It is clearly not one size fits all. Jobs was a great visionary, perhaps, lacking skill in interpersonal relations. He was not a multidimensional expert which is true of most of us. I would need to see the studies the author quotes, before accepting their paraphrased validity. Extroverts feed off the contact. Introverts feed off the alone time. It would not be complex to evaluate the temperament of one's employees and respond accordingly. I am a retired introvert who relished working at home enhancing the peace I need to be creative and productive. Ambiverts would be problematic in such a system. Malcolm Gladwell has revealed that he likes to work in noisy restaurants. Many of us don't. Those of us that don't relish "noise" can opt to call other employees from home at breaks. The viability of that option seems unaddressed in the essay. Perhaps it will be addressed in the author's book.
11
I agree with the belief that 1-2 days working from home is ideal. People would be more inclined to work at their office if their office space was a place that engendered creativity and collaboration. Workplace culture in America is just awful, and people don't enjoy working at offices because of it. Lack of open communication, and poorly designed spaces are among the many factors that contribute to the widespread gravitation towards remote work.
10
I am sitting at home with pink eye right now wishing that I had the opportunity to not miss time at work! I’ve also had snow days or child illnesses where the kids are home unexpectedly. I had a few days where my back went out... and if I’m honest, days where my more introverted nature would prefer to work quietly, focused and alone. Also women take a fair amount of time and energy “getting ready for work” that could be spent on actually working. Add in a commute on top of that? And all in all, sweatpants are one of man’s kindest inventions. So there is not one argument that could persuade me at this point, that life wouldn’t be exponentially easier and more productive (not to mention more comfortable) if I had the option of working from home.
11
This article makes a lot of good points about the benefits of working at home, being focused and not being interrupted. It also makes great points about the value of face to face interaction. As someone who worked for 35 years in the business of connecting people using technology, I've seen many studies and heard many opinions on the subject. The good news is that with shared work spaces and tools like Slack, Zoom, WebEx and MS Teams we can create our own mix - interacting live (with video is my personal favorite) when remote and going to a shared space when it's beneficial. I've even seen teams set up permanent video connections so that they can "walk by" the work spaces of others and have impromptu conversations when remote. We'll never get this exactly right but the tools that are available today - and will be made ever more capable in the future - give us options to mix and match our personal/alone time with our face to face time in ways that meet our needs and allow us to react to special situations like the COVID-19 outbreak. Keep experimenting everyone until you find that mix that works for you.
6
For me, the best option is a combination - work from home when you can, come in to the office when face-to-face meetings are more efficient (or enjoyable) than virtual meetings.
11
It sounds like you're just an extrovert assuming that what you don't enjoy, no one should enjoy. Working from home is not for everyone. When I work from home, I am less anxious, happier, more productive and the deep focus time is where I get my best ideas. Many remote workers will tell you the same thing. Go back to the office and stop trying to ruin remote work for the people who thrive in it.
39
I work from home one day a week. It allows me to focus on demanding technical tasks. For me, it's the perfect balance.
4
I believe the key is “flexibility”. Flexibility to have an option to chose when I want to work from home and when to travel few hours a day to office. I take this call based on what I want to achieve on a particular day. There are days when I just want to focus, create content, or finish my tasks. I prefer to work from home to achieve it. On other days when I am looking for ideas, interact with people to know what everyone is doing, and share ideas, I drive 2 hours to work. This also helps me socialize and keep my work network. I have been following this practice for last 3 years and it has worked well for me. And I am thankful to my boss & the organization for providing the option to do that.
8
With all the serendipitous creative ideas coming out of office mini kitchens, there must be tens of thousands of examples of great ideas that led to profitable business. I would love to read about some...... Problem is, nobody ever cites these examples. I'm not sure they exist and suspect it's a myth.
18
I've been working from home for over a decade. I loathed going into an office every day. I don't miss the commute, office politics, people wasting my time, committees and pointless meetings. The thought of ever having to return to that life makes me a little nauseous.
