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A comment on Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from home. Parent comment

Re:Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from ... by hnlmorg on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @10:45AM (#27355193)
The commute isn't always dead time though. For me, the 3hr round trip was spent playing computer games on my Nintendo Switch, or reading a book, or just letting my mind wander while listening to music. All of these are activities I don't get time to do at home because of the thousand other commitments I have at home.

You'd think working from home would give people more free time, but that's not always the case, for example if you have small children. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family, but the commute was the only "me time" I had in a given day and I miss that dearly.

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Re:Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from ... by zentiggr on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @12:11PM (#27356786)
The pre-WFH work 10-15 minutes away from home routine had, for me, the same hidden benefit.

Now that I've been 100% WFH for 14 months, I've realized how easy it is to just get caught up even deeper in the assumption that "you're home, can you do _?" and wind up devoting more and more time to the house and projects and the pets and realize that the last time I was in a space by myself, at least briefly not 'monitoring' or 'on deck', was how many days/weeks ago?

That time where I'm not on call every second to potentially deal with a pet or household or any other 'now' thing, is way more precious than I realized. I've survived with very little of it this past year.

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Re:Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from ... by Apocryphon on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @01:04PM (#27357783)
But this sounds like a personal boundaries matter that's helped by having a work commute, but not dependent upon it. Perhaps the commute could be replaced with a dedicated time for oneself for a walk, fitness, meditation, etc. That time shouldn't be (indirectly) provided by one's employer.
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Re:Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from ... by hnlmorg on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @08:37PM (#27363376)
In theory yes. But you have to be disciplined to do this yourself (it's so easy not to bother when we have a world of distractions and comfort at home). Ultimately though, I'm not suggesting people take up long commutes for the sake of meditation, I'm just saying long commutes aren't necessarily dead time.
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Re:Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from ... by Freestyler_3 on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @02:19PM (#27358980)
small ridiculous example: Boss my marriage is failing, can you give me more overtime so my wife will love me more.
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Re:Employees are quitting instead of giving up working from ... by hnlmorg on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @08:39PM (#27363396)
You're right, that is a ridiculous example that misses the point of what I was saying.
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