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Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

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Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#121

Post by horns4lyfe »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #40
rob74 wrote: post #31

Well, this article only underscores what we all have seen in the past years: remote working is better for employees (and potentially society as a whole, and the environment). Unfortunately companies prefer to have their employees less happy, but under tighter control, so tendencies to restrict remote work are getting stronger. Let's see if they manage to put the genie back into the bottle...

Just like with everything else nothing is universal. My team and I are again dipping our toes to office and our office day is by far most productive day of the week for us. Only problem is that we transitioned to "open smart office" over the pandemic, so we no longer have personal desks. However that too should be resolved by Q4 as renovations come to and end and hopefully we can carve out our own space again.

I think the point is that parents spending more time with their children might be more important than squeezing every last ounce of productivity out of people.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#122

Post by alistairSH »

jossclimb wrote: post #12

I have been remote for 11 years now and have two children 9 and 12. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had spent the week out commuting between the hours of 7am to 7pm, we would have lost out on so much bonding time with their daddy being an integral part of their life. I managed to be highly productive, build a career, yet be there for bath times, tucking into bed, school plays / sports days, nursing…

I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had spent the week out commuting between the hours of 7am to 7pm

FWIW, I commuted through most of my son's childhood. I still made it home for those things you list. But, it did take optimizing house location/commute, etc. I certainly wasn't gone 7am-7pm. Even with 60 min of driving and 60 min for lunch, that's an 10 hour day.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#123

Post by horns4lyfe »

lynx23 wrote: post #33

If the pandemic has demonstrated one thing, it is that I don't want to work in an environment where almost everyone is remote. It has become very clear that WFH workers take extra time off at random intervals during a day, and are typically hard to reach if you need to talk to them. Also, the smaller the children, the more likely it is they are subtly unavailable during work time. This is not acceptable, even though…

God forbid someone isn’t at your beck and call every second the day. What is the point of that story? You admit the person you used as evidence was a bad example.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#124

Post by horns4lyfe »

lynx23 wrote: post #71
flangola7 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that's not acceptable is micromanaging bosses and the attitude that business is more important than family.

If family is more important then your paycheck, why dont you resign? Why should someone without a family invest more at work just because you consider work a secondary thing?

What a weird binary. Obviously someone’s children are more important to them than their job. Are you suggesting that’s a problem?

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#125

Post by fundad »

humanrebar wrote: post #72
passwordoops wrote: post #47

This is all true, and I do feel very lucky to have a WFH arrangement, but I always think of the people who have jobs that cannot be remote - hospital, care takers, teachers (right now). Most are carried out by women, earning low wages, doing what's been termed "essential" work. There is a definite bifurcation between the (generally upper) laptop class and the (generally lower) caretaker class. I'm not sure what the s…

> Most are carried out by women, ... Is that true? I can rattle off a list of male-dominated jobs that are absolutely not remote, like basically all the "trades" and a list of jobs popular with women that are at least somewhat remote friendly. Does someone have evidence?

The women-dominated fields are larger and growing faster.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#126

Post by antisthenes »

Tade0 wrote: post #79

Almost every parent of 4+ that I know follows the same pattern: they live in the middle of buttfuck nowhere in a detached house in a low cost of living area and work remotely, while their spouse is a homemaker. Our whole team is remote so toddlers sometimes participate in standups and that is fine - they lose interest after a few minutes anyway. I can't imagine going somewhere every day and not participating in my ch…

> Our whole team is remote so toddlers sometimes participate in standups and that is fine - they lose interest after a few minutes anyway.

The toddlers or the team? Standups should only be a few minutes anyway.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#127

Post by rco8786 »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #115
rco8786 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but the lack of uninterrupted quiet time is real. Do you have dedicated office space in your home? This is crucial. Additionally, once the kids go to school the house gets very, very quiet for most of the day.

> Additionally, once the kids go to school the house gets very, very quiet for most of the day. Sounds glorious. If you need some daytime distraction get a cat or dog. Taking the house-beast for a stroll around the neighborhood is good for my mental health, gets me away from work, and keeps the pooch happy. Kids make having a dog easier too -- he can bug them to play while I finish reports.

> Sounds glorious.

It is, but also I really miss having lunch with them. And definitely get a little stir crazy if I forget to go outside now, so I usually take a 20-30 minute walk around lunch time.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#128

Post by Draiken »

tyoma wrote: post #70
jossclimb wrote: post #12

I have been remote for 11 years now and have two children 9 and 12. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had spent the week out commuting between the hours of 7am to 7pm, we would have lost out on so much bonding time with their daddy being an integral part of their life. I managed to be highly productive, build a career, yet be there for bath times, tucking into bed, school plays / sports days, nursing…

I’ve also been working from home and very glad to have been there for my kids when they are young, but highly productive are not two words I’d use to describe the experience. I guess my time management and prioritization skill have improved by necessity, but the lack of uninterrupted quiet time is real.

Sure maybe having kids around might sometimes affect your productivity, but how is that any different than being in an open office?

Phone calls, people talking around you, movement everywhere, unwanted taps on your shoulder and a lot more.

Unless your job provides you with a closed office where you can actually focus on, it's pretty much the same as having kids around.

When I worked in an office I remember the most productive hour I had was right after I got there, because I arrived ~1h early (due to commuting BS) and was basically alone.

Once teammates arrive, it's chaos. No matter how good your headphones are, something will interrupt you at random times just like your kids. Except if you do have an office in your house, you can actually close the door and have uninterrupted time, even if it's in small chunks.

Re: Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation

#129

Post by 4k3aa4 »

lynx23 wrote: post #33

If the pandemic has demonstrated one thing, it is that I don't want to work in an environment where almost everyone is remote. It has become very clear that WFH workers take extra time off at random intervals during a day, and are typically hard to reach if you need to talk to them. Also, the smaller the children, the more likely it is they are subtly unavailable during work time. This is not acceptable, even though…

> It has become very clear that WFH workers take extra time off at random intervals during a day

Bob Slydell: You see, what we're actually trying to do here is, we're trying to get a feel for how people spend their day at work... so, if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah.

Bob Slydell: Great.

Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.

Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

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