229
I'd love a hybrid - work from home on certain days, and work at the office on certain days. Some of my work is better done without interruption, and I can easily do that work at home. When I'm at the office, I'm constantly interrupted by noise, social interaction, impromptu meetings... I recently had to work into the night because I was interrupted during the day by an unnecessarily long meeting. The next day, I was tired and unable to be creative with coworkers like the author.
5
Perhaps I'm unique. I work primarily from home doing research. However, I still meet with colleagues, both in person and on the phone so we can toss around ideas. I also teach in college, requiring work from home on lesson plans and grading, but going in once a week for each class to teach. In both situations, I work at home but also have interactions with people, the best of both worlds. To save money, many offices have changed traditional office seating, substituting the latter with work stations. This is an arrangement that my son is intimately familiar. Although it might be fun when workers are young, this arrangement is less than ideal for older workers, or workers who do a lot of writing. In fact, for my friends who are in a similar office arrangement, they find their efficiency is reduced. Everyone sits around a table, earplugs in, sending texts and emails to people sitting nearby rather than getting up and interacting. As for what Steve Jobs thought, he also thought he could beat pancreatic cancer by diet. Clearly, his judgement is far from perfect.
7
It depends. If your co-workers are encouraging and positive minded individuals, then yes, by all means, work at the office. If they are a bunch of gossipers, who likes to complain and talk about nonsense, profane, backbiters, work-from-home lifestyle sounds good.
9
We are a family of healthcare workers with two small children. I wish my pregnant spouse and I could be at home on the couch with snacks and hand sanitizer.
6
I'm glad to see so many comments here from folks who know the pleasures, and the productivity, of working from home. The writer of this Op-Ed obviously is ill-suited for such a thing, as he regards his co-workers' presence in an office setting as "stimulating," but I think he's wrong to infer from his personal outlook that this is a "truth" we should all accept. Doubtless the coronavirus outbreak will, in the near term, lead to a vast increase in working from home -- and who knows, for those who enjoy it, a vast increase in worker satisfaction -- something that this article completely ignores.
13
I couldn't disagree with this more! Since I started working at home, I have never been happier or more productive. I get to work with my dogs sleeping at my feet. I can open a window to get natural light and smell the fresh air. Make a doctor's appointment or another personal phone call without everyone around me overhearing. I willingly attend late meetings knowing that dinner is already in the oven. I get a head start on the day by answering emails first thing in the morning...in my pajamas. I fear ever having to go back to an office. Telecommuting should be available and supported by all companies that have the means to offer it.
32
5 day- 40 hour work weeks are overrated. Nothing like watching your life fly by while making someone else richer.
14
It is very amusing that the arguments you use to push working in an office are the exact arguments used to promote the open office plan which you correctly deride as horrible.
8
All discussions of working at home seem to assume that it is either good or bad. For someone with a recently emptied nest and limited social group, it is lonely and stultifying to work at home, and I seek reasons to head to the office.
When I was recently out of the hospital after being hit by a car, it was the only road back to work and I'm so happy I can.
In this time of contagion, offices prepared for widespread working at home will be far more functional. But individuals should think hard about how they can best cope.
7
In 2020 spending two hours a day sitting in a shiny metal box that's pumping CO2 into the atmosphere and clogging shared infrastructure thus necessitating the laying-down of even more asphalt is frankly a ridiculous way of spending 250 days of each and every year. In the seventies my parents used to call it "the rat race". Sting wrote a song about it in the 80's. We've been collectively bashing our heads on dashboards for too long - the technology has finally arrived and I'm really hoping that this is finally the year that we can take a pause from that, give our heads a shake and move on.
16
I've worked from home on and off for 30 years. I'm an artist, illustrator, and designer. I've often worked on projects that require meetings in person and when I feel "couped-up" I step outside for a breath of fresh air. I also use good lighting and make sure that my work area is used for work (mostly). Now working as a freelancer I appreciate not being involved in office politics and other stupid human behaviors. Personality types do matter in terms of whether or not working at home can be successful. One has to be self-motivated with an awareness of deadlines and a desire to do their best work, and, for heaven's sake, answer emails promptly.
