Remote Work Nonsense
Even after years of remote work, employers don’t understand why people like working from home. In a recent New York Times article, authors give varying grades to the practice and the productivity of workers in those situations. The authors of the article emphasize a decline in productivity, helping employers’ argument for why they need people back in the office.
But let’s be clear, what we’re witnessing in terms of productivity decline, is not simply a result of working at home. The decline is a result of a traumatizing period of time that changed the way workers view themselves as people and the relationship to their employers. No matter what surveys say, people don’t like mind-numbing work. And of course, as the article mentions, managers play an important role in how employees feel about their jobs.
What the article doesn’t address is anything about how employees feel. It merely discusses the changes in the work environment. Workers are tired of having their time monopolized by work. There will always be a certain number of people who love their jobs and would do anything at any time. But most workers are happy to earn a paycheck and do something productive. Loving work has nothing to do with their satisfaction.
We’re not talking about work-life balance, we’re talking about life balance. Work is a part of life, not outside of life. It is not separate. If we continue to conceive of it as being separate, that means it has a life of its own and different rules, which we as human beings have almost no say over.
Now that we have had a taste of what it means to not commute AND have time for family, most people don’t want to go back to the way things were before. A friend of mine recently took a survey at work asking about remote work and whether it might be possible to transition to more time in the office. The results of the survey showed that no one wants to go back into the office more than twice a week.
Commuting is one of the worst ways to spend one’s day. If you’re lucky enough to live close to work, then congratulations. But most people do not live within a walk or a short bike ride or even a short bus ride. Not making the commute reduces stress and allows time for other activities like picking up children from school and taking them to their activities.
We have lived for so long accepting that the schedule our work gives us has no flexibility. As a result, it seems wild to live in this new world where we’re actually allowed to think about something besides work during work.
Most other countries have much more flexible attitudes toward work and family (for those who are formal workers. We must also point to the high amount of informal work throughout the world). It is assumed that family is a part of a worker’s life and therefore a worker must have the opportunity to care for and spend time with said family. Almost no one outside the country believes that the average formal worker’s situation in the US provides
None of us should have to put on a figurative mask, or suck it up to go to work. We work the jobs we do because we must earn money. That’s the bottom line. Some people work for other reasons, such as love of their job or ambition. But acting shouldn’t be a part of anyone’s job description. The home office is an essential part of most people’s lives now. It won’t be going anywhere.
