I suspect a lot of the "we're all going to be remote from now on" sentiment is overblown.<p>It seems to me more likely that there will be a few more remote friendly companies, and a very few more remote-only companies after the dust settles, but the real shift will be for most "office based" workers will be the expectation of partially working from home.<p>There is a big difference between "never going to an office again" and "not going in 5 days a week".
My partner works in operations for [fairly large company]. Her job is to min/max space use, organize for hiring pushes, keep the office space humming, revamp existing space as needed, plan out new space... etc. etc. etc. It's an interesting job, she's probably the person you're pissed at when your desk gets seemingly randomly moved to another floor.<p>Right before COVID, she was managing a HUGE densification project to get more desks in their company's current footprint. That obviously got entirely axed March 2020 (over a year of work down the drain), and it's been her job the last year to figure out WFH and what post-COVID-19 workspace looks like.<p>The executives are wanting people back in the office. They've seen enough they don't like about full WFH that they do want people back in the building at some point when it's safe. But they also don't want everyone in the building at the same time anymore. Basically, they want to operate the building at pre-pandemic capacity of 50% or so, rotating who is in and who isn't.<p>With that comes some unique space challenges, including but not limited to how does having a desk work if only 50% of people are in the office on a given day. They haven't chosen a final solution yet as there are A LOT of moving pieces, but it has been interesting to watch.
This article misinterpreted the survey. 91% of people don't want to work from home, 91% want it as an option, and that's only people who are currently working from home who used to not.<p>57% seems more accurate: "But once the crisis is over, most (57%) of those who were working before the outbreak and who intend to stay part of the workforce say they want to be able to continue working from home."<p>Actual survey results: <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/economy/articles-reports/2020/09/22/most-workers-want-work-home-after-covid-19" rel="nofollow">https://yougov.co.uk/topics/economy/articles-reports/2020/09...</a>
My country has new rule about minimal square space per employee. Capacity of our office is now reduced to 20%. 80% employees have to work from home, they do not fit into our office.<p>If this rule is permanent, companies may not be able to afford office space. WFH may become "new normal" bcos it is only thing company can afford.<p>In old days, flu spread in office like wild fire. Companies outsourced negative externalities (sick leave and sick holidays) to their employees. Now we have way more transmissible viruses and probably new regulations.
I worry that companies are going to pull back from allowing WFH once the pandemic is over and dust settles.<p>It's been tolerated and embraced by organizations because their feared dip in productivity never surfaced -- in fact, some organizations found themselves <i>more</i> productive. But employees are taking less vacation and putting in more hours since their social options are greatly restricted due to the pandemic.<p>So what happens to the perception of productivity in late 2021/2022 when people start burning through all that banked vacation time and start socializing again instead of putting in an extra hour or two in the evening before bed? I could see employers panicking.
If we take global warming seriously, then all of us who can work from home will end up working from home. If we take global warming seriously, we will incentivize using less energy, at least until we have mostly replaced non-carbon neutral energy. If we incentivize using less energy, there will be pressure not to commute.<p>Unless there is an analysis that shows there are energy benefits to centralizing your workforce(more efficient coffee machines, lighting, HVAC, etc), the pressure will be there to let them stay at home.
It seems unlikely to me that the disaster that's been schooling-from-home has somehow been a stunning success for work-from-home, and I think most employers see it.
6 months ago, I was the first fully remote hire at the startup I work for. Now about 80% of my coworkers are working from home indefinitely. It truly feels like entering a new era.
I really appreciate the big "Reject All" button for cookies consent as opposed to all the irritating dark patterns most websites seem to use where if you don't want to "Accept All", you're forced to drill down into submenus to disable every type of cookie individually. Thanks for not being subhuman garbage.
One thing I think isn't being factored in is the interaction between remote working and remote school for kids.<p>Depending on a bunch of factors, remote work could be much more pleasant or taxing during school closures than it might be during 'normal' times.<p>I guess a similar point could be made even just about spouses both doing remote work at the same time, or even roommates.
Almost a year in, it seems like there isn't a clear consensus in whether or not we (as a whole) are more productive when working distributed. If there isn't a clear winner, I would hope that companies would err on the side of improving employee well-being by providing flexibility.<p>At the individual level, productivity in office VS at home varies depending on your personal circumstances, preferences, and role. I hope larger companies realize that a one-size-fits-all policy isn't the best solution.<p>Instead, I'd like them to allow individual teams to decide what options they want to allow within the team (full-time in office, work from home N days/week, full-time remote, etc.) Then the team can develop norms and processes for work and communication that make sense.