5
I am very fortunate to have a private office so I prefer coming in to work.
I find it much more difficult to work through team problems remotely. There's something that's just missed trying to solve problems on a phone call versus in person. You can't hear people as well over the phone, you can't see their faces, you can't take turns properly, and you naturally speak less, I find. I, too, prefer working in an office rather than at home. What I don't like is the commute.
The office space and culture also make a big difference. I currently work in two very different office spaces. In one, I have an office, as do most people. If you need quite time, you can close the door and put do not disturb on your IM. If you don't, you can leave the door open. There are pods in the middle of offices to allow people to casually sit together and chat, and a whiteboard in front of each of them to write out your ideas. In the other work space, there are no casual communal chat areas like pods, no casual white board spaces. Everyone is in a cubicle. It's cheaper for the employer to have that set up, but it's so much less pleasant and leaves the worker feeling exposed and unable to get focus time if they need it. And people actually talk to each other less, I find, in such environments. I still prefer it to working at home, though, and I classify myself as an introvert. Introverts are not people who don't need any social interaction, we just have to keep it within limits. And sitting by myself for hours on end is too much for me.
3
@Nikki: Your comment about struggling to problem solve over the phone hits home. I think it's even more difficult when collaboration among remote workers happens using messaging/chat. My spouse, who is an IT consultant currently working from a home office, was just talking with me this morning about about a sensitive problem he's having with a client. Although he appreciates his company's proactive approach to COVID-19 (my spouse cannot travel at all right now), solving his client's issue is proving much more difficult than it would be if he could be there in person. A lot of it simply boils down to his client's terrible written communication, which, sadly, is an issue that I do not believe is unique to the tech industry. Poor writing can be a significant barrier to effective remote work.
3
Amen!
Why would I want to pollute my last remaining sanctuary with WORK??
Church and State have never been more important!
2
Blah blah blah. These are circumstances that most of us have never seen in our lifetime.
Now get back to work.
4
I flourish in my home office and find that I am way more productive and focused. It saves a long commute, gas and parking hassles. I even created a community of people just like me - join us at The Virtual Water Cooler on FB. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1586222574967480/
3
Working from home overrated?
Seriously? It might just keep you and your family alive. How's that for for a job perk?
6
I've worked from home for years and I would never go back to the office. My teams are spread globally. Our meetings are video based and it is excellent for creativity. I have a dedicated space in my home, which is also my studio. I'm an extrovert and I don't feel depri ed of social interaction. We have in person team meetings about once a quarter. I get to take my son to school, pick him up, and handle my daily life. It's a great work life balance. As a computer-geek/creative, I've worked in open bays and shared offices. Those environments don't guarantee productivity or creativity, but they do guarantee a myriad of distractions I can't control or turn off. There are worse problems to have in the world. Remote work is the way to go.
9
Working from home is what you make of it. I have a space dedicated to it. But, it is also the same space where I do creative tasks like paint. So, it is a space designed to get the creative juices flowing.
I take a few 10 minute breaks to walk around my garden, snack on freshly pulled snap peas or arugula and get back to work. Being in California, I have the luxury of being able to work outside at a table in March (70 degrees yesterday!).
My house is clean because I organize or do laundry while on conference calls. I am eating healthier and save $100-200 this week.
I am going in on Thursday to break up the routine. But, it will be hard to go into the office every day once this over.
5
Maybe those who hate working from home were never creative or innovative enough to begin with. There are plenty of online means to connect, network and collaborate these days. Working from home not only offers the freedom to find more creative ways to make those connections, if you want them, but also to get to know yourself.
8
As a self identified ambivert and marketing professional I can attest that working from home exclusively doesn't work for me or my team. Sometimes, yes. It's about balance and the type of work that needs to be done, not a one size fits all. Unless you are self-employed it's also about trust and accountability. My employees have the option of working at home, but not exclusively. There is magic that happens when we're in a room together - even the introverts contribute, and things get done.
