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37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
171–180 of 410 posts
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true, but also very sad. I am lucky enough to have a lovely wife, kids and just enough good friends. And that's all I care about. I don't really miss at all the office, let alone my co-workers. Working remote is just what I need, and I am way more productive.
I have all those too. But even when you are fully remote, and have a healthy outside social support system away from work, you cannot ignore the reality that is you spend the majority of your waking hours working alongside these people, often for the same goals and deadlines. It's a basic desire to connect with others we share our time with. Unless you are one of the rare people where you truly are a solo shop (even…
> It's a basic desire to connect with others we share our time with.
I think you're creating a universal here where there is none. I have secure boundaries, and I can enjoy a coworker's company and work without having to be friends with them. And there's also an ugly side to this, where people don't want to have coworkers that they wouldn't want to be friends with. That's not some natural urge, that's something that people impose on a situation that is alienating to people who don't share your politics, or your tastes, or even like the way you treat people (I'm referring to the hypothetical "you" here.)
I have really enjoyed working with people who I'd never want to know outside of work, and have a huge amount of respect for those people whose work ethic and trustworthiness showed a real thoughtfulness and concern about what they were doing and for their coworkers' time and development. That's good enough for me, we don't have to share musical tastes or hobbies. On the other side, I've certainly made friends with people at work, but some of the people I made friends with I hated working with. The two things are barely connected.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd spin this around and cast it as a challenge -- regular, forced interactions with coworkers is minimally sufficient and retards some people from pursuing social activities outside the home. There are already a number of options in even the smallest town. I expect that will increase as more people move to WFH and seek social outlets. And at the end of the day "interacting with coworkers in the break room" is a pret…
>I'd spin this around and cast it as a challenge -- regular, forced interactions with coworkers is minimally sufficient and retards some people from pursuing social activities outside the home. Absolutely. Additionally, even getting to that set of regular, forced interactions necessarily consumes the limited time those people would have to pursue those social activities outside the home. That is, it's hard to have a…
> Hybrid is a sufficient compromise.
No it isn't.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#174I really hope American businesses don't bring this headline to its logical conclusion... "37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home...by people in India or Eastern Europe for much less money"
not if those jobs entail good written or even oral communication skills. Native English speakers have a huge leg up on Indians and Eastern Europeans in this regard. For example, I imagine Coca-Cola is willing to pay more to have the person writing their ad copy be someone who has been immersed in American culture from birth.
A good portion of Indian engineers speak good English.
Anecdotal evidence only though.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#1755 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…
> some people are just very lonely and need face to face
Sure but some of us are just more extroverted and have better energy in the office. Also having a clean separation of work vs home context can be helpful, training the brain "this is work time"[1]
I think it's totally fair to point out if people are opting for the office just due to a lack of need fulfillment elsewhere in life, but don't think its wise to assume it's only that by a wide margin.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#176The society has a once-a-lifetime opportunity to refactor how it can work, but it squandered it.
Imagine if office buildings are no longer necessary. A lot more hi-rise apartments can be built, cities can be a lot more dense, and light rails can be attractive again.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#1775 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…
> I assume that some people are just very lonely and need face to face Anecdata from Hacker News suggests this is true. A lot of lonely young men here freely admit their coworkers are the only people they regularly interact with in-person, and remote work takes that away from them.
WFHomers need a modern equivalent of the Knitting Bee. Distinct from a co-working space since it is organized by its members who make an effort to get to know each other and it shouldn't be dependent on membership with some organization, just a grassroots locally organized thing.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#1785 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…
>"I assume that some people are just very lonely and need face to face" This. We have managed to completely fuck up life style of the segment of the population to the point that they have no life outside of the office. This is sick.
A good book about this is Bowling Alone. As much as I liked programming, I would also take the day off to go surfing if the waves were good. Another WFH benefit.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#179This surprises...nobody? Except maybe bean counters/management types that need to show off perhaps. With that said, I do have concerns. These issues center around a shift in benefits offered as a result of this new paradigm ( hate using that word but ) around the nature of work. I.e. the gig everything economy coming to your job...soon Many folks in the US work a 9to5 not just for the pay, rather for healthcare and s…
I would guess that the gig economy simply can't come for any jobs that require significant domain expertise or more than a few hour's worth of attention to any single project.
Comparable to how you don't see day laborers doing pipefitting.
Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. I like my commute. If my commute changed I would feel differently. Regardless, I feel employees should get paid for their commutes. 2. I don't have an office in my house. Even if I had the space I don't think I would want to use it for work. However, since coronavirus happened I have had way more space in my office than I did before, and I refuse to be sandwiched between two other engineers in an open office floor…
> Regardless, I feel employees should get paid for their commutes. This opens up way too many cans of worms - some of which (I feel) are very unfair. (Morning shift) I worked at SGI doing tech support on the "East" team. The teams were split up by timezone (we were all in Mountain View - where the Google campus is now). My shift started at 5am (no traffic at all) and I lived about 10 minutes away at that time of day.…
So do you think it's fine that people spend hours each day in service of their company and not getting paid for it?