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> Our classification implies that 34 percent of U.S. jobs can plausibly be performed at home. If even 25% of jobs could be made remote, that woul

> Our classification implies that 34 percent of U.S. jobs can plausibly be performed at home. If even 25% of jobs could be made remote, that would be huge. The reduction in automobile traffic, the improved happiness of workers(who want to work remote), as well as parents being around more for their kids, would benefit society overall.

throw1234651234 7y ago
I have a feeling that a low double-digit percent of jobs will permanently convert to remote or partial remote after this experience. I have been in two companies that went remote, and the bosses don't want to, until they try and realize the convenience.
- ravenstine 7y ago
  The company I work for already is fully remote, but I heard from a colleague that their company, which was previously hesitant towards remote work, has seen a productivity increase after having been forced to do remote, and now plans to allow 100% remote work after lockdowns are lifted.
  - take_a_breath 7y ago
    ==I heard from a colleague that their company, which was previously hesitant towards remote work, has seen a productivity increase after having been forced to do remote== Could also be that employees, as a whole, are more worried about losing jobs in this environment and are producing more to protect themselves.
- bachmeier 7y ago
  Convenience is now only a minor part of it. Being a remote company provides crucial insurance. Even part of the company being remote will allow some operations to continue uninterrupted at a time like this.
- georgeecollins 7y ago
  Anecdote is not data, but I am realizing that I can be more productive at home than I guessed. Also I think my bosses are going to be more comfortable with me working from home after this. However, there is still so much knowledge / creative work that is best done face to face. What I can see happening in my work place is more people might take work at home days. There is no way we will want to keep taking important meetings on Zoom.
  - Loughla 7y ago
    I'm with your second part. The technical aspects of my job are incredibly easy working from home. The time is incredibly productive (except when I'm on HN dicking around). But what does suffer are all of the creative processes. Zoom meetings are not the same as real-person meetings. The cadence and flow is off, and it interrupts the creative processes. Maybe that will get better over time, now that we have a whole month to get used to it, but I doubt it. I'm with you, I look for all of my salaried folks to have the opportunity to take work from home days occasionally. Honestly, I've been pushing that for years, so I'll count it as a win.
    - Denzel 7y ago
      Yes, I imagine the ad-hoc creative process does get thrown off when transitioning from in-office to remote. As a remote worker for the past 3 years, that’s been involved in creative engineering discussions, it’s on the individuals and the company as a whole to be intentional about the creative process. My company was ~50% remote across the US and adjoining countries before, and now we’re 100% remote and the transition has been relatively seamless. Some things that help: 1) Over-communicate. Don’t be afraid to sound stupid or think that your ideas have to be fully baked. Share early and often. Whether that’s a message, a doc, an idea, anything. Blast it out and organic conversations will usually flow from there. 2) Foster a culture of popping open a video chat when there seems to be a misunderstanding after two back-and-forths. This comes from Gitlab’s principles, I forget the actual wording, but the spirit of the principle has helped me numerous times from having long, dragged out conversations through text when a simple 3min video chat will resolve the issue. Integrating your video conference solution with your chat client works wonders here. We have Slack+Zoom so a video chat is a simple text command away. 3) Establish some loose SLAs for communication like “will respond to comments within X period of time.” (Be as detailed as you like.) But let people know when they can expect a response from you generally based upon the medium. 4) With the above, embrace a RFC (request-for-comments) culture where people can give feedback and have organic conversations on anything WIP. And then follow-up with a scheduled 30min meeting to resolve any outstanding ambiguities. There are probably a few other things I’m forgetting, but the above has served myself and our company so well that I honestly feel more productive working remotely than in an office. The meetings are shorter and more focused, there’s more documentation, and there’s less shoot-the-breeze interruptions. All the above isn’t to say there isn’t merit to working in an office. There absolutely is! Just that I think it’s normal to have some growing pains when transitioning to remote work, and I hope that people won’t write it off entirely before giving some amount of intentional thought to learning, adapting, and building an equally productive remote workflow.
- slg 7y ago
