Rise of remote work

[wtburnette]

My favorite meetings are always the ones I spend outside on my desk in the summer...

 

[DoggyDaddy]

We do get a lot of freedom for temporary and unusual situations. Though most everyone is currently working from home and has been for at least a month no one has had to enter into telework agreements that wasn't already working remotely. We've always been able to do work around life rather than the other way around. With the weather getting nicer I expect to see more video meetings with people outside.

I had to go inside for my Skype (no video - sound only with one person sharing their screen with us) meeting earlier. The wind chimes and birds singing would have been a distraction.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I'm a little backwards than most of you on this thread. (Normal for me being an outlier). I spent the first 20+ years working from home. It has been in the last 7-8 years that I have had to come into an office. My company is Japanese so they are really not receptive to letting people work from home.

I do know this about myself: I get more done WFH. Like rosejm, i am more about performance. I figure I am about 20% more effective WFH.

Some days when I'm in my cube at work I am thankful that most of my life has been working from home and on the road traveling. I was really lucky. I would like to get back to that, but if I can't, I will ride out my last 10 years in the office.

They definitely get more work out of me WFH. When I'm in the office, I start at 6 a.m. and come 3 p.m., I'm on my way to the car. WFH, I start at 4 a.m., and still work until 3 p.m., but if I need to work over, I'm much more willing to do so knowing that I won't have to fight the evening rush hour traffic. Plus, I'm a smoker. Don't have to leave my desk for a smoke break when I'm at home.

 

[wtburnette]

Yep, the lack of a commute is a huge part of the appeal for me.

 

[WebSnyper]

I am a designer for an engineering firm and this week starts my sixth week of working from home. For the past five years, I have asked about working from home during my annual review, only to be told no and never being given a real answer as to why.

That's because the reason why not is that "they said so" and there isn't a good reason.

I normally WFH 2 days a week and at an office (customer) 3 days a week and been like that for several years. I pretty much make my own schedule on that. I did that because face time with my customer is a good thing and I pick up on things I would not otherwise get involved in, etc, hallway conversations, etc. That said, I've been WFH, all of March and April due to current situation. I could be WFH all the time, and some folks on my team do that because their customers are not close by, etc. We don't ever have to go into our own offices, and before all this would have travel a couple of times a year for training, team meetings, etc. WFH technologies and collaboration tools, etc have all gotten much better in the last few years, such that meetings these days are more productive via calls (once people get used to it and get up to speed on the tools). I can work from any location (if no internet I can just use my hotspot).

My brother in FL has been WFH for so long I don't remember how long he's been doing it. Probably 20 years.

 

[9mmfan]

I worked from home for 2 straight weeks save for Wednesdays. This is my 2nd week back full time.

I absolutely loved it. Slept an hour later, ate less and got to eat lunch on my front porch. And I was much more productive than usual
I guess working in a medical office makes it kind of hard to work full time at home.

 

[Thor]

With many of our more dense population areas in this country being decades behind demand for road space I would think widespread working from home could be a potential long term solution.

Of course some municipalities may be afraid that they might lose tax base if the employers realize talent doesn't need to hold down a chair in a traditional office within reasonable commuting range...heck they might even work from a different state! I could see a lot of politicians getting creative with the concept of 'property' taxes.

I've been working from home or the RV for 17yrs. I had regular travel for meetings until March. Now on hold with the DoD until July at least.

My current team works from IN, OH, ID, AZ, FL, AK and MI. We may only see each other every couple of years.

 

[wtburnette]

With many of our more dense population areas in this country being decades behind demand for road space I would think widespread working from home could be a potential long term solution.

Of course some municipalities may be afraid that they might lose tax base if the employers realize talent doesn't need to hold down a chair in a traditional office within reasonable commuting range...heck they might even work from a different state! I could see a lot of politicians getting creative with the concept of 'property' taxes.

I've been working from home or the RV for 17yrs. I had regular travel for meetings until March. Now on hold with the DoD until July at least.

My current team works from IN, OH, ID, AZ, FL, AK and MI. We may only see each other every couple of years.

Local governments should offer companies enticements to allow more remote workers honestly, as it would reduce traffic on already overburdened roadways. It's been great during the lockdown trying to go anywhere during the day when traffic is way lighter than it used to be. Imagine if that could be the norm. I would say that would be very beneficial in a number of ways.

Remote work is also very good for employers in multiple ways. Not only can they reduce costs in real estate and other ways, but the talent pool can be nationwide, or even wider. As long as someone can do the job and has a reliable internet connection, they can do the job. Instead of just hiring from a small local talent pool, they would literally have talent from around the world to choose from. Instead of companies paying lip service to hiring the "best and brightest", they could actually have a shot at doing so.

 

[russc2542]

Also getting in on the WFH all of a sudden. Part of the reason I haven't before is because of the union contract: even though mine certainly can, many people's (in the union) jobs cannot be performed from home (running/monitoring equipment, working on engines, etc) and that wouldn't be equitable. That and the union's for hourly folk and tracking/verifying hours for home workers has some potential issues. All of a sudden around the holidays they sent out an email declaring WFH was allowed when justified and a month ago when the virus stuff started getting serious in the states my boss wanders over and asks "so... uh how do you feel about working from home?" Other than one day I went in to get some wiring and papers when it went from a week or 2 to long term, I haven't been there in 5 weeks now.

Now, downside is my work cubicle is more ergonomic than the desk at home. My desk at home is my computer first and my work laptop is an intruder but the way things are going, that's gonna have to be re-evaluated. Then there's the 7yo needing schooling and entertainment lol.

