OT: Will remote work as it is stay around?

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Remote work should absolutely stay around. I've just hired 8 people internally at my company (we are allowed to post every 3-5 years) and I stole all kinds of talent, especially young, but more so people with kids who wanted the freedom to move somewhere close to family or where childcare cost less because I told them 'I don't care where you work from as long as you perform'. Our office is in Houston which as far as city footprint goes is the size of Connecticut..one of the women I hired had a 1.5 hour one way commute. Her current business was forcing her to come back into the office after almost 3 years of remote work and the most profitable quarter in the history of the company.

Also, Houston isn't as cheap as it used to be... I pay 3,000.00 a month for 2 kids in child care. Yes, you read that right... and no it's not a private or luxury daycare center. We would love to move somewhere smaller and cheaper where our money would go further but the looming 'hybrid' work makes you move to a city all in the name of coming to the office 20% of the time..

There are exceptions obviously. Smaller businesses - the model may not work but if you work for a larger company or corporation then there's no need for a massive office or forcing people to work.

I feel your pain. I have one more year of childcare before my youngest starts kindergarten. 8+ years of combined childcare expenses getting wiped off the books is going to be a massive windfall for me. The worst part is for the last 2 years, even though the youngest is in preschool and childcare... It gets shut down for a week every few months because of Covid/flu/etc due to the staffing being so thin. Pretty sure we have spent close to $120k on childcare over the last 8 years on 2 kids.

Since you have built it into the budget you should take that $3k a month and buy a big *** boat to put down in Galveston when the kids age out of childcare. You can spend long weekends down there with all the hybrid flexibility... And let me use it occasionally for giving you the idea.

 

[woozman]

Let's then see what happens when in-demand employees leave those employers.

Yep. My employer (worldwide company with about 4000 employees) has basically had to offer it to “retain the talent” because when they tried to force back to the office protocol people were quitting left and right and were easily getting remote jobs at the same or higher salaries from our competitors…

 

[johnson86-1]

I’ve been working a hybrid role since 2014.

I’m way more productive at home than I am in an office. Lot of people coming in your office and distracting you onsite. Working in a job trailer now with 3 other project managers and can’t get **** done.

Either a contractor is coming in or just BSing or someone asking questions.

Is onsite work important? Sure but a hybrid role is way more efficient and effective for output.

Things that are important?
Setup a dedicated work space without tv in the room.
Desk, shelves, filing cabinet, printer, etc.

Are you more productive at home, or is there just work where it's good to be at home and work where it's good to be in the office? That's my situation. The ideal mix for me is probably 3 days in the office and two days out. If I spend more than 2 days in a row at home, I start to get less productive. Most of that is just needing things at the office or to talk to people at the office where a phone call/zoom is not as productive, some of it is probably just a need for a change of scenery.

If I'm out of the office on vacation, I can take care of a majority of my work with 2 hours a day on the phone or computer intermittently throughout the day. And that feels super efficient, but the reality is that when I get back I have several days where I am swamped catching up on stuff that could wait, but couldn't really be done without at least a few hours dedicated at once.

 

[Bill Shankly]

It might be a good idea to get .....

back to the office and get back to work.

Half of employers are planning layoffs—here's how to negotiate your exit if it happens to you (msn.com)

 

[kired]

My child recently graduated and has moved to a large city working for a large company. They are remote. He’s not making office contacts and is not receiving training. Totally remote really does stink for someone just starting out their career.

Yeah, I felt sorry for any new folks we hired late 2019 / early 2020. Had a engineer fresh out of college I was supposed to be training that graduated Dec-19. We'd just got started good and then he basically did no work for 2 months when we were working from home. It took us a while to even get a laptop he could use. Then we come back and around July / August everyone's getting sick. So he had to work odd jobs to cover for people as best we could. That first year was such a waste for him.

But at this point if a company is working remote and doesn't have a good training plan for new employees, that's completely on the company. We were all caught off guard in March 2020 but after 2 years of this they should have a better process in place.