  >I have a feeling that a low double-digit percent of jobs will permanently convert to remote or partial remote after this experience. I am hesitant to draw too many conclusions from this work at home experience because the pandemic is providing so many complicating factors that end up distorting both the benefits and downsides of working from home. Some examples to mind: * It often is a benefit to get out of a distracting office, but now people are at home being distracted by kids who would otherwise be in school under normal circumstances. * Work from home allows people the freedom to work form wherever they want. Now we are all stuck at home. * Every company is being forced to be a remote-first organization so there is no face to face communication happening in the office that someone working from home might miss. * The pandemic takes a mental toll on everyone. Many of us are probably not as productive right now as we would be otherwise and that has nothing to do with working form home, but will that decreased productivity be blamed on working from home?
  - Tade0 7y ago
    Here's another angle: office space is also a (significant at times) cost and some companies may be low on cash soon.
    - cosmodisk 7y ago
      Won't change a thing- they are all tied into long term contracts..
      - unicornfinder 7y ago
        Indeed - my company has wanted to reduce office space for a while now but we're in something like a six year contract.
        ccozan 7y ago
        Well, every contract has a force majeure clause, so...
        7y ago
- mrfusion 7y ago
  Good prediction but now go check out The Who’s hiring thread.
eppp 7y ago
The process of homeschooling now may prove you wrong about the being around the kids part.
- Matticus_Rex 7y ago
  The process of homeschooling now with kids who are used to public school and parents who had no time to prepare for it is not really good data about the process of homeschooling kids who have had time to get used to it as a parent who has had time to prepare.
  - Gollapalli 7y ago
    Maybe, but once you get past the hump of "Oh my god what am I doing?" It's a much better system overall. Same thing with work from home. Covid is a bad thing obviously, but it may end up being a good thing for the American worker and American family, bringing about a rise in homeschooling, as well as rise in work from home, resulting in more cohesive families in which parents are actually able to take an active hand in the raising of children, rather than delegating it to schools and daycares.
    - Matticus_Rex 7y ago
      I broadly agree (at least in comparison to the school system -- I'm a former high school teacher and was homeschooled myself).
- ravenstine 7y ago
  I'm not talking about homeschooling. If parents are around their kids for 2 more hours out of a day, that's a positive thing. It's not inconsequential.
ccktlmazeltov 7y ago
Count indirect effects also! Reduction in pollution, accidents, death, etc. Increase in restaurants, bars, etc. in your area where you live (as opposed to where you work).
- krferriter 7y ago
  I have to imagine the total and per-capita amount of human time spent around dogs would also increase, which can only be seen as a categorical good.
  - danbolt 7y ago
    I have pretty severe dog allergies so having them at people’s homes rather than at offices would be a win for me too.
  - droithomme 7y ago
    You are correct about the dogs and I do not understand why, can you explain? There are countless newspaper articles about how all the animal shelters have had all their dogs adopted out in the last two weeks, for the first time ever. Is it single people wanting a companion while they work from home?
    - aparks517 7y ago
      It could be just that simple. I wonder too if there's pent-up demand. I think it's best when bringing a dog into a new home if you can be around a lot to help them learn the ropes. I guess that goes double for a puppy, but I think it applies to mature dogs too. If other folks think the same way, this might be a good opportunity for them to do something they'd been putting off.
    - bmelton 7y ago
      I've had a lot of dogs, and dog ownership isn't a new thing to me. That said, the last dog I got was during a break between jobs that I ended up extending. I watched videos on Youtube to train her with (Thanks, Zak George) and worked with her in ways that I've never done with another pet and wow, this is easily the best dog I've ever had. The very early bits were the usual stuff. Kennel training is sad, so I made it a little easier by sleeping on a palette next to the kennel, with my hand through the cage for contact. Two or three nights of that, and I've never had another kennel problem again. Teaching a dog to sit (the right way) takes about 5 minutes if you do it right, and another couple of weeks of periodic reinforcement. Teaching a dog to sit when she's excited you just got home? That takes longer. I'm rambling, but the point I was trying to get to is that I won't ever get another dog again unless I have at least a couple of months to devote to that initial training. Forming that bond, building those habits, it's made me realize how much of a disservice I've done to every other dog I've ever had that I've gotten and then left to go to work. For the folks who've adopted new dogs in this, I almost hope that we're self-sequestered for long enough that their dogs get better than what I've historically given mine, but either way, a well trained pup can brighten every day they're around, and I'm happy to see the trend of what I hope is responsible pet adoption.

