The pandemic has allowed for most tech workers (and many non-Tech workers) to work remotely indefinitely.<p>At some point, the pandemic restrictions will end. Whether or not businesses will require workers to come back to the office is up in the air.<p>Some are suggesting that work will be "flexible" meaning that you will work from the office 1-2 days a week and remote the rest.<p>Do you personally believe that remote work will continue at or even increase from present remote work levels?<p>Or do you believe in the long run the party ends and we all go back to the office full time due to business needs.<p>What is your thesis? Why?
I have worked remote 2-4 days a week for over 20 years. I think remote work becomes significantly more common, but it will typically be just 1-2 days per week for the most people.<p>Reasons:<p>(1) Many otherwise good workers don't have the self discipline to manage their time. They start to drift, lose focus, slack. Then they get anxiety, quilt and other problems when they can't keep up. Coming to office provides comforting routine and frames the day.<p>(2) Some people need frequent human contact to perform well.<p>(3) Managing new people remotely is more difficult. You miss all the cues. Simple miscommunication that would sort itself within minutes or days when working together can become month long problem, or never resolve.<p>(4) Group dynamics breaks. Casual contacts and accidental meetings transfer substantial amount of information.
If workers can work at home and are substantially happier working at home, and the out-of-pocket costs are lower for both worker and employer, then remote work will become established as a norm within a generation. It’s the way the First World has worked for generations…it really does evolve towards greater happiness for the greatest number of people. No reason the rest of the world wouldn’t follow.<p>As it becomes a norm, then the thousands of details of how to maintain/improve company cultures, level of and support for remote work, training, team-building, residential housing design and costs, distributed operations in lower housing cost regions, cyber security, etc. will be the challenge that this generation of leaders must address. And they will because they are reasonably competent and it makes hundreds of millions of people happier.<p>It’s a fun challenge to meet. When you succeed, you get to spend more quality time in your quality years with your family in a cheaper, pleasanter region of the country, or a different country altogether. Or stay where you are, if that’s your <i>querencia</i>. No need to move after retirement when you already love where you’re living…another societal savings.<p>And if more family time doesn’t make some people happier, that’s a separate problem that shouldn’t be solved by escaping to a shiny building on the shareholder’s dime. Fixing the family also has direct societal benefits and saves taxpayers money when the State doesn’t need to intervene.<p>And trying to convince people they’re really happier with the old model because you are too lazy to change, when they know themselves that they are not, never works in the long run. Ask the former Soviet Union.