Working From Home

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calhoonjugganaut

Trakanon Raider
1,447
1,411
Please direct me to the correct post if I have overlooked it / merge this if possible.

I'm sure a lot of people on here are working from home. For me it has it's pros and cons.

Pros include getting time with my 4.5 yr old and almost 2 yr old girls, not having to fight traffic (45 mins in the morning if I leave at the right time, 60-75 mins in the afternoon getting off at 5), getting to interact with more people, more options for lunch are better, not having to wear a headset (I know some people prefer it but I would rather have an actual phone). Daycare for our oldest daughter (still expensive for us but not to be taken as a con, but rather a pro).

Cons include my girls having melt downs in our 1400 sq ft apartment, the dog barking, my wife also working from home and getting a call when I get a call and one if not both of the girls having a meltdown, not being able to pay attention to the kids, the normally free baby sitter grand parents being 69 yrs old + and my wife and I agreeing to not the let the kids around them like that, making my own lunch (not so bad I guess), daycare continued to charge us through all of this $300 every two weeks for our 4 yr old who attended twice a week though we kept her at home with us during this time.

I'm an independent insurance adjuster and I work for a great company. They have sent me a box of gourmet brownies, a box of face masks, and call every week to check on me and my family. I work in a cubicle type of area and I probably occupy about 120 sq ft much like 16 other people in my department in basically the same roles. We have a lot more people working upstairs in various other roles and maybe smaller work spaces in a much larger area.

The question I've been pondering is if we have been performing so well working from home, what's the point of dressing up and doing the same work at a place where you have to commute almost two hours to and from per day? What's the point of the company continuing to rent/lease this space they have for us all. It's an awesome building afterall but I have the same amount of bathrooms in my 1400 sq ft apartment for both genders as they are paying for this likely 60,000+ sq ft. space per floor (not as many toilets, but 2 urinals and 2 stalls per 20K sq ft or more....)

Anyways, I'd imagine I'm not alone. It seems like a lot of amenities are paid for that aren't really necessary. My work flow has been the same if not better and I feel like the way we enter our work status' would reveal if a statement like that differentiated from the claim. Just curious if others feel the same.
 
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Ishad

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
4,739
4,520
I went to the office to grab my monitors/docking station/desk chair to be able to better work from home in the long term. Right now the challenge is having the little ones around, but long term I’m thinking I’d like to only go back to the office once or twice a week at most.

I’d miss some of the social interaction, but the daily commute can fuck right off. Plus I’d get more quality time with the kids after school.
 
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Qhue

Trump's Staff
7,465
4,413
A great many people are asking this same question. Obviously not everyone as there are plenty of jobs that still require a physical presence to work on equipment or with product etc., but for anyone who spends their days sitting in front of a computer punctuated only by moving to a video conference room to Zoom with people in other buildings this is just a natural progression.

Before the lockdown I would often commute to my ultra expensive open floorplan office and just sit there working on my computer and communicating with other co-workers solely via Slack. Then I would pack up my laptop and head back home on the same crowded train, often never actually interacting with a human being. It was highly illogical that in an era where the company was losing money that we would have this whole expensive boondoggle that no one really wanted or even found useful.
 
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LiquidDeath

Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
4,828
11,118
A great many people are asking this same question. Obviously not everyone as there are plenty of jobs that still require a physical presence to work on equipment or with product etc., but for anyone who spends their days sitting in front of a computer punctuated only by moving to a video conference room to Zoom with people in other buildings this is just a natural progression.

Before the lockdown I would often commute to my ultra expensive open floorplan office and just sit there working on my computer and communicating with other co-workers solely via Slack. Then I would pack up my laptop and head back home on the same crowded train, often never actually interacting with a human being. It was highly illogical that in an era where the company was losing money that we would have this whole expensive boondoggle that no one really wanted or even found useful.

I think that this will ultimately be the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to mass WFH.

It has unmasked the (always thin) lie that physically being in the office was somehow important for the vast majority of computer-based work.
 
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moonarchia

The Scientific Shitlord
20,900
37,884
My team can do their job 100% from home, so I dunno whether the bosses will change or not. My company was hard against WFH.
 
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Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
11,811
41,152
I've worked from home for almost 20 years. What is going to change long term is that physical footprints for businesses are definitely going to get smaller. My job had about 55 or so offices around the country. We have permanently shut down 3 downtown locations, and about 5 others since the beginning of the year. Some were obviously pre-Covid19, but the powers that be very quickly realized the savings.