The company still holds the power though. Your current contract is unlikely stipulate that you can work full time remote. I suspect that until there are enough options in the hiring market for employees to “vote with their feet”, employers will want to return to bums on seats.
Permanently working from home for some people like me is a direct way to depression. For someone who lives alone going to the office is essential to have social interactions without which the mental health can be severely damaged. I'm terrified by the possibility of working from home becoming a norm for the tech companies. It can be also a serious problem for novice developers who are greatly dependent on working closely with their seniors for their professional development and also for more experienced ones who are at a new job and need help to step in.
It is not cut and dry. I think we need to find the balance between "no/hardly work from home" vs "never come in office". Employers have to be flexible about letting employees work from home whenever needed. When I was an employee, I wanted flexibility to sometimes do that when needed. I usually wanted to go to office because I like getting out of the house. I get that some people love working from home 100% but I am a big proponent of finding a balance and not going extreme one way or the other.
I started a new job before covid hit. Some other devs started to annoy me. Just those silly things many people have. Like sighing every other second and never ending chit chat. I mean, I can tolerate it. But WFH is so much better. I can wear pyjamas, scratch my sack, do short power naps.<p>I'm in hardware, so I still have to make trips to the office. Those are way more fun. And those trips turn into social events. It's like catching up with friends.
Full remote is not the future, I'm sure that most people don't want to work remotely full time, it will most likely be 2days/week at home type of thing.
The submitted URL was <a href="https://simon-moxon.medium.com/employers-will-have-no-choice-but-to-offer-an-option-for-remote-working-a38ea7fe9a9c" rel="nofollow">https://simon-moxon.medium.com/employers-will-have-no-choice...</a>, but that is not a very substantive article, and there have been countless of these. Also, as commenters have pointed out here, it misrepresents the poll it's based on.<p>Normally we'd downweight such a submission as a follow-up [1] on an extremely repetitive topic [2], but this thread turned out to be quite a bit better and more thoughtful than usual, so I've changed the URL instead to an article about the survey.<p>[1] <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20repetition%20by:dang" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...</a>
just wait until corporations realize that if your job can be done from kansas city... it can also be done from manila... and a whole new class of gigs just vanish.
I worry at the long term implications of remote work:<p>- I hear of Bay Area tech companies throwing stupid high salaries at senior devs in smaller local firms -> more consolidation in tech<p>- how non people centric will work become? I feel being 100% remote I have even less of a relationship with anyone at home. I’m a commodity doing work. Maybe there’s more of a temptation to get that commodity cheaper elsewhere
For some, WFH is more attractive and more productive than for others. But why does it have to be an either or?
There are advantages with sitting next to colleagues. There are advantages with being able to skip the commute and being able to concentrate at home.
Ideally, someone would choose what's most productive, which is probably a mix of WFH and working on site.
Really good points here. I’m experienced in remote collaboration across global sites and my previous company allow for the occasional WfH. But the covid situation brought about something different.<p>The boundaries between private and work life became fuzzy and there’s this implicit expectation that one will be available all the time- where can you be apart from home? And that’s not healthy.<p>It has also been challenging to families with kids as they need to juggle between work For home and work from home. I’ve now seen folks responding to emails and queries as though we work different time zones!<p>I’m in tech and my team are mostly waiting to get back into office. But I believe that working on prem or wfh should be a choice.
And here is a (poorly written) article saying that "top bankers" say WFH is falling apart: <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/executive/careers/top-bankers-sound-alarm-that-remote-work-is-starting-to-grate/wcm/db9ab6a5-707a-4e1f-a643-ebb6c7a7e545" rel="nofollow">https://montrealgazette.com/executive/careers/top-bankers-so...</a><p>We'll see whose opinions matter more when this is over... workers or executives.
While I love wfh and have done it for the past 20 years, there are some jobs and some times when face to face in an office is far more effective.<p>I’d love it if my office went to a 1-2 days/week on-site schedule, where face to face time is predictable and regular, and we can all be productive and relatively zoom free the other 3-4 days.<p>A hybrid approach, if managed right, would be ideal.
Simply put, if my employer told me I needed to be in the office more than 5 days per month, I would find a new employer.<p>I'm more productive than ever. I'm happier than ever. I'm eating healthier. I sleep better. My marriage is stronger. My finances are kicking ass.<p>I won't give this up.
Url changed from <a href="https://simon-moxon.medium.com/employers-will-have-no-choice-but-to-offer-an-option-for-remote-working-a38ea7fe9a9c" rel="nofollow">https://simon-moxon.medium.com/employers-will-have-no-choice...</a>, which points to this.