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I really wish WFH sticks. Mainly because it reduces a lot of pollution and energy use.

skhameneh 5y ago
Car parks are the worst, we'll see a lot of land go to much better use than a dry and void cement lot.
Stubb 5y ago
It will stick if people refuse to go back to offices. I started working 100% from home nearly seven years ago and wouldn't take a job that involved commuting unless an astronomical amount of money was delivered up front. Simply no comparison in terms of quality of life.
- powvans 5y ago
  I’ve worked remote for 12 years. There are drawbacks, but the quality of life improvement is huge. I appreciate your comment and the GP for tactfully expressing feelings similar to my own. Pollution from automobiles, the health impacts of long commutes, the economic and social costs of high paying jobs concentrating in relatively few places; it’s just sad to see how desperate everyone is to get back to the unhealthy normal.
- baby 5y ago
  I was the same, and ended up accepting the 3h per day commute for lots of money. Never again. I'd rather be poor.
- ryandrake 5y ago
  People are by and large not going to refuse. They say they are going to refuse, but when push comes to shove and their cushy FAANG job says “return to office or you are fired” they are not going to call the bluff. It’s easy to talk but not easy when you are faced with being handed your hat.
- AuryGlenz 5y ago
  Before the pandemic hit my wife had been looking for a remote accounting job for about a year or so with no luck. We live in a rural area and don’t want to move, and there aren’t any real options in the area other than where she currently works. People can only say no if there are options for them.
senectus1 5y ago
there is more than this over simplification. My home power bill went up, i all of a sudden had to heat/cool my house in time when i normally didn't. I know for a fact that the office continued to heat/cool the office because there was a skeleton crew there. I think there are going to need to be a lot more research into this.
- reidjs 5y ago
  Have you considered looking into better insulating your home or alternative ways of staying warm than blasting the heat? I wear a sweater, socks, and sweats while I’m working from home. I guess this is heavily dependent where you live, though.
  - Geezus_42 5y ago
    That's great when it's cold. Not so much when you live in an area that will soon have temperatures >100° every day for the next few months. I will deal with being a bit warm but I do not enjoy sweating all day while I'm just sitting at my desk. Even now with Temps getting into the 90s it would be very uncomfortable to not run the A/C even with fans spinning at full speed.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  The only reason there's an office kept acclimatized somewhere is because the WFH was a temporary measure. If it's definitive, the office will shrink quite quickly.
  - JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
    I’d like to check the math though because I imagine heating and cooling a building with hundreds of people in it is much more efficient than heating and cooling all their homes all day.
    - kumarvvr 5y ago
      If you have someone living in your home, then your house is heated/cooled anyway. In those specific cases, energy use for office is a waste. I imagine atleast 50% of people working have someone at home while they are working.
acidburnNSA 5y ago
Not just WFH but now that everyone is ramped up for large remote meetings, this could/should dramatically reduce the need for business travel. Pre-pandemic I traveled cross country somewhat regularly for meetings that could easily be done remotely. Sure there's some value sometimes in hallway conversations, but not enough to justify flying around whimsically blowing vast CO₂ in the middle of a climate crisis. Someone should just make a more random hallway-conversation feature in Zoom or whatever. Or maybe we could normalize doing lunch together and casually chatting on zoom for certain important remote meetings (but not even close to all, please lord).
- bonestamp2 5y ago
  On this note, can we also have some regular phone meetings again? I mean, I've worked remote for 13 years now. Although it has been available for most of that time, we almost never used video during calls in the past. When covid hit, suddenly calls I've been having for 10 years require everyone to be on camera. Video has its benefits of course, but it's not always necessary and it's more exhausting than a voice call. If I'm talking to people I've worked with for 10 years, I actually think it's worse to always do a video meeting. We're not looking at each other anyway, we're looking at what we're working on, and being on camera is so much more draining. Does anyone else feel like a step back to more voice calls would actually be a step forward in happiness?
  - icedata 5y ago
    We do our daily meetings audio-only and it's definitely less stressful. Less is more.

