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Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

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Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#311

Post by ordinaryperson »

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #305
riffraff wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unsure this is the answer you were looking for but I do make a distinction. I've been working remotely for 10+ years, and the 3 months of lockdown were the worst I've had, for the simple reason that _my family was locked in with me_. I am sure remote working is not for everyone, but I like it. Yet, I live in an apartment, my kids can't go out to play and can't be expected to behave all the time, me and my spouse…

This seems to be the primary issue I see at work right now. People without kids are loving wfh and people with kids are struggling with distraction causing some of them to come back to the office just to work remotely with the rest of us.

I do not have kids and do not love WFH during lockdown.

Simple things that would be a 30-second conversation in the office are now 30-minute Zoom meetings.

Slack noise -- already a distractor to begin with -- has gone up 10x.

If I have X hours at home or in the office I know exactly what limited amount of time I have to accomplish a task and can more easily allocate chunks of that time to specific needs.

In lockdown it's like living/working in a casino with no clocks and no sense of time or progress and it's harder to do time management (IMHO).

If I need something from someone in the office I can walk over and ask, virtually people have the ability to ignore you for days on end without consequence.

I have no doubt that some people's personalities prefer this style of interaction but I hate WFH like this (in lockdown) or this much (months on end vs once a week) despite having no kids.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#312

Post by op00to »

larntz wrote: post #291
klenwell wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the part that gets me, too. Here's a summary I put together of where the US stands on the latest "reopen" benchmarks: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQSSp19amBFU... It varies region to region. I'm in Orange County, CA. (You may remember us from such recent news events as...) This was Huntington Beach weekend before last (probably much the same this weekend, too): https://www.reddit.com/r/Coro…

I am in south-ish (north palm beach) Florida and went to the beach the past few weekends. Fortunately it was nowhere near has busy as that picture. We haven't had much issue finding a spot with enough space to feel socially distanced. We also went to Longhorn for dinner yesterday and they had everyone pretty spaced out (every other booth, no seating at center tables). All the restaurant employees were wearing masks.…

You were in an enclosed area. Your risk of contracting Covid is astronomically higher indoors at a place where you remain for more than a few minutes.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#313

Post by heavyset_go »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #148
duxup wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication being going into the office sucks and everyone has to do it to be fair. I wonder if they're aware of that subtext....

I wonder how long it will take for some fortune 500 company to get sued by their white collar office workers who catch COVID.

Employers are champing at the bit for liability to be waived during the pandemic.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#314

Post by moonka »

larntz wrote: post #291
klenwell wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the part that gets me, too. Here's a summary I put together of where the US stands on the latest "reopen" benchmarks: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQSSp19amBFU... It varies region to region. I'm in Orange County, CA. (You may remember us from such recent news events as...) This was Huntington Beach weekend before last (probably much the same this weekend, too): https://www.reddit.com/r/Coro…

I am in south-ish (north palm beach) Florida and went to the beach the past few weekends. Fortunately it was nowhere near has busy as that picture. We haven't had much issue finding a spot with enough space to feel socially distanced. We also went to Longhorn for dinner yesterday and they had everyone pretty spaced out (every other booth, no seating at center tables). All the restaurant employees were wearing masks.…

I can't bring myself to dine out because while I'm not as concerned for myself, I feel like the risk has to be pretty high to the waiters/bussers (prolonged interactions with dozens of people each day, and handling used dishes/silverware). I feel better about takeout currently since it cuts down on that.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#315

Post by Polylactic_acid »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #311
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be the primary issue I see at work right now. People without kids are loving wfh and people with kids are struggling with distraction causing some of them to come back to the office just to work remotely with the rest of us.

I do not have kids and do not love WFH during lockdown. Simple things that would be a 30-second conversation in the office are now 30-minute Zoom meetings. Slack noise -- already a distractor to begin with -- has gone up 10x. If I have X hours at home or in the office I know exactly what limited amount of time I have to accomplish a task and can more easily allocate chunks of that time to specific needs. In lockdown…

>I have no doubt that some people's personalities prefer this style of interaction

I think its more that other workplaces do not have this kind of interaction. I have found that a 30 second conversation might take a 1 minute call now but certainly a 30 minute call sounds absurd.