2
Like many commenters, I, too, have worked from home for a number of years. I think, however, that the editorial misses the point. Whether we like working at home or not, are productive or not, are innovative or not, are beside the point. The point is we have a public health crisis, and those that can work from home should. The timing of this editorial is completely tone-deaf. We should concentrate on the issues and offer advice on how to make working at home more successful.
6
I mean, it’s better than dying from COVID-19.
11
This is an incredibly irresponsible article to write. Epidemiologists and public health experts are urging more offices to do this, and yet some (like mine) have resisted for the sake of "productivity." Once again, as Americans, we have our health and well-being put second for the sake of efficiency. You should be lucky that you work for a company that cares about your health and the public and stop giving fodder to those who don't. Shame!
11
Oh, my goodness. My job has no work from home paradigm. I admit to not reading all posts, but FWP first world problems folks. We wash our hands, use elbows, rejoice in existence of handicap buttons, walk around with wipes. If you get sick, your FMLA is to keep your job but you must use all your sparse leave then go FMLA leave without pay. Maybe you get lucky with the sick leave pool, doubtful if there is a big sick out. And I’m a professional.
1
I don't feel sorry for you at all, I am FORCED to take the germ ridden NYC SUBWAY to work daily as well as a germ ridden commuter bus from NJ to NYC. God forbid I catch this virus, I will probably die from it. I am wearing a mask on the bus and the train starting tomorrow. I finally got a hold of some N95 masks to wear. I really wonder if Gov. Cuomo will shut down the city the way Italy has shut down that country.
8
For crying out loud. This is temporary. Can we stifle the violins for a couple of weeks? Good grief. I can’t imagine what such a bunch of whiners would do if they were all forced to actually suffer deprivation, without resources, without shelter, without safety. A little perspective, please!
7
The number of comments seem to heavily favor working from home. It's almost as if everyone who commented is an introvert. What's missing is what are you people all doing that allow you to work from home? What are your jobs? What are typical jobs that allow for this?
You're all living my dream. Please help a fellow introvert out in figuring out their options for working at home! Maybe then I will no longer have to use my weekends to hide from family and friends.
7
If your colleagues are clever, yeah work near or with them can be fun, but not everyone gets to work at the Times or at Apple. Doh.
Work from home rocks. One day we'll let kids study from home and escape the prison of school.
7
I’ll pass. Love working from home.
7
I worked from home doing medical reports for the last 10 years of my work career. I think the secret is to have dedicated office space. Check into the office each morning just like any other office. Maintain a business atmosphere. No stupid chitter-chatter from other workers to waste my time. No excess noise issues. And a boss who left me alone because my work got done timely. And at the end of the year, a tax break for costs related to the home office. What's not to like?
6
"Most people should work in an office..." except "...others who aren’t well served by a traditional office setup." Your argument is dizzying. You can't make sweeping declarations how WFH should be (or not be) for all people. It's ridiculous.
Some people will love it (me), some people won't (you). Some people's offices are sterile boring environments where people don't talk, while others are bustling beehives. Some people use a ton of online interactivity to chat all day, while others haven't—cannot—or don't. Some people live in a stimulating household with outdoor space, while others live in an urban closet. Some people have a 2+ hour round-trip commute in horrendous traffic, while others can walk to the office in 2 minutes.
There is no magical right answer. It's whatever works for you and your company.
8
There are myriad comments here from folks who laud the ability to work at home. All those other, supposed poor sucker slaves sequestered in the office maybe don't have the time and leisure or leeway to take up the banner on behalf of working in the office because, well, they are working in the office under somebody's thumb.
It's worth remembering that those who work from home are paying for their own electricity and heating, buying the upgrades to their computers and shelling out for the most bandwidth available in order to match up with what the company or client expects. You paid for those office supplies and that desk and ergonomic chair and that LED lamp and whatever else you might need to be a decked out worker in the spare room.