Car parks are the worst, we'll see a lot of land go to much better use than a dry and void cement lot.

It will stick if people refuse to go back to offices. I started working 100% from home nearly seven years ago and wouldn't take a job that involved commuting unless an astronomical amount of money was delivered up front. Simply no comparison in terms of quality of life.

powvans 5y ago
I’ve worked remote for 12 years. There are drawbacks, but the quality of life improvement is huge. I appreciate your comment and the GP for tactfully expressing feelings similar to my own. Pollution from automobiles, the health impacts of long commutes, the economic and social costs of high paying jobs concentrating in relatively few places; it’s just sad to see how desperate everyone is to get back to the unhealthy normal.
baby 5y ago
I was the same, and ended up accepting the 3h per day commute for lots of money. Never again. I'd rather be poor.
ryandrake 5y ago
People are by and large not going to refuse. They say they are going to refuse, but when push comes to shove and their cushy FAANG job says “return to office or you are fired” they are not going to call the bluff. It’s easy to talk but not easy when you are faced with being handed your hat.
AuryGlenz 5y ago
Before the pandemic hit my wife had been looking for a remote accounting job for about a year or so with no luck. We live in a rural area and don’t want to move, and there aren’t any real options in the area other than where she currently works. People can only say no if there are options for them.

senectus1 5y ago

there is more than this over simplification. My home power bill went up, i all of a sudden had to heat/cool my house in time when i normally didn't. I know for a fact that the office continued to heat/cool the office because there was a skeleton crew there. I think there are going to need to be a lot more research into this.

reidjs 5y ago
Have you considered looking into better insulating your home or alternative ways of staying warm than blasting the heat? I wear a sweater, socks, and sweats while I’m working from home. I guess this is heavily dependent where you live, though.
- Geezus_42 5y ago
  That's great when it's cold. Not so much when you live in an area that will soon have temperatures >100° every day for the next few months. I will deal with being a bit warm but I do not enjoy sweating all day while I'm just sitting at my desk. Even now with Temps getting into the 90s it would be very uncomfortable to not run the A/C even with fans spinning at full speed.
marcosdumay 5y ago
The only reason there's an office kept acclimatized somewhere is because the WFH was a temporary measure. If it's definitive, the office will shrink quite quickly.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
  I’d like to check the math though because I imagine heating and cooling a building with hundreds of people in it is much more efficient than heating and cooling all their homes all day.
  - kumarvvr 5y ago
    If you have someone living in your home, then your house is heated/cooled anyway. In those specific cases, energy use for office is a waste. I imagine atleast 50% of people working have someone at home while they are working.

acidburnNSA 5y ago

Not just WFH but now that everyone is ramped up for large remote meetings, this could/should dramatically reduce the need for business travel. Pre-pandemic I traveled cross country somewhat regularly for meetings that could easily be done remotely. Sure there's some value sometimes in hallway conversations, but not enough to justify flying around whimsically blowing vast CO₂ in the middle of a climate crisis. Someone should just make a more random hallway-conversation feature in Zoom or whatever. Or maybe we could normalize doing lunch together and casually chatting on zoom for certain important remote meetings (but not even close to all, please lord).

bonestamp2 5y ago
On this note, can we also have some regular phone meetings again? I mean, I've worked remote for 13 years now. Although it has been available for most of that time, we almost never used video during calls in the past. When covid hit, suddenly calls I've been having for 10 years require everyone to be on camera. Video has its benefits of course, but it's not always necessary and it's more exhausting than a voice call. If I'm talking to people I've worked with for 10 years, I actually think it's worse to always do a video meeting. We're not looking at each other anyway, we're looking at what we're working on, and being on camera is so much more draining. Does anyone else feel like a step back to more voice calls would actually be a step forward in happiness?
- icedata 5y ago
  We do our daily meetings audio-only and it's definitely less stressful. Less is more.