 

[thatsbaseball]

One sociological issue that has been ignored in this thread is that my generation (boomers) in general LIKED getting out of the house and going to work and most of us today would still choose that if we were still in the workplace. We weren't raised in a world where communicating with computers and cell phones was the norm like it is now (and has been for some years) and it's still foreign to many of us. It's in no way a statement that one generation was right and one was wrong but just a fact that things change from generation to generation. I won't be around to see it but it'll be funny when the next generation points at you young uns of today and laughs at how backwards you were. I just hope it goes on for many many more generations to come.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

I think that some hope for small town America might just be remote workers. There are some remote work jobs that require travel and close proximity to an airport that is big enough to support efficient air travel. I was approached about a fully remote job once with that requirement. Did not take it but they were going to have to get an exception approved for Jackson to be my primary airport because it did not have enough direct flights to be efficient the patch I'd be responsible for covering.

 

[Smoked Toag]

I think that some hope for small town America might just be remote workers. There are some remote work jobs that require travel and close proximity to an airport that is big enough to support efficient air travel. I was approached about a fully remote job once with that requirement. Did not take it but they were going to have to get an exception approved for Jackson to be my primary airport because it did not have enough direct flights to be efficient the patch I'd be responsible for covering.

Thought about this a lot too. With fiber internet, Starlink, etc., it's very possible. And they don't necessarily have to require that someone live near a hub airport, they just don't need to pay for the additional travel to get there.

 

[beachbumdawg]

Anecdotal yes:
When remote was forced - became much more productive for two reasons

1. Less windshield time - gained a little over 2hrs per day of wasted commute time (10hrs gained per week)
2. With the increased flexibility, gained time and better home balance, I work more outside of normal business hours - my day starts at the gym at 4am and I don’t go to sleep until 1100

Now we are transitioning to a hybrid model (2 days per week) for in-person collaboration and thats fine as it still allows for flexibility even on those days

 

[Smoked Toag]

One sociological issue that has been ignored in this thread is that my generation (boomers) in general LIKED getting out of the house and going to work and most of us today would still choose that if we were still in the workplace. We weren't raised in a world where communicating with computers and cell phones was the norm like it is now (and has been for some years) and it's still foreign to many of us. It's in no way a statement that one generation was right and one was wrong but just a fact that things change from generation to generation. I won't be around to see it but it'll be funny when the next generation points at you young uns of today and laughs at how backwards you were. I just hope it goes on for many many more generations to come.

I like to get out of the house too, but I prefer it to be more adventurous than venturing to an office that I don't need to be at. Important meetings, site visits, etc. yes of course.

 

[mstateglfr]

Let’s see what happens when employers start cutting salaries of remote only workers.

I have read this threat for a couple years now and I understand the concept, but that doesnt mean its a good idea or that it will happen on a large scale.

- Some tie salary to location. A job in Portland will pay more than the same job with the same company in Springfield MO. That can make sense, if location based jobs are a benefit(local presence for example).
- Some tie salary to productivity. A job pays the same regardless of where you live. That can make sense, if location does not benefit the company/sales.

There is 0 justification to cut the salary if someone is just as productive from home, especially if they dont move and their salary is therefore in part based on local cost of living.
Employers claiming 'well remote workers dont drive as much so their costs are reduced' as justification for wanting to cut salary is ********. Companies didnt pay someone more or less based on how far they had to drive to work before the pandemic and it makes no sense to suddenly use that as a metric now.

 

[mstateglfr]

Apparently, the mayors of New York and Washington DC disagree with you. They do think we should be forced to go back into the office, so their cities can thrive.

This raises an interesting question . . . could 100% remote work possibly end large cities at some point in the future? If I can work from home and live anywhere, then why would I ever choose to live in a large city with its overpriced real estate, bad schools, crime and filth?

100% remote would could reduce the size of some large cities, sure. 100% remote work is impossible though because people still need to be in person to weld, fabricate, package, manage, etc etc etc.

As for why someone would live in a large city, there are benefits for some which outweigh the biased negatives you mentioned. Access to recreational and cultural activities would be the obvious reason- Pro sports, recreational sports, museums, concerts, etc etc etc.
Living in Chicago is a 180 from living in Grenada as a 25 year old(single or relationship). Obviously there are places between Chicago and Grenada in terms of size and activities. Point is, cities have way more opportunity for the life part of work/life than smaller areas.