throw1234651234 7y ago

I have a feeling that a low double-digit percent of jobs will permanently convert to remote or partial remote after this experience. I have been in two companies that went remote, and the bosses don't want to, until they try and realize the convenience.

ravenstine 7y ago
The company I work for already is fully remote, but I heard from a colleague that their company, which was previously hesitant towards remote work, has seen a productivity increase after having been forced to do remote, and now plans to allow 100% remote work after lockdowns are lifted.
- take_a_breath 7y ago
  ==I heard from a colleague that their company, which was previously hesitant towards remote work, has seen a productivity increase after having been forced to do remote== Could also be that employees, as a whole, are more worried about losing jobs in this environment and are producing more to protect themselves.
bachmeier 7y ago
Convenience is now only a minor part of it. Being a remote company provides crucial insurance. Even part of the company being remote will allow some operations to continue uninterrupted at a time like this.
georgeecollins 7y ago
Anecdote is not data, but I am realizing that I can be more productive at home than I guessed. Also I think my bosses are going to be more comfortable with me working from home after this. However, there is still so much knowledge / creative work that is best done face to face. What I can see happening in my work place is more people might take work at home days. There is no way we will want to keep taking important meetings on Zoom.
- Loughla 7y ago
  I'm with your second part. The technical aspects of my job are incredibly easy working from home. The time is incredibly productive (except when I'm on HN dicking around). But what does suffer are all of the creative processes. Zoom meetings are not the same as real-person meetings. The cadence and flow is off, and it interrupts the creative processes. Maybe that will get better over time, now that we have a whole month to get used to it, but I doubt it. I'm with you, I look for all of my salaried folks to have the opportunity to take work from home days occasionally. Honestly, I've been pushing that for years, so I'll count it as a win.
  - Denzel 7y ago
    Yes, I imagine the ad-hoc creative process does get thrown off when transitioning from in-office to remote. As a remote worker for the past 3 years, that’s been involved in creative engineering discussions, it’s on the individuals and the company as a whole to be intentional about the creative process. My company was ~50% remote across the US and adjoining countries before, and now we’re 100% remote and the transition has been relatively seamless. Some things that help: 1) Over-communicate. Don’t be afraid to sound stupid or think that your ideas have to be fully baked. Share early and often. Whether that’s a message, a doc, an idea, anything. Blast it out and organic conversations will usually flow from there. 2) Foster a culture of popping open a video chat when there seems to be a misunderstanding after two back-and-forths. This comes from Gitlab’s principles, I forget the actual wording, but the spirit of the principle has helped me numerous times from having long, dragged out conversations through text when a simple 3min video chat will resolve the issue. Integrating your video conference solution with your chat client works wonders here. We have Slack+Zoom so a video chat is a simple text command away. 3) Establish some loose SLAs for communication like “will respond to comments within X period of time.” (Be as detailed as you like.) But let people know when they can expect a response from you generally based upon the medium. 4) With the above, embrace a RFC (request-for-comments) culture where people can give feedback and have organic conversations on anything WIP. And then follow-up with a scheduled 30min meeting to resolve any outstanding ambiguities. There are probably a few other things I’m forgetting, but the above has served myself and our company so well that I honestly feel more productive working remotely than in an office. The meetings are shorter and more focused, there’s more documentation, and there’s less shoot-the-breeze interruptions. All the above isn’t to say there isn’t merit to working in an office. There absolutely is! Just that I think it’s normal to have some growing pains when transitioning to remote work, and I hope that people won’t write it off entirely before giving some amount of intentional thought to learning, adapting, and building an equally productive remote workflow.
slg 7y ago
>I have a feeling that a low double-digit percent of jobs will permanently convert to remote or partial remote after this experience. I am hesitant to draw too many conclusions from this work at home experience because the pandemic is providing so many complicating factors that end up distorting both the benefits and downsides of working from home. Some examples to mind: * It often is a benefit to get out of a distracting office, but now people are at home being distracted by kids who would otherwise be in school under normal circumstances. * Work from home allows people the freedom to work form wherever they want. Now we are all stuck at home. * Every company is being forced to be a remote-first organization so there is no face to face communication happening in the office that someone working from home might miss. * The pandemic takes a mental toll on everyone. Many of us are probably not as productive right now as we would be otherwise and that has nothing to do with working form home, but will that decreased productivity be blamed on working from home?
- Tade0 7y ago
  Here's another angle: office space is also a (significant at times) cost and some companies may be low on cash soon.
  - cosmodisk 7y ago
    Won't change a thing- they are all tied into long term contracts..
    - unicornfinder 7y ago
      Indeed - my company has wanted to reduce office space for a while now but we're in something like a six year contract.
      - ccozan 7y ago
        Well, every contract has a force majeure clause, so...
        7y ago
mrfusion 7y ago
Good prediction but now go check out The Who’s hiring thread.

