Is remote work bad for the economy?

the main problem with restaurants is lack of control of ingredients and fixed portion sizes. i can't adjust based on how hungry i am.

I'm not calling people insane who work those hours. I'm saying it's insane that this behaviour is considered normal.

You like your job, and that's good. And hopefully you will feel the same way in another 10/20/30/40 years.

Many, many people don't, yet because of the way our world works they have to keep plugging away at something they don't like, losing a phenomenal amount of their life, with a couple of gaps (holidays, weekends) thrown in as a treat. Not many of those gaps are really sufficient for pursuing anything of significant value. And the biggest gap, being at the end of life, when the bodys and minds best years are behind it.

People who work in under-stimulating jobs, and people who work with something they're interested in/passionate about or something they trained all of their life for, all feel this way at some point. Such a working schedule (which as I said is lucky, as many people work more than that) takes away so many other opportunities in life. It also has a severe effect on health. The lack of exercise and poor nutrition (you know when you finish work sometimes and you can't be bothered cooking, so you order takeout) we see in the Western world today has led to soaring obesity and overweight levels which has huge implications for society at large.

If you gave most people the choice to cut their working hours down, or to cease working entirely, I think they would take it (unless they needed money). I think most people would want to work to some degree (3/4 days a week), but if we started from scratch, nobody would choose to work 5 of 7 days a week, half of the daily waking hours (plus travel and the other bits, as well as the hours lost to rest and recuperate for the next day).

I can't see many people dropping work entirely, as it's a good way to have a sense of purpose. But it's hard to find a purpose in many jobs, increasingly so as everything gets automated. Remember, for every person that is lucky enough to work with something interesting, many more people are sat bored out of their mind waiting for the end of the day. There really isn't enough stimulating work to go round everybody.

You might be a good hard working person, but many people procrastinate simply because they don't enjoy their job. They'll procrastinate working from home, and they'll procrastinate at the office. The average office isn't a high surveillance environment. Many of your colleagues are probably browsing Reddit, Hacker News, Facebook, news websites etc. right now.

And to add to that, the physical and mental health implications and other points I mentioned, as well as points others have made about environmental damage from car commuting / congestion.

None of this should be normal. If we started from a point in time of people working less, as opposed to almost all the time (in the Industrial Revolution), it would be considered crazy if somebody suddenly came up with the idea to get everybody in an office 5 days a week. But it's considered normal and acceptable because it's a step down from the insane working practices of the times that came before (Industrial Revolution, 6 days a week, kids working in factories).

I miss being able to hang out with work friends at the office, but not enough to go back to the open floor plan horror show. Not to mention living downtown near 3 freeways and having to dodge traffic just to get some groceries...

I don't really enjoy having my words twisted like you did, but since you are appearing to be more reasonable after the fact, I'll leave this comment for you

No, me saying "You should consider more than your own happiness" is not saying "The economy matters more than your own happiness", that is you completing the thought inside YOUR head, the thought that says 'YOUR HAPPINESS DOES NOT MATTER, GDP DOES'. Thinking even just a bit beyond your own 'happiness' and considering the impacts of your choices is far from saying 'reconsider your entire life'.

But none of that matters now. This thread is 2 days old, and I don't really care for your opinion since I fear that you will just discount mine even more, and argue with some strawman you built in your head instead.

The idea is to decouple "the company you work for" from "the place you work at" for everyone, including those who want to work in an office. Basically, coworking places everywhere. You sign a contract with the company. You either work from home, or find a coworking place where you rent a desk, or coordinate with some of your colleagues to rent a desk at the same place. You could make a different choice on different days.

> removing an outlet for socializing for people that are new to the area / country and don’t have friends

The coworking places would have quiet desks, and also rooms to chat, with sound isolation. Whenever you want to get social, you walk to the room, and socialize. You can meet people who work at the same company, or people who work at different companies. When you feel like working again, walk back to your desk.

> lack of face to face team bonding for new employees

People working at the same company could agree to spend one day in a week at the same coworking place. This could be flexible, like if the company has 1000 employees, but your team has 10, only those 10 people need to coordinate together.

> reduced ability to learn by absorbing what happens around oneself

Either coordinate with your colleagues, or share the screen remotely. I learned a few things by watching my colleagues do things on their computers in a different country.

> higher competition for junior and mid-career positions from other countries

Well, yes. More opportunities for someone means more competition for someone else. That said, many companies found out that hiring people from other countries has its own challenges, so you will always have an advantage of being local.