Don’t forget the 5 coffee breaks, multi hour conference room meetings, lunch meetings, etc, that can take up half your work week if you give in to that sort of stuff.

Call me weird but it feels like those 5 coffee breaks gave me enough situational awareness to avoid 5 hours of meeting.

Most times it's out of your control, though. Someone else booked the meeting, a higher uo decided you should go, and those hours are lost.

My meeting load increased with wfh, what could normally be accomplished by walking by someones desk and chatting for 5 minutes now takes a dedicated meeting for 30 minutes. As it's a dedicated meeting it requires inviting a bunch of optional folks to ensure they feel like they had a voice in a decision/discussion. Finally this all requires scheduling into everyones swiss cheesed calendars.

In a modern tech company with all the wfh and productivity bells and whistles I now watch as my productive days vanish into 6 hours of meetings.

This is all true for me. Although one benefit is no more people dropping by for 5 minute chats. On the other other hand I miss those a bit.

Truth clearly lies in the middle. Maybe on average .. a workplace is a better concentration of means and dedication even though it's obvious that it's a very very inefficient place most of the time.

The truth lies in admitting actual productivity. He's claiming 0.68 or 5 hours and 26 minutes of productivity when WFH. That's a huge number to have both consistently and exceptionally. I bet the average person gets 2-3/day if they're honest about it.

Japan is also famous for its salarymen who will fall asleep at their desks to avoid leaving the office before their boss. Time in an office does not equal productivity.

The truth is almost never the average. (What's the average handedness of a population?) But it's a convenient aggregate despite a likely heterogeneous population.

How do you stay caffeinated at home?

Caffeine isn't really beneficial for work, right? Most of its effect is because it's addictive and you need to prevent the withdrawal. The point of a break is that it's an excuse to stand up and walk around.

True, the coffee is just one of the devices to take your mind off things. My ex-girlfriend had a dog and when she was sick I had to walk it 3 times a day. Even though by that time (shortly before our breakup) I didn't like her or her dog, the walks were extremely therapeutic.

All coffee and smoke breaks actually are aimed at taking a step back and gain some small extra energy to keep going.

> The point of a break is that it's an excuse to stand up and walk around.

I agree. And its value and time commitment needed does not change if you work from office or home.

You should definitely stand up and walk around even when working from home.

short commutes are better than working in a pajama straight from the bed.

I worked from home before the pandemic hit and been doing it on and off for 15 years, but I took the habit of going out for a walk before starting to work, it actually wakes me up for real and sharpens my thoughts.

It also forces me to dress and take care of my hygiene.

A thing that many home workers I know, adults like me, don't do everyday. Which is, IMO, a set back.

Now that due to the pandemic I am confined at home, I feel tired all day and my productivity has gone down, to the point that I have to work 7 or 8 hours a day, while 5 were enough before.

Suffering for waking up early for a commute is only a symptom of not being a morning person, I negotiate comfortable starting work hours in all my contracts and never had to wake up early in the past 10 years.

And you know the main reason the employer accepted it as a reasonable argument?

because out of the rush hour commuting is easier (which is actually true)

they never heard from me "I am late because the bus/subway/train/whatever was full"

In my experience distracting coworkers are a lot worse when you are online all day remotely: you can close the door, but can't block them on teams.

Finally: consider that the majority of people all over the World have much better work spaces than home offices.

Usually home offices for regular people suck and/or people live in small homes.

Especially in Japan or Europe.

one last bit: WFH workers that are less experienced have harder times getting a promotion than in presence.

I agree that deliberately breaking the work-from-home routine is helpful for mental and physical health. Not very sure that people need a bath every day though (there were studies showing that some soaps and shampoos are really bad for the skin so shouldn't be applied daily).

IMO working from home can even further destroy your work-life balance -- but only if you let it, which is sadly easy in these conditions. So I agree with you there, we have to get out of our way -- literally and figuratively -- to compensate for some negative WFH traits.

To the last bit about promotions, I like to think that things are how we -- anyone in a team lead or manager position now or in the future -- shape them to be.

It's sad thinking about a state of affairs where I would be biased towards the person in my team I see most often - either through better guidance/collaboration (affecting promotability over time) or mere water-cooler familiarity.

The commute doesn't have to tire you, if you do it only 2-3 days per week. Increased workspace flexibility might be one of the biggest wins from this period of forced WFH. I know the thing that tires me most is the boredom from a fixed routine.

IT is one of the best fields for working from home. You should consider that or we have a profound bias.

