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I do think it is necessary. It's one thing to share your experience about remote work as the author does. It's something entirely different to interleave it w

I do think it is necessary. It's one thing to share your experience about remote work as the author does. It's something entirely different to interleave it with with vague concerns of economic hardship for younger people or stunted career growth for women. What is the purpose of this? In my mind I imagine a boardroom full of Don Draper types sipping scotch and smoking cigarettes fretting over the decline in office leasing revenue while Draper spins a brilliant web of fiction. "We'll tell them that it is bad for the careers of women and we'll make them miss the smell of their co-worker's day old spaghetti as it spins on the microwave turntable. We'll even make them long for the awkward interactions in the hallway while they go down a level to the inconveniently placed restroom on the floor below. They'll eat it up." The anti-remote work hit-piece aspect is really my point. To me these articles feel like some kind of thinly veiled attempt to make people believe they missed working in the office. Maybe even make people fear for their futures if they don't work in an office. Maybe this isn't the case and isn't what the author intended, but that is how it reads to me.

VLM 6y ago
This is not quite the "world wide web" we signed up for, but its definitely the one we got, LOL.
benmller313 6y ago
Perhaps its not a web of lies and this situation really is hurting this persons career? I think it's usually a good idea to assume that there isn't a large misinformation campaign going on.
- luckylion 6y ago
  There has been a lot of selection going on until an article makes it into a newspaper though. The individual writer needs to want to write it, their editor needs to think it's a good idea, and there are plenty of chances for it to get pulled or rewritten in a major way. "It's just this person's opinion and by chance it landed in The Atlantic" does rarely happen. It doesn't require a conspiracy, of course. I find it much easier to believe that it's essentially pre-chewed stuff a large audience can nod along to. No need for any agenda other than "I want eye balls on my article, and I want lots of them and I want the brains that are attached to share the article because that will get me more eye balls".
benrbray 6y ago
Sure, if there's evidence that the author is not really who they say they are, by all means go ahead and point it out. However, you just seem to be making vague accusations about some grand conspiracy by corporate real estate developers, rather than addressing the article's very legitimate points. As a young person working remotely, everything the author says reflects my own experience. It is very much a fact that remote work removes a lot of the unscheduled office interactions that younger / newer employees use to learn and advance their careers. I don't know about women specifically, but it is very plausible that remote work hurts social and economic mobility for young people, and for people without a stable home life. Yes, we should certainly collect data to measure the real impact of remote work, good and bad. But now that remote work is a part of everyone's lives, whether we like it or not, it's also valuable to listen to these individual stories, to get an idea of the breadth of possible outcomes when we get rid of the office.
- frompdx 6y ago
  Sure, if there's evidence that the author is not really who they say they are, by all means go ahead and point it out. However, you just seem to be making vague accusations about some grand conspiracy by corporate real estate developers, rather than addressing the article's very legitimate points. I think all of your points are completely fair so I don't want you to feel that I am being obtuse or overly pedantic. You're correct that I have not provided any evidence to indicate the author is not authentic. However, you made me curious so I decided to open the article in a private browsing session with no ad blocker enabled. Maybe everyone sees a different advertisement, but what I saw struck me. The article is peppered by advertisements from facebook. "Support Small Business Together." Is the tag line of the facebook advertisement. What I say next is facetious of course. This article isn't part of a grand conspiracy by corporate real estate developers, it is a grand conspiracy by one of the largest advertising platforms in the world, facebook. Remote work is hurting facebook's advertising revenue because small business are dying off. Again, entirely facetious. Still, The Atlantic is partially supported by advertising and I found this particular advertisement to be interesting given the content of the article and the discussion on HN. Draper's eyes gleamed as he delivered the line that would seal the deal. "We'll make them nostalgic for their offices and that is how you will sell more advertisements to small businesses mister Zuckerberg."
fxtentacle 6y ago
For what it's worth, I also wondered if this was a reaction to tech companies going fully remote and canceling their office lease. Especially because we just had another article about how remote work is hurting small businesses 2 days ago, which started with the incredibly flawed assumption that people would stop going to local restaurants if they didn't accidentally walk past them on the way home from the office. And yes, offices are big business. And yes, they'll surely try lobbying and PR. Plus, the Atlantic has a history of "native advertising" https://www.adweek.com/digital/after-scientology-debacle-atlantic-tightens-native-ad-guidelines-146890/ https://www.adweek.com/digital/after-scientology-debacle-atl... I'd give it a 50% chance that this das paid for by real estate and a 50% chance that the author just wants to virtue signal by mixing in these seemingly less related topics.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  I mean, small businesses will be getting tanked, but mostly in office districts with very high lunch foot traffic; the assumption of the increased lunch custom is kind of baked into rents and the business model, and commercial leases are measured in years.
  - fxtentacle 6y ago
    The way you said it, it seems like small businesses are being screwed over by real estate companies. That's a different cause than people not going to the office.
    - bobthepanda 6y ago
      Really any restaurant model based on high, peaky lunch traffic is just going to get hosed. So I would imagine that in the worst case scenario, some food models, like the lunch truck, the NYC hot dog cart or the NYC deli, are going to have some severe issues generating enough cash even just to play their employees, since they are low-margin, high-volume businesses. At current volumes they will never make enough money to cover even non-rent costs at <$5 a sandwich.