If we know anything about American business, it's about how lucrative it is for them to classify folks as independent contractors and offload costs on anyone who will bear them. Apps and the internet have given us the gig economy where people are expected to work for a pittance round the clock with no safety net or benefits to buttress their for-wages-only situation.
Beware the double edged sword of a company that's looking to downsize its capital costs and extraneous expenses onto you. Do a cost benefit analysis. If you gain from working at home, good on you. Maybe you are being exploited for all your luxuriating in yoga pants--and many Americans are exploited at the lower echelons, and then maybe the trade off isn't fair.
3
The best option is a combination of working from home and in an office in my experience.
Being in the office 5 days/week for me would be unproductive and exhausting, but 5 days at home is too isolating.
I personally like being in 1-3 days (depending on the week) for collaboration with colleagues and brainstorming, followed by being able to put my head down and just work at home.
I have co-workers who live 2-3 hours from the office and come in 1-2 days a week but need the stimulation of people, but they’ve found renting a co-working space or desk outside of their home but in the same town works great for them.
The key is finding what works best for you and your team and hoping you have a job / boss who agrees.
4
One of the side issues in the debate about working from home vs in an office:
We are a notoriously NON-diverse nation. On the whole people from different races, however defined; ethnic backgrounds; and socio-economic groups just to not socialize.
Work is one of the areas where we do come into contact with people we might not ever have seen otherwise, and from that contact, there more social interaction. One gets to be more aware of different political views and what's behind them, and of the shared struggles.
As little isolated islands, people do not get that.
2
If you feel isolated then you’re doing it wrong. Remote work does not mean isolation, I run a company that is fully distributed and our team happiness (anonymously measured) is through the roof.
The gap of working from home has to be made up with a LOT of video chats. Spend 4 hours on video calls and then tell me you feel isolated.
6
I’ve worked from home on and off for the past 10 years, including college. In my personal experience, I’m much happier and do much better in a work from home setting. No commute is the largest benefit for me, followed by the ability to ignore distracting coworkers.
My boss sets up optional video conferences for our department about once a month, sometimes two, and I find these are just as good, if not more productive than our mandatory, in-office, start-of-the-morning pointless pep talk.
I’m less aware of employee attrition which can be depressing when you see employees changing day-to-day while in the office. I don’t have to work put on my corporate fake smile nor have to do the superficial good mornings to coworkers I pass while heading for my office.
I’m not viewed as someone who isn’t a team player because I always declined lunch invites by coworkers in the office. It’s not that I was opposed to getting to know my coworkers, I just find dining out for lunch is waste of money. Maybe it’s my personality, or my love for my pets and plants more than people [slight sarcasm], but working from home is literally the best work option I’ve ever had!
6
Many people don't know how to communicate well outside of face to face conversations, especially when there is considerable lag time between communications. Some people cannot even communicate well in phone conversations with more immediate responses.
On the other hand, many communicate better in writing (or designed and edited videos) than in extemporaneous speech because they prefer to gather and refine their thoughts before expressing them to others; and they prefer others to do the same.
There is an art to corresponding in different ways without meeting in person, and the art needs to be cultivated. Also, there seems to me to be far more chance of finding good, helpful random ideas online as in person, since there are far more ideas available online. The trick in both places is separating the wheat from the chaff -- finding the more likely stimulating sources rather than the ones that waste your time.
3
It's sort of laughable to compare working-from-home with a quarantine-type situation. Nor can one wfh for a week or two here and there while researching a newspaper article, and really get a feel for it. If your office is in your office, when you get home your focus necessarily shifts to everything else in your life. Working from home in that case is sort like having two work days instead of one. When you get your head around the flow of having your office at home, your work day is truly transformed. It's not an accident that companies invest a lot in creating work environments that make workers feel at home - a campus they would say, of course, and at times collegial interaction can lead to 'aha' moments. But if you think back to your college days most of the time, that interaction was mostly just distraction. With Skype or Zoom and whatnot you can be reached quickly and reach out quickly when you need to. I've done all three: a near-decade at the office, a near-decade with two offices, one at work and one at home, and a near-decade completely at-home work, and there are pros and cons to each situation. But in my humble opinion, in 2020 wfh is without question and by far the best of the three options.