eppp 7y ago

The process of homeschooling now may prove you wrong about the being around the kids part.

Matticus_Rex 7y ago
The process of homeschooling now with kids who are used to public school and parents who had no time to prepare for it is not really good data about the process of homeschooling kids who have had time to get used to it as a parent who has had time to prepare.
- Gollapalli 7y ago
  Maybe, but once you get past the hump of "Oh my god what am I doing?" It's a much better system overall. Same thing with work from home. Covid is a bad thing obviously, but it may end up being a good thing for the American worker and American family, bringing about a rise in homeschooling, as well as rise in work from home, resulting in more cohesive families in which parents are actually able to take an active hand in the raising of children, rather than delegating it to schools and daycares.
  - Matticus_Rex 7y ago
    I broadly agree (at least in comparison to the school system -- I'm a former high school teacher and was homeschooled myself).
ravenstine 7y ago
I'm not talking about homeschooling. If parents are around their kids for 2 more hours out of a day, that's a positive thing. It's not inconsequential.

ccktlmazeltov 7y ago

Count indirect effects also! Reduction in pollution, accidents, death, etc. Increase in restaurants, bars, etc. in your area where you live (as opposed to where you work).

krferriter 7y ago
I have to imagine the total and per-capita amount of human time spent around dogs would also increase, which can only be seen as a categorical good.
- danbolt 7y ago
  I have pretty severe dog allergies so having them at people’s homes rather than at offices would be a win for me too.
- droithomme 7y ago
  You are correct about the dogs and I do not understand why, can you explain? There are countless newspaper articles about how all the animal shelters have had all their dogs adopted out in the last two weeks, for the first time ever. Is it single people wanting a companion while they work from home?
  - aparks517 7y ago
    It could be just that simple. I wonder too if there's pent-up demand. I think it's best when bringing a dog into a new home if you can be around a lot to help them learn the ropes. I guess that goes double for a puppy, but I think it applies to mature dogs too. If other folks think the same way, this might be a good opportunity for them to do something they'd been putting off.
  - bmelton 7y ago
    I've had a lot of dogs, and dog ownership isn't a new thing to me. That said, the last dog I got was during a break between jobs that I ended up extending. I watched videos on Youtube to train her with (Thanks, Zak George) and worked with her in ways that I've never done with another pet and wow, this is easily the best dog I've ever had. The very early bits were the usual stuff. Kennel training is sad, so I made it a little easier by sleeping on a palette next to the kennel, with my hand through the cage for contact. Two or three nights of that, and I've never had another kennel problem again. Teaching a dog to sit (the right way) takes about 5 minutes if you do it right, and another couple of weeks of periodic reinforcement. Teaching a dog to sit when she's excited you just got home? That takes longer. I'm rambling, but the point I was trying to get to is that I won't ever get another dog again unless I have at least a couple of months to devote to that initial training. Forming that bond, building those habits, it's made me realize how much of a disservice I've done to every other dog I've ever had that I've gotten and then left to go to work. For the folks who've adopted new dogs in this, I almost hope that we're self-sequestered for long enough that their dogs get better than what I've historically given mine, but either way, a well trained pup can brighten every day they're around, and I'm happy to see the trend of what I hope is responsible pet adoption.