Most of the people I work with also have been working home for years, so we see no changes really. The general staff though love it for the most part. But I've had conversations with actually quite a few (more than I would expect) that want the social aspect of work. Also a lot of people feel like they are slacking at home because they say they just aren't as busy and are doing a lot of non work related things. What they fail to realize, is all that socializing time you were doing while at work, needs to be filled. You choose to slack, or fill it with more work. Lets be real most blue collar works (assumption here of course) are going to watch TV when not busy. MY thought process (and I'm sure most white collar workers) is that my job isn't paying me all this money to look at The Price Is Right.

I really would like to see some true research come out of this and get an indication of productivity levels WFH vs In Office. My old job ran a "study" on this with the IT staff. They found that people got lax the longer they worked from home.
 
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Nija

<Silver Donator>
1,901
3,705
What I think will happen soonish, next few years.

1) Work from home is definitely here to stay. There has been an awakening.
2) Residential / commercial zoning is structured assuming people will be at work. Examples are the financial districts in whatever big city you are near. All of those little corner stores that don't even bother opening on the weekend. The zoning / pattern will need to change to really make working from home shine.
3) Said another way, we need some kind of commercial areas in the big residential areas, and hopefully these will be filled by the corner stores in the financial districts.
4) Walkable / mixed use areas will explode. All of those places that were shops on the bottom floor, offices above them will have a come to Jesus moment and suddenly there's a bunch of condos available where it used to be offices. I don't think places like SF will be agile enough to embrace this kind of thing, but they would benefit the most.
5) Housing markets in high density areas will collapse as soon as these kind of changes are adopted.

I don't have Brahma Brahma 's 20 years of experience working from home, but I have a solid 10 years working from home, and 5 years before that spent consulting where I was in the office twice a month.

Me personally I'm looking for the most land I can get while still having high speed internet. I'm moving from a population density in California of 957 / sq mi to NW Arkansas with a population density of 252 / sq mi. I'm personally not interested in the mixed use zoning, as I'm in my 40s and set in my ways, but the millenials will flip the fuck out for it. Especially if they can own a condo at the same time.
 
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Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
I've been told that AT LEAST 50% of the company will not return to the office. It'll be a bit based on your job and how often you need to be there. For me I can do my job 98% from home. If given the option I don't see the need to go back. I also don't thirst for social interaction. There's a young dude on my team that is desperate to go back because he talks to other employees nonstop. Don't need that myself.
 
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Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
What I think will happen soonish, next few years.

1) Work from home is definitely here to stay. There has been an awakening.
2) Residential / commercial zoning is structured assuming people will be at work. Examples are the financial districts in whatever big city you are near. All of those little corner stores that don't even bother opening on the weekend. The zoning / pattern will need to change to really make working from home shine.
3) Said another way, we need some kind of commercial areas in the big residential areas, and hopefully these will be filled by the corner stores in the financial districts.
4) Walkable / mixed use areas will explode. All of those places that were shops on the bottom floor, offices above them will have a come to Jesus moment and suddenly there's a bunch of condos available where it used to be offices. I don't think places like SF will be agile enough to embrace this kind of thing, but they would benefit the most.
5) Housing markets in high density areas will collapse as soon as these kind of changes are adopted.

I don't have Brahma Brahma 's 20 years of experience working from home, but I have a solid 10 years working from home, and 5 years before that spent consulting where I was in the office twice a month.

Me personally I'm looking for the most land I can get while still having high speed internet. I'm moving from a population density in California of 957 / sq mi to NW Arkansas with a population density of 252 / sq mi. I'm personally not interested in the mixed use zoning, as I'm in my 40s and set in my ways, but the millenials will flip the fuck out for it. Especially if they can own a condo at the same time.
I think this is a good point. If working from home is a bigger option going forward, I should be looking to find a lot of lands in the woods further from the city
 
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Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
11,811
41,152
What I think will happen soonish, next few years.

1) Work from home is definitely here to stay. There has been an awakening.
2) Residential / commercial zoning is structured assuming people will be at work. Examples are the financial districts in whatever big city you are near. All of those little corner stores that don't even bother opening on the weekend. The zoning / pattern will need to change to really make working from home shine.
3) Said another way, we need some kind of commercial areas in the big residential areas, and hopefully these will be filled by the corner stores in the financial districts.
4) Walkable / mixed use areas will explode. All of those places that were shops on the bottom floor, offices above them will have a come to Jesus moment and suddenly there's a bunch of condos available where it used to be offices. I don't think places like SF will be agile enough to embrace this kind of thing, but they would benefit the most.
5) Housing markets in high density areas will collapse as soon as these kind of changes are adopted.