VLM 6y ago

This is not quite the "world wide web" we signed up for, but its definitely the one we got, LOL.

benmller313 6y ago

Perhaps its not a web of lies and this situation really is hurting this persons career? I think it's usually a good idea to assume that there isn't a large misinformation campaign going on.

luckylion 6y ago
There has been a lot of selection going on until an article makes it into a newspaper though. The individual writer needs to want to write it, their editor needs to think it's a good idea, and there are plenty of chances for it to get pulled or rewritten in a major way. "It's just this person's opinion and by chance it landed in The Atlantic" does rarely happen. It doesn't require a conspiracy, of course. I find it much easier to believe that it's essentially pre-chewed stuff a large audience can nod along to. No need for any agenda other than "I want eye balls on my article, and I want lots of them and I want the brains that are attached to share the article because that will get me more eye balls".

benrbray 6y ago

Sure, if there's evidence that the author is not really who they say they are, by all means go ahead and point it out. However, you just seem to be making vague accusations about some grand conspiracy by corporate real estate developers, rather than addressing the article's very legitimate points. As a young person working remotely, everything the author says reflects my own experience. It is very much a fact that remote work removes a lot of the unscheduled office interactions that younger / newer employees use to learn and advance their careers. I don't know about women specifically, but it is very plausible that remote work hurts social and economic mobility for young people, and for people without a stable home life. Yes, we should certainly collect data to measure the real impact of remote work, good and bad. But now that remote work is a part of everyone's lives, whether we like it or not, it's also valuable to listen to these individual stories, to get an idea of the breadth of possible outcomes when we get rid of the office.

frompdx 6y ago
Sure, if there's evidence that the author is not really who they say they are, by all means go ahead and point it out. However, you just seem to be making vague accusations about some grand conspiracy by corporate real estate developers, rather than addressing the article's very legitimate points. I think all of your points are completely fair so I don't want you to feel that I am being obtuse or overly pedantic. You're correct that I have not provided any evidence to indicate the author is not authentic. However, you made me curious so I decided to open the article in a private browsing session with no ad blocker enabled. Maybe everyone sees a different advertisement, but what I saw struck me. The article is peppered by advertisements from facebook. "Support Small Business Together." Is the tag line of the facebook advertisement. What I say next is facetious of course. This article isn't part of a grand conspiracy by corporate real estate developers, it is a grand conspiracy by one of the largest advertising platforms in the world, facebook. Remote work is hurting facebook's advertising revenue because small business are dying off. Again, entirely facetious. Still, The Atlantic is partially supported by advertising and I found this particular advertisement to be interesting given the content of the article and the discussion on HN. Draper's eyes gleamed as he delivered the line that would seal the deal. "We'll make them nostalgic for their offices and that is how you will sell more advertisements to small businesses mister Zuckerberg."

fxtentacle 6y ago

For what it's worth, I also wondered if this was a reaction to tech companies going fully remote and canceling their office lease. Especially because we just had another article about how remote work is hurting small businesses 2 days ago, which started with the incredibly flawed assumption that people would stop going to local restaurants if they didn't accidentally walk past them on the way home from the office. And yes, offices are big business. And yes, they'll surely try lobbying and PR. Plus, the Atlantic has a history of "native advertising" https://www.adweek.com/digital/after-scientology-debacle-atlantic-tightens-native-ad-guidelines-146890/ https://www.adweek.com/digital/after-scientology-debacle-atl... I'd give it a 50% chance that this das paid for by real estate and a 50% chance that the author just wants to virtue signal by mixing in these seemingly less related topics.

bobthepanda 6y ago
I mean, small businesses will be getting tanked, but mostly in office districts with very high lunch foot traffic; the assumption of the increased lunch custom is kind of baked into rents and the business model, and commercial leases are measured in years.
- fxtentacle 6y ago
  The way you said it, it seems like small businesses are being screwed over by real estate companies. That's a different cause than people not going to the office.
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    Really any restaurant model based on high, peaky lunch traffic is just going to get hosed. So I would imagine that in the worst case scenario, some food models, like the lunch truck, the NYC hot dog cart or the NYC deli, are going to have some severe issues generating enough cash even just to play their employees, since they are low-margin, high-volume businesses. At current volumes they will never make enough money to cover even non-rent costs at <$5 a sandwich.