7
I live an hour from Grand Central. I’ve been working from home for over 6 years. I have saved over 5400 hours of time not having to get to MetroNorth, ride it round trip and get home $21,600 on train fare (not including gas, mileage and parking to get to Metro North) dog sitting cost of about $30,000 (that’s a conservative estimate as I used $100/week x 50 weeks x 6) during that time. I am in the executive recruiting biz so not working in an open loft space that my company provides and working in a quiet suburban home is preferable. I will not be on a MetroNorth train for a while if I can help it.
7
I was a self-employed occupational health & safety consultant who worked from home for 10 years. That was 20 years ago before the internet technology was established. It was more productive and less expensive than working in an office environment. Unfortunately, I have that option no longer & am forced to work in an office. In the new normal office there is: no privacy (open office configuration), construction noise, poor ventilation, constant interruptions from co-workers, micromanaging supervillains (supervisors), and plethora of of other negative externalities. So in my opinion, home-office (non-communal work environment) is preferable.
7
Before I retired I felt that I had the best of both worlds working from home about 1/3 of the time spread over a year.
I had an office to myself both at home & also at work, so no distractions.
I found it helpful when at home to dress as if I was going in to work.
If I had my time again I would try for a 50/50 split, again spread over a year.
In the current circumstances I would be in the fortunate position of being able to work from home full time (I am at high risk, asthma, scarring on my lungs & compromised immune system). Unfortunately my staff wouldn't be able to work from home regardless of underlying health issues. That would have made me, at best, very uncomfortable.
Many of the premises may be correct that surface level. Because I'm a full time remote employee, and I'm someone for whom remote employment is suited, I have a clear bias. But I question the research and the conclusions you draw from it - namel the overarching "we should go into an office." Given the vast benefits of transitioning more people to remote work, including how we use the finite space of the planet's surface area more thoughtfully and how we reduce emissions that are largely created by transportation, I also find the conclusions a little dangerous and off base. The presuppositions that bother me most are 1) that we need to be in an office to create the spontaneous interactions with co-workers that drive creativity, and 2) that we need to interact face to face with colleagues at our current companies to help be creative in approaching work problems. Adam Grant of "Originals" suggests people in our general field but those further from the specific problem or context are the best evaluators of original ideas. In person or virtual salons with people from your field could foster the same results. So while the office looks like the best solution, it's really just a convenient one that prefers the status quo over what could be profound and beneficial change. Though at least this conclusion proves one assertion of the piece: in your case, working from home has seemed to limit creative problem solving.
2
I have been working from home since 2000, the past 20 years. I have had jobs where I had to travel 20-40% at times but I would not trade my situation for anything. I put 5000 miles a year on my car. I am not adding to the carbon footprint in a big way. I save money on gas, eating out, buying work clothes and I have two extra hours a day to run, do hobbies that I love and work around my house. I am well paid, work for a world class firm. I have plenty of friends, acquaintances, etc. And I rarely ever get the flu. And now I don't have to worry about being exposed to the new threat in a huge way.
8
I've been working from home for over 12 years. So, so thankful that I quit my 'tied-to-the-office' job to accept the challenge of self-employment. I keep my own hours; work in my own way; engage with folk I want to engage with; and, most of all, get to enjoy my dogs all day long, and not just for a half hour walk prior to collapse in the evening.
Solitude is not for everyone, and the right combination of folk in a workplace can make it highly enjoyable and dynamic. But it is difficult to guarantee that the right group will come together; and open plan offices are a disaster in terms of productivity and creativity, even when people in the groups might gel in the right circumstances.
