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Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

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Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#191
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extrovert / introvert. You're clearly more towards the extrovert part of the spectrum. Please try to have empathy for people on the introverted part of the spectrum who cannot fathom being forced into an office with tons of people distracting them all day every day. Heretofore they (save for a lucky few like me) have been forced to not just fathom it, but live it. The "half" of Americans mentioned in the article prob…

> Extrovert / introvert. You're clearly more towards the extrovert part of the spectrum. That's the thing: I don't consider myself very extroverted! Probably on the extrovert side of the scale, but very moderately so! > Please try to have empathy for people on the introverted part of the spectrum who cannot fathom being forced into an office with tons of people distracting them all day every day. Heretofore they (sav…

Well, here are two things to think about that may salve your fears:

1) There are just as many extroverts as introverts. You are very much not alone in your desires.

2) Management is overwhelmingly extroverts, because of the people managing required in the management profession. The C-Suite is almost entirely extroverts.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#192
post #16

> Half of all Americans want to continue working from home following the coronavirus That is a VERY rough (actually false) sentance, considering they have only surveyed ~500 Americans out of 205'950'000+ population at working age. > We surveyed over 500 Americans...

You should look up polling theory. You don't need to talk to every member of a population, only a representative sample.

My point was that sample size is too small. According to Standard Occupational Classification [https://www.bls.gov/soc/] there are 459 broad occupations.

Multiply that by age group and you still haven't tossed a coin even a single time for every combination of occupation/age group.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#194
This survey is ...bad.

- Seventy-nine percent of workers can work from home at least some of the time? Maybe the ones your survey reached, but I'm pretty sure I've read the real fraction is under 30%. - "Do you think your employer will make working remote permanent?" is a bad question because it's easy to interpret it multiple ways.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#195
The survey doesn't say how many people they asked, but looking at their chart sliced by age it's a very small sample: looks like ~30 in the 55-64 age group? They also don't say anything about how they found their participants. I'm pretty skeptical that asking these questions to a large representative sample would give similar results.

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#196
post #29

I wonder if this is related to the long commutes Americans have gotten used to. I'm not in the US, and while I would say I definitely appreciate the flexibility of being able to work from home (or from "not the office") every now and then, and I do like the present drop in meetings, I cannot fathom how people stay sane without a variety of other people around. My productivity has definitely dropped, and it feels like…

Sounds like you have not yet developed the mindset/means to adapt...but you can if you choose to!

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#197
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also worked at Google after almost 20 years of working at home. I didn’t mind the cube environment because I worked from about 6am to 3pm, giving me a few hours of quiet heads down time every day. My last job before retiring at Capital One was the same, I started work early in the morning for heads down work time, was available for brainstorming, etc., then knocked off work mid afternoon. I really recommend time sh…

YES. Early morning time is the most productive time for many people. It's all downhill after lunch. The problem is, many companies are more hip about WFH than hour shifting. It's not a thing. If you start coming into work early to get more done, you will get the looks if you don't stay in the office until 6:00PM, just like everyone. That is not sustainable. However, if you are a European or Indian offshore, then hour…

> YES. Early morning time is the most productive time for many people. It's all downhill after lunch.

For me and many others it's right the other way around. The single way you can kill my productivity is to force me to get up earlier than 8. Now with Corona lockdowns, I can get up at 9 (!) and actually feel rested!

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#198
post #29

I wonder if this is related to the long commutes Americans have gotten used to. I'm not in the US, and while I would say I definitely appreciate the flexibility of being able to work from home (or from "not the office") every now and then, and I do like the present drop in meetings, I cannot fathom how people stay sane without a variety of other people around. My productivity has definitely dropped, and it feels like…

My work is all meetings all the time, now. I’m on the phone most of the day. Little things that used to take 20 minutes now take an hour. I used to enjoy working from home a couple days a week because I got some peace and quiet and knew I could catch back up with people when I returned to the office. I went from loving to hating my job in the last three weeks. I am also constantly distracted by having the kids around…

Jealous of what - that they will soon be out of a job?

Re: Half of American workers would rather work from home forever: poll

#199

I've worked from home since 2001, except for a brief 2 year stint at Google. I think I'm far more productive at home because I have: - An office, with a door I can close This was going to be a big list, but I actually think that just about sums it up. The cube environment at Google was utterly intolerable, and made it hard to concentrate. It didn't help that the guys in another group next to us had a game where they…

I also worked at Google after almost 20 years of working at home. I didn’t mind the cube environment because I worked from about 6am to 3pm, giving me a few hours of quiet heads down time every day. My last job before retiring at Capital One was the same, I started work early in the morning for heads down work time, was available for brainstorming, etc., then knocked off work mid afternoon. I really recommend time sh…

I did the same thing. I would get to the office before 6 and have 2-3 hours of quiet time. That was the only way that I was able to get anything done.

The bad thing is that, almost 5 years later, my sleep schedule is still screwed up because of this. I have a really hard time sleeping past 5:30am, and I'm afraid its damaged my health.

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