I don't have Brahma Brahma 's 20 years of experience working from home, but I have a solid 10 years working from home, and 5 years before that spent consulting where I was in the office twice a month.

Me personally I'm looking for the most land I can get while still having high speed internet. I'm moving from a population density in California of 957 / sq mi to NW Arkansas with a population density of 252 / sq mi. I'm personally not interested in the mixed use zoning, as I'm in my 40s and set in my ways, but the millenials will flip the fuck out for it. Especially if they can own a condo at the same time.

Great points. I have the same exact thought in mind. Move further west in my state and pick up more land.
 

LiquidDeath

Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
4,828
11,118
What I think will happen soonish, next few years.

1) Work from home is definitely here to stay. There has been an awakening.
2) Residential / commercial zoning is structured assuming people will be at work. Examples are the financial districts in whatever big city you are near. All of those little corner stores that don't even bother opening on the weekend. The zoning / pattern will need to change to really make working from home shine.
3) Said another way, we need some kind of commercial areas in the big residential areas, and hopefully these will be filled by the corner stores in the financial districts.
4) Walkable / mixed use areas will explode. All of those places that were shops on the bottom floor, offices above them will have a come to Jesus moment and suddenly there's a bunch of condos available where it used to be offices. I don't think places like SF will be agile enough to embrace this kind of thing, but they would benefit the most.
5) Housing markets in high density areas will collapse as soon as these kind of changes are adopted.

I don't have Brahma Brahma 's 20 years of experience working from home, but I have a solid 10 years working from home, and 5 years before that spent consulting where I was in the office twice a month.

Me personally I'm looking for the most land I can get while still having high speed internet. I'm moving from a population density in California of 957 / sq mi to NW Arkansas with a population density of 252 / sq mi. I'm personally not interested in the mixed use zoning, as I'm in my 40s and set in my ways, but the millenials will flip the fuck out for it. Especially if they can own a condo at the same time.

I view it different than you.

My job is a transaction between me and my employer. They aren't paying me by the hour, they are paying me for a job. As long as I do my job to their expectation, why does it matter how long it takes me or if I watch The Price is Right in the downtime?
 
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Izo

Tranny Chaser
18,347
20,953
I wonder if indians will take more us jobs besides tech support. If wfh is the new black, and they’re cheaper.
 

Poster

Lord Nagafen Raider
119
24
I wonder if indians will take more us jobs besides tech support. If wfh is the new black, and they’re cheaper.

Doubtful. They're very, very, very bad at their jobs. Anecdotal, but I work at a bulge bracket financial institution and we use some to do mindless data entry, then have an analyst in NYC check and correct the work. We also have a team that reviews legal notices and they're basically useless. One secretary in the states who is a native english speaker (and I can instruct in person) does a better job.
 
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Ishad

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
4,739
4,520
I wonder if indians will take more us jobs besides tech support. If wfh is the new black, and they’re cheaper.
Engineering firms have been trying to outsource CAD work to India for years. They are fucking terrible. Like worse then the dumbest cad tech from itt tech.
 
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TomServo

<Bronze Donator>
6,305
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Indians are garbage at whatever they do. Arrogant and stupid to boot.
 
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Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,466
7,381
Almost our entire engineering team is based in India. Our product is very good and improves monthly.
 
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Qhue

Trump's Staff
7,465
4,413
To be honest the people at work who are most eager to be back in the office fall into two categories:

1) Social butterflies that spend the majority of their day flirting from flower patch to flower patch and not actually working

2) Parents and/or other people who do not want to be at home with their family.

I've often said that this should spawn a rural renaissance whereby people get far far away from crowded urban areas and relocate to places where they can have a whole Villa of buildings that can support their various needs. Sure some people want to have that deep urban connection, but a lot of people would be happier with a 3800 sq foot McMansion that just had a Dunkin down the street.
 

Fucker

Log Wizard
11,407
25,669
I've often said that this should spawn a rural renaissance whereby people get far far away from crowded urban areas and relocate to places where they can have a whole Villa of buildings that can support their various needs. Sure some people want to have that deep urban connection, but a lot of people would be happier with a 3800 sq foot McMansion that just had a Dunkin down the street.

This is already happening. 3+MM homes in some places are going way up in price. A lot of people are finally realizeing that big cities are just noisy, filthy shitholes that detract from the quality of life.
 
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