91–100 of 143 posts
One downside of full time working from home is that the WFH workers are faceless, and easier to cut if it comes time to lay off employees. It's harder to tell the worker you eat lunch with every day that you're laying him off than the worker you only know via video chat.
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I doubt they have the hills I have to contend with. I don't want to show up to work drenched in sweat.
Hmmm... I get that, but... A place I worked at provided showers, mainly at the instigation of people who biked to work. Thirty years ago.
Now I'm dragging a set of clothes/shoes, soap, towel/rag, hair brush, razor, shaving cream, etc to work? Probably should wear sandals in the shower unless I want foot fungus. Then what do I do with my wet towel and stank clothes? Stuff them in a bag where they stink worse? Hang them in my cube?
Then I head home and have to put on my stank clothes and get all sweated up again. Time for another shower I guess.
And that's not mentioning the time in transit, probably an hour a day round trip by bike. This is why I live close to my work. I can drive there with all the street lights and park, portal to portal in 10 minutes.
I consider myself, without doubt, to be an introvert. I hate parties with a passion, and am perfectly happy in my own head compared to even hanging out with a good friend. But I hated working at home. The isolation was terrible, not to mention the challenges of working on project teams (even with Slack etc). I felt lonely and less motivated. It is funny though, because my wife is the opposite of me on the social scal…
Your wife might be very social. Perhaps working at home gives her a respite from all of that social interaction, helping her to focus more. Some people struggle to focus and deal with interruptions in office settings.
You being an introvert may struggle to commute and form bonds remotely. You may feel like you read people better and connect better in person.
Now imagine there was something here that applied to more people. What it would mean is that smart managers should look to give workers environments that maximize their work and personality styles.
In less click-bait-y headlines: "A record 2.6% of American employees now go to their jobs without ever leaving their houses". In more absurd headlines: "A record 2.6% of American employees now transfer to their jobs INSTANTANEOUSLY."
* not taking into consideration people living too far from work to walk or bike, which would skew numbers a lot, since majority of people can't walk or ride bike to work because it's not within reasonable distance
I think this might be pretty damning on how unwalkable and unbikable America is.
The biggest hurdle to biking and walking, for those who are already comfortable doing those activities, is showering. I don't want to show up to the office drenched in sweat, making the work area smell like a gym. And there are some things that you can do, like the wipes and that, but they don't feel anything like a shower. The more offices that either put in showers, or locate near gyms and places that do have showe…
You don't have to bike like a madman when you commute. You can bike at a moderate pace 10-12 mph (roughly 4x walking) pace and not break a sweat.
I've been working from home for 10 years; our entire company is a virtual office. For me, there's far more positives than negatives, but every personality is different. Some people can't handle it. Sometimes work invades personal/family time, and sometimes it's the other way around. I miss the social, in-person part, but I spend more time with my family. And we have enough calls, IM's, and occasional in-person meetin…
I really wish I had your same relaxed feeling about social interaction. More than being outside, it's the random social interaction I miss. I notice more and more it's having a negative impact on my health. I feel less motivated, less energetic, and downright depressed some days.
I attribute it to the fact that, like you, I can go a full week without going outside... But unlike you, it really is starting to hurt me. In a given week, I'll have face to face conversation for as little as 30 minutes. I've never considered myself a very outgoing, or "extroverted" person, so this has all been something of a surprise to me. I would never have thought that random social interaction could be so important (for me).
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The biggest downside to me is decreasing the ways to make a friends and being social. I worked remote for about 8 months and I got bored seeing the same room in the day and the night. Of course not having a commute is an amazing thing and environmentally friendly, but I felt very disconnected from the world. I think once working from home is the norm something will have to exist to allow for meeting new people beside…
Well with the time saved from your commute, you could get involved in something locally. You could talk to your neighbors...
When talking to companies I am always surprised by how many are not friendly to fully remote employees, even ones who work on online collaborative tools.
It's interesting to see that the average earnings of people who bike to work are increasing so much faster than the other groups. There's a stereotype that people who bike for transportation are just rich spoiled white liberals. I have no idea where it came from, and I'm pretty sure that historically it has been the opposite of the truth, but it's used as a political weapon by people on both ends of the political spe…
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-c...
It's interesting to see that the average earnings of people who bike to work are increasing so much faster than the other groups. There's a stereotype that people who bike for transportation are just rich spoiled white liberals. I have no idea where it came from, and I'm pretty sure that historically it has been the opposite of the truth, but it's used as a political weapon by people on both ends of the political spe…
Motorists (and many pedestrians) just hate cyclists and look for any excuse to marginalize them. If they go too slow, they're slowing down traffic, if they go too fast they're a menace. If they're spandex clad, they're hated for their wealth, and if they're toting delivery food they're hated for their poverty. There's no winning. Despite cycling being the obvious fastest and cheapest way to get around in a dense urba…
When I lived in Oakland and would bike to Pleasanton for work (26 miles one way, taking BART back), the infrastructure was far worse but the drivers never gave me any trouble.