And, it's true that commuting and working in badly designed open office spaces are extremely bad for productivity.

On the other hand working in a group can be a lot more productive than alone in the home office even connected electronically because we are humans and need social stimulation, but this is not true for everybody.

We should not forget these points when commenting.

I'm human, and I need social stimulation. What I really dislike is forced social stimulation. I would go to an office, yes. But monthly, not daily.

Same here. I miss my colleagues. But my preferred intensity of contact would be having a lunch together. Only my family should get 8.5 hours of my time every day.

The average commute is 25 minutes, and this means many people have shorter commutes. Just how much is waking up ten minutes earlier going to crater your performance?

(If you are one of those poor souls with a 90 minute commute, I understand your pain, but you shouldn't try to generalize your experience)

I used to have a 10 minute walk to work, and it was great. I'd take 1-2 days WFH a month still because there was some work that simply needed no interruptions/distractions.

Now I have a 60-75 minute commute over underground, and I'm not looking forward to the return to the office. There's definitely aspects of working where I long for the office, but others where I'm glad for the solitude.

If we have to return 5 days a week I'll probably have to move and pay much more or have a tiny living space.

I value my time more than my comfort so am accepting of this, but it still frustrates me after living the afore mentioned dream.

I'd also note that I regularly start work an hour or two early since working from home - with >2hrs of commuting slashed from my day, if I get a good thought at breakfast why not bash it out?

When you're facing 12hrs as a baseline for your working day it's much less appealing to contribute outside that time.

Commutes are responsible for a 9.91% drop in hourly wages[1].

Also, the less time you spend commuting by automobile, the less likely you are to be involved in an expensive, injurious or deadly accident, especially if you're commuting while while you or others are tired in the morning, or are tired after working all day.

[1] https://go.frontier.com/business/commute-calculator

I’d like to know the impact of people not getting sick as much. I haven’t been sick in a bee a year and it’s great. Almost all of my illnesses came from the workplace.

Just having to put on work clothes, do basic grooming, prepare food to take, etc., already adds more than 10 minutes, on top of whatever the commute is. Driving to work probably means 8-10 less hours of free time a week, all to go to an office and do the same exact thing I could do at home.

You dont do basic groomung and food preparation unless you go to the office?

Not necessarily before work anymore. If I need an extra hour of sleep, I can just set my alarm for 15 minutes before 9.

I can also now take a quick shower in the middle of the day when I need to get away from the screen to think.

Or I can make a granola bowl while I'm in a meeting. Or walk the dog, or do any number of low cognitive load things (especially for meetings that I'm expected to attend even when they are only tangential to my work).

Of course I do, but not at stable scheduled hours -- and it feels much more therapeutic this way.

Sometimes not?

For me it was less the commute time and more planning around traffic.

Even if the commute was 30 minutes (a good day), I'd usually need to buffer time to plan for being late due to traffic accidents and construction (frequent).

Switching to remote work gave me back at least an hour every morning, and at least 1.5 hours in the evening. Anecdotally this has led to massive performance and quality of life increases.

Exactly. It may take only 25 minutes.

But how many of the people making up this average leave home an hour earlier than most of us just to beat traffic?

How much buffer time is then also factored in, and wasted?

No even taking into account the cognitive and emotional cost of the commute.

i.e. the subway in Paris is full of stressed out people, stinks, is more or less reliable and makes an awful lot of stressful loud noises.

I’ve switched to cycling 2 years ago, and even when I get home drenched by the rain and frozen by the wind do I still not miss the "métro". At all.

And I’d bet driving can be quite stressful too.

Pretty sure you're the one generalizing here by specifically selecting the US. A fair number of countries[1] have a far longer commute.

Also consider overuse of cars is a big issue environmentally, while use of public transport tends to increase one's commute (bad schedules, detours).

[1]: https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter8/urban-trans...

I was acutely aware of how my commute was affecting my lifestyle before WFH became widespread, if you think the only difference is waking up 10 minutes earlier you've lost your mind. You are the one generalizing here.

Not all commutes are created equal.

10 minutes in a car is far less pleasant (to me) than a 25 minute walk.

Also 25 minute commute means 50 minutes out of the day, every workday. That adds up.

Not to mention getting ready for the commute/getting settled back home which is easily at least half an hour every workday.

> Also 25 minute commute means 50 minutes out of the day, every workday.

Yes, that sums up to over 4 hours per week, i.e. half a working day.