Haha, you say. But my 3 year old doesn’t sleep before 10 :P
That said, being able to pick him up and drop him off at daycare without having to rush is really nice.
OTOH, WFH people living alone can go many days without any human interaction.
There is no arrangement that is "best" for everyone.
Remote or in-office, that's not healthy. Go outside. Make real friendships with people you don't work with. And if you're struggling with that, then seek help. But don't force me into a car for 10 hours per week, just to help you fake a social support network.
Believe it or not, a lot of people do make friends at work. I can see why that might happen less for you.
They didn't say anything is wrong with having friends at work, only that using work as your only social avenue is unhealthy.
What's stopping you from doing the same?
You can't really get time with your kids when you work from the office, but you can get socialization when you're not working.
dont threaten me with a good time
Then if it turns out the coworking mates are a bunch of jerks, you can switch without wondering if you'll be able to pay rent next month.
Seems pretty cool to me.
Many people WFH and their kids have been stuck at home, they dont feel safe popping to the coffee shop for a few hours of work, and they dont feel safe going to social events.
Once people feel fully safe doing those things and the kids are back in school in person WFH life will elevate for so many.
- Noise cancelling headphones work as well at home as they do at work. I love mine.
- Imagine: I definitely spend time outside of "work hours" doing work, so it might balance out.
Anyway, person-to-person and day-to-day differences in productivity are pretty large in my experience. Of course you could be in a bust-your-butt-for-a-promotion kind of situation, but you could also take the attitude that you're getting paid for what you actually do, and the fact that you are not top 1% productivity is reflected in your current "help-at-home-when-I-am-needed" salary.
This is actually the bug, not the feature. These people have bought noise cancelling headphones, so when they join a meeting everyone else it bothered.
>Imagine: I definitely spend time outside of "work hours" doing work, so it might balance out.
Why are you doing work outside of working hours? That does not make sense.
Noise cancelling headphones have directional mics that typically do a very good job of only picking up the wearer's voice.
If people really want to sound clear, a headset with a mic boom is every better. 0 background noise gets through.
These are all very well solved problems.
Heck my laptop back in 2005 (!!!) had a directional mic array. I could use an included utility app to control where in the room I wanted the mic to record from, I could record from in front of my laptop when going to lectures, or have the mics pointed at me when recording myself.
(That was a super cool laptop!)
If that were the case when everyone was at the office it just couldn't get done.
If you are just picking up a call from your boss to work without being paid overtime then don't do the work. Only exception is if you have flexlible working time e.g. 32 hours per month then you just do a shorter day at some point.
That is me, and I account for time off during day to play with my 10 month son by spending an extra hour after dinner finishing up work.
WfH gives me the flexibility to do that. WfH also means I don't have to take an entire day off if my son has a mid-day doctors appointment. Everyone wins.
> Also the constant background noise of kids crying or some kids show playing it pretty annoying.
Your company should spend the few extra $$ on good headsets for everyone.
My company uses WebEx, which in 2020 had no background noise elimination, but now days it does it quite well.
I can be in a room with another person talking, loudly, and it won't come through on my mic. But I also have a nice Bose headset.
My wife's headset with a dedicated boom mic also works really well in this regard.
Airpods, eh, not sure how much I trust people using airpods. :)
FWIW unless I am talking, I mute myself, and all of my colleagues do the same.
For many people with younger children (and therefore early evening bedtimes), having or not having a commute is not a difference of an hour or two of your day - it's the difference between spending time with your family during the week versus not at all. I've heard this from many friends (and some family) across different industries - hardly any have wanted to stick their heads above the parapet and single themselves out as being a problem.
I already empathised, but this whole thing has really thrown a light on what working parents (specifically those with primary care responsibilities like school pick-ups and drop-offs) in the workplace have been dealing with this whole entire time.
tldr; A great many people have had an increase of 150% of the time they care about the most by working from home - this proposal takes that away from them.