For me time has stayed the same. I start and finish at the same time and I go for lunch for the same time as I did before. I don't have work email or IM on my phone so once I close my laptop work is done.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#316

Post by joshuahughes »

aedocw wrote: post #224
chrisco255 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but if you actually look at the death count, it has dropped in the past month and a half, despite re-openings: https://ga-covid19.ondemand.sas.com/ Georgia being one of the earliest states to re-open, continue to see their deaths plummet even as their case count increases. What's the reason for this? I don't know. Better testing, maybe. Maybe a less deadly version of the virus is propagating now. Not sure.

It takes a while for people to die after infection. Give states like Georgia time to catch up. Their hospitals will be overwhelmed and the numbers of deaths will get there. There is no "less deadly version of the virus". Treatment protocols have improved but that has not dramatically changed the odds of at-risk folks dying.

Honestly curious... what is there to gain from pessimistic fear-mongering if the data is stubbornly telling a different story?

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#317

Post by ClumsyPilot »

jb775 wrote: post #37
Loughla wrote: post #5

Meanwhile, my employer has said zero remote work once the state transitions into the next phase. They want to be "fair" to everyone, including those who have positions that cannot be performed remotely. So, you have a co-morbidity? Nope. You have no childcare suddenly? Nope. It's startling how stuck in the 1980's some people are. Just absolutely astonishing.

If that's their mindset with remote work, they probably have the "anti-adapt" mindset in other aspects of their business as well...which means they'll probably become dinosaurs and be out of business within the next 10 years.

I wouldnt hold my breath, these types are widely distributed

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#318

Post by heavyset_go »

ubermonkey wrote: post #251

A cycling pal of mine is an in-house lawyer at a big oil company here in Houston. They were told a couple weeks ago that there were no plans to go back to the office until at LEAST 2021. All the work is being done just fine.

Big telco company is also telling their employees not to expect to return to offices until at least 2021, and to expect maybe even two years of working remotely before returning to work is reconsidered.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#319

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #163
majormajor wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm inclined to agree, but I do wonder how we avoid people just adjusting their risk threshold to account for the welfare state. Which direction are you picturing this going? I would be a lot more flexible in what jobs I would take, what things I would consider doing with my life (starting my own company, taking time off and pursuing some sort of artistic side project...) if I had a good health care safety net. So…

I was specifically concerned that people would take unproductive risks. Worse business investments, having children outside of an unstable family situation more often, etc. But your point is a good one; my concern could be unfounded and maybe people would be more productive? I genuinely don't know. One question I would have about your model is how it stacks up against countries with strong social safety nets? Do they…

> Worse business investments, having children outside of an unstable family situation more

People do this regardless.

Re: Most employees of NYT won’t be required back in physical offices until 2021

#320

Post by jayd16 »

chrisco255 wrote: post #213
UncleOxidant wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how so many people/entities want to pretend that somehow the pandemic is less dangerous now than it was in March when we started all of the isolating/WFH. When in fact we have a lot more cases now, high levels of new cases and more than half the states have R0 > 1.0. https://rt.live/

Yes, but if you actually look at the death count, it has dropped in the past month and a half, despite re-openings: https://ga-covid19.ondemand.sas.com/ Georgia being one of the earliest states to re-open, continue to see their deaths plummet even as their case count increases. What's the reason for this? I don't know. Better testing, maybe. Maybe a less deadly version of the virus is propagating now. Not sure.

When you can have an ICU bed your chances are much better. There's a very steep inflection point when the hospitals reach capacity. Right now we're highly provisioned so it makes sense that the numbers show as less deadly.

The main take away is the infection rate is not linearly correlated to the death rate.

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