talking about is real estate prices need to crash then. The quality of life outside a city is just so unbelievably better that I'm not going back to live in a box for hundreds of dollars a month, on a filthy street with no sense of community.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#19This has been my life for years except without the “renting a place” part. I work in cafes. I work in parks. I work sitting on a bench taking shelter from the rain on my way to somewhere else. I work anywhere I have space to take my Wacom tablet out of my bag and plug it into my laptop, and the desire to spend more time working today.
I also work at home in my studio but getting away from the distractions of home is, as this article notes, important.
I thought “remote work” already meant this? I’ve been doing it for years, it’s one of the perks of being a freelance artist. Sometimes I’ve toyed with the idea of getting together with some friends and splitting the rent on a shared studio space but really I know I’d only show up a few days a month.
Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?
#20I already find it distracting enough listening to conversations from other departments that have nothing to do with me, now I'd have to deal with discussions from other companies instead. Open plan needs to die already.