I do miss interaction with my coworkers--they're a pretty good bunch of people. But I certainly don't miss my commute and I'm loving working in my jammies. I maintain some level of structure by having "day jammies" and "night jammies," but I'm definitely not dressed for the workplace!
I've WFH for ~3 years now and none of my "outside" clothes fit anymore. I've achieved full Lebowsi. :cat-confused: also cat-visits are the best. i totally understand people wanting office-cats now.
Maybe I'm not hermit enough, but essentially when working from home I still leave the house on the daily, because a man's gotta eat and a dog's gotta get his walks. Am I doing it wrong?
How are you ever going to organize a strike with co-workers that you've never met in person and with whom you have no outside of work interaction (e.g. break time, happy hour)?
One of the positive things that work in its current sate has going for it is it's a social experience. Without that camaraderie, work will become even duller and more alienating.
Anyways, workers won't have to strike for work from home because it's in the interest of bosses to have and all-remote workforce. In addition to significantly reduced risk of organizing, there are huge cost savings to be had by 1) not having to pay rent and 2) companies which currently employ in high cost of living cities can hire outside those cities and save loads on payroll.
What happens now to public transportation? Office workers are already fleeing cities (and the high/rents property values), and these are people that generally pay higher taxes. Cities will have fewer riders and less funding, and you will see an accelerated decay of public transit. This will correspond to more time spent in cars which is gonna be great for the environment.
I'm sure there are many more knock on effects that I haven't thought of.
Work from home is the future (we were already heading that way, covid just accelerated the trend), and it's not a pretty one. It's frustrating that everyone I talk to seems oblivious to this.
Interesting ideas here, I hadn't considered much of this. However,
How are you ever going to organize a strike with co-workers that you’ve never met in person and with whom you have no outside of work interaction (e.g. break time, happy hour)?
Choose any external communications platform: Discord, slack, whatsapp, facebook, etc. I'm not yet convinced that WFH is the death of organizing, but it certainly changes the dynamics. We're still going to need transportation systems, but they're not going to be clogged with 2-ton-single-passenger-SUVs. In my experience, management hates WFH because they can't micromanage.
Choose any external communications platform: Discord, slack, whatsapp, facebook, etc.
I'm admittedly more pessimistic here than you. A big part of organizing is trust and familiarity, and I think it's way harder to trust someone that you've never met in person.
management hates WFH because they can’t micromanage
Micromanagement software will be the next tech craze. I think you will start to see startups pop up all over the place that are focused on this. That being said, there are other methods of coercion. I have a software dev friend that participated in an """optional""" work session a few Saturdays ago. Basically everyone was in a Zoom call together, but just working/coding and not really in a true meeting or anything. Virtual panopticon.
I think it’s way harder to trust someone that you’ve never met in person.
For better or worse, I think digital nativism is changing this. I grew up with online-friends and even met a few of them IRL - something that never would have happened in any previous generation. We have applications that bootstrap and abstract this whole social interaction now (for the worse imo). I think there is a kindof workers-bond, a trust that develops as you work with and support eachother.
Micromanagement software will be the next tech craze.
Easy to imagine, harder to implement. Working in an office doesn't solve or prevent this in any way either. Whether you log in to your VDI from a cubicle, or your couch, the tracking software would work the same.
Work from home owns and if white-collar workers weren't such cowards we'd strike to keep it.
I do miss interaction with my coworkers--they're a pretty good bunch of people. But I certainly don't miss my commute and I'm loving working in my jammies. I maintain some level of structure by having "day jammies" and "night jammies," but I'm definitely not dressed for the workplace!
:geordi-yes: Unless you work at Starfleet
lol true
I always thought "you can tell at first glance Star Trek's utopia because people wear sweatpants at work". Then 2020 happened.
Thank you, I have a new metric to measure civilizations by: "But can everyone wear sweatpants at work?"
I've WFH for ~3 years now and none of my "outside" clothes fit anymore. I've achieved full Lebowsi. :cat-confused: also cat-visits are the best. i totally understand people wanting office-cats now.
I'm working on it! (No beard for me though)
Maybe I'm not hermit enough, but essentially when working from home I still leave the house on the daily, because a man's gotta eat and a dog's gotta get his walks. Am I doing it wrong?
I try to get around my neighborhood twice a day. I find I have to walk myself to keep the depression from setting in.
How are you ever going to organize a strike with co-workers that you've never met in person and with whom you have no outside of work interaction (e.g. break time, happy hour)?
One of the positive things that work in its current sate has going for it is it's a social experience. Without that camaraderie, work will become even duller and more alienating.
Anyways, workers won't have to strike for work from home because it's in the interest of bosses to have and all-remote workforce. In addition to significantly reduced risk of organizing, there are huge cost savings to be had by 1) not having to pay rent and 2) companies which currently employ in high cost of living cities can hire outside those cities and save loads on payroll.
What happens now to public transportation? Office workers are already fleeing cities (and the high/rents property values), and these are people that generally pay higher taxes. Cities will have fewer riders and less funding, and you will see an accelerated decay of public transit. This will correspond to more time spent in cars which is gonna be great for the environment.
I'm sure there are many more knock on effects that I haven't thought of.
Work from home is the future (we were already heading that way, covid just accelerated the trend), and it's not a pretty one. It's frustrating that everyone I talk to seems oblivious to this.
Interesting ideas here, I hadn't considered much of this. However,
Choose any external communications platform: Discord, slack, whatsapp, facebook, etc. I'm not yet convinced that WFH is the death of organizing, but it certainly changes the dynamics. We're still going to need transportation systems, but they're not going to be clogged with 2-ton-single-passenger-SUVs. In my experience, management hates WFH because they can't micromanage.
This. My boss was talking about us potentially coming back to the office in September, but then the comrade corona hit again.
I'm admittedly more pessimistic here than you. A big part of organizing is trust and familiarity, and I think it's way harder to trust someone that you've never met in person.
Micromanagement software will be the next tech craze. I think you will start to see startups pop up all over the place that are focused on this. That being said, there are other methods of coercion. I have a software dev friend that participated in an """optional""" work session a few Saturdays ago. Basically everyone was in a Zoom call together, but just working/coding and not really in a true meeting or anything. Virtual panopticon.
For better or worse, I think digital nativism is changing this. I grew up with online-friends and even met a few of them IRL - something that never would have happened in any previous generation. We have applications that bootstrap and abstract this whole social interaction now (for the worse imo). I think there is a kindof workers-bond, a trust that develops as you work with and support eachother.
Easy to imagine, harder to implement. Working in an office doesn't solve or prevent this in any way either. Whether you log in to your VDI from a cubicle, or your couch, the tracking software would work the same.
im never going back lol