Totally agree on the hours worked vs what's accomplished. I like my cubicle way in the back, on the side, with my back to the wall and dead end. Same with work a bit, something else a while, work a while, something else a while.

 

[wtburnette]

Yep. A whole lot of flexibility with working from home. Add in the savings for the employer with real estate and power costs and it's a real win-win.

 

[diver dan]

I was just wondering with all these companies going to be work from home,whats going to happen with ALL these office buildings all around, there all gonna be empty, then what ?Are they going to end up a eye sore or what ? Developers are probably going to convert them to condos I guessing, I just hope it doesnt become another mess.Just wondering about it.

 

[russc2542]

I was just wondering with all these companies going to be work from home,whats going to happen with ALL these office buildings all around, there all gonna be empty, then what ?Are they going to end up a eye sore or what ? Developers are probably going to convert them to condos I guessing, I just hope it doesnt become another mess.Just wondering about it.

Depends, we were over capacity (justified by corporate with "open seating" aka just not giving many people desks) so if 1/3 of people start working from home we might actually have almost enough desks now.

Of course it'll become another mess, this is America, that's what we do.

 

[bwframe]

'When the company you work for doesn't micromanage you': Remote worker says he does 8 hours of work in 30 minutes, sparking debate

'People saying you don’t have enough work have drunk the capitalist kool-aid.'

www.dailydot.com

The future of remote work, according to 6 experts

Make the case for working remotely — but not so much that your job gets outsourced.

www.vox.com

 

[wtburnette]

'When the company you work for doesn't micromanage you': Remote worker says he does 8 hours of work in 30 minutes, sparking debate

'People saying you don’t have enough work have drunk the capitalist kool-aid.'

www.dailydot.com

The future of remote work, according to 6 experts

Make the case for working remotely — but not so much that your job gets outsourced.

www.vox.com

To the first article I say, DUH. I won't read the second because it's Vox the Pox and those Leftists can go pound sand.

The only thing I have a problem with was this quote:

“People saying you don’t have enough work have drunk the capitalist kool-aid and it makes me sad,” a user explained. “People, this is the life we can aim for.”

It's not a problem with capitalism per se, it's how businesses choose to operate, which is absolutely stupid. This person gets it:

“People really don’t understand that it’s not about time,” a third user claimed. “It’s about completing tasks that your company expects.”

Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of productivity related jobs where this is not the case. If you're on an assembly line, or certain things like that, you'll likely need all the time possible to complete the work needing to be done. For a lot of office work, it's not like that. I have so much work that needs to be done in a week. When I was in the office, I would sit and goof off on the internet, take walks around the building or visit with coworkers to kill the time that was extra because I didn't need 8 hours to do the tasks I was assigned. Now that I WFH, I'm like one of the people in the article who can get their tasks done in 2 hours. Most of the rest of my team needs more time, probably 6 hours. No one really needs 8. Luckily we're salaried and our manager expects a certain amount of tasks completed and doesn't care at all about the time it takes.

I would love to see more managers go this route, but fear any type of actual disruption too broadly because companies will 100% screw it up. They'll just double or triple the workload, even if it's completely unnecessary. Just the way most execs think.

 

[Ingomike]

'When the company you work for doesn't micromanage you': Remote worker says he does 8 hours of work in 30 minutes, sparking debate

'People saying you don’t have enough work have drunk the capitalist kool-aid.'

www.dailydot.com

The future of remote work, according to 6 experts

Make the case for working remotely — but not so much that your job gets outsourced.

www.vox.com

“It turns out there’s a dangerous line between arguing for remote work and arguing yourself out of a job.”

@KLB will be here to tell us this is all wrong.

And @wtburnette already has. LOL

 

[wtburnette]

“It turns out there’s a dangerous line between arguing for remote work and arguing yourself out of a job.”

@KLB will be here to tell us this is all wrong.

I beat him to it...

 

[bobzilla]

When they make it so I can check in parts from home, inspect for damage and hand them out to the body guys I'm golden. Until then....

When I was doing UOA, most of the office could work from home and they rotated a week at a time. I didn't have that option because I was doing microscope work which could only be done in office. So, even in the worst of the "pandemic" I was driving in to work in an empty office all day. They required masks, which didn't work well for our scopes as it would fog lenses with my hot breath. They would bitch but then I'd just offer to go home and work from there like everyone else (I was the only one doing 100+ slides per week). They shut their traps pretty quick.

 

[Ingomike]

I beat him to it...

“Working remotely significantly reduces your opportunities to build relationships with people who can influence your career”

I believe this quote. For those with the company a long time this does not matter as much. They had the benefit of building relationships and remote work.

 

[wtburnette]

“Working remotely significantly reduces your opportunities to build relationships with people who can influence your career”

I believe this quote. For those with the company a long time this does not matter as much. They had the benefit of building relationships and remote work.

Sure, I can see that. Thankfully for me I'm closer to the end of my career than the beginning, by far. That said, I get half a dozen recruiters hitting me up every week because InfoSec is a high demand career field and I have a lot of time, experience and education in the field. I have no worries that working from home is stunting my career.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Now that I WFH, I'm like one of the people in the article who can get their tasks done in 2 hours.

Same here sometimes. Then there are times like the last 3 weeks where I'm going balls to the wall from 4:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (with an hour lunch). Just finished that up yesterday. Today has felt like it does when you've been in a really noisy, hectic crowd of people and step outside where it's quiet.