7
Sorry, no. Anyone working from home because of the outbreak is not suddenly an expert on remote work. Working from your kitchen is super uncommon for an actual remote employee, most of us, myself included, have actual dedicated spaces for our work that allow us to detach at the end of the day. We’ve also learned routines and set boundaries and schedules so that we aren’t trapped at our desks day and night alone. I’m sorry that had been your (brief) experience but it is not the norm. I’m a remote employee and frequently have lively conversation with my team remotely, my manager and I have adhoc brainstorming sessions via zoom whenever we start to see that Slack isn’t cutting it. I have random conversations with people also working when I’m at coffee shops and also working. I am active on LinkedIn and in my professional network and organization locally. It’s your job as a professional to stay at the top of your game, and you definitely don’t need an office with free snacks to do it. Plus, the coffee at home and the dog napping at my feet and way better.
7
I totally disagree. Remote workers are as creative and innovative as office workers when they use apps to connect with their colleagues. Meetings are more focused and productive. I've developed genuine friendships with people I've never met face-to-face, connected with colleagues all over the world, and received citations for my creative and innovative solutions.
5
I think working from home is wonderful, but special training is needed (eg, block some sites).
There is HD video camera and microphone for interactions as well.
1
Thanks Kevin! Your article describes my experience well. I have a long commute to work, so I appreciate days when I can save time and work from home. However, those days are most productive used to bang out work on a project where I already have a plan. For tasks that do not have a clear solution, being at the office and talking to my team and other experts throughout the company is a huge benefit, despite being an introvert who needs quiet space and time to think things through.
I am a scientist and I find that most scientific problems can't be solved by one person, it takes input from multiple experts to get to creative and useful solutions. Perhaps that's not true in other fields, but it is certainly the case for me!
I have been a full-time writer working from a home office since before I sold my first book in December 1993. My youngest child was 3. Working from home and being a mother of school-aged children made me a target for all volunteer vampires from here to eternity. “She’s home with the kids. Let’s ask her.” One of the biggest issues women with children face while working from home is other demands. It takes a great deal of discipline to demand office time and—barring emergencies—stick to it. The beauty of this life allowed me to have a career while still being available for snow days, sick days, etc. for my 3 children. And when my husband was dying from cancer, I was able to put him first. No one told me I had to be at my cubicle anywhere at a certain time. There are pros and cons to working from home, but I would not trade the proximity of my coffee pot and the memories for anything.
11
As it happens, I have no choice in the matter. Two jobs that take me out of the house are lecturer at the University of Latvia, which is twice a week during the first half of each semester. I had my last lecture of this semester this past Monday. And then the TV show that I do every evening, which requires me to go to the TV station. Luckily, the TV station is literally three doors down from where I live. I will be moving house soon, and then that will no longer be true, but that's not the point. I make most of my living as a translator, and that requires only me and my computer. I don't always manage to focus on work as much as I should, because lord, there are temptations on the Internet, including the New York Times homepage. But generally speaking, I am all good with this. Today I fixed myself some fish sticks and French fries with a green salad (the two former because I'm an unreconstructed teenage boy and the latter because I do try to eat well despite that fact). Now I am hour away from going to the TV station, after which I will be coming home, doing some more work, and then going downstairs to watch TV and drink some wine. All good, all good, all good.
4
I think the big take away is, there is no clear cut winner in the work from home debate. Bottom line it works for some and not for others. I don't think you cam claim the loss of innovation and creativity for everyone. I have worked on remote teams my entire professional career. Even if I were to go into my assigned office no one on my, very large team, is also assigned to it. Furthermore, my team are WFH veterans who aren't scared of a quick ping or hoping on a video chat if we need to talk through something. And we interact about none work stuff all the time during meetings, who doesn't want to know what the weather is like everywhere else? Or how everyone's weekend was? We had a virtual baby shower last month full of team baby pictures and family memories last month. I go to the gym 5 days a week for over an hour and interact with countless people there while working in my physical well being instead of a traditional lunch. I and the majority of my team excel at working from home. But I have worked with numerous people who needed to be in an office and did not make it in a remote environment. I just don't think this need to qualify which is better is useful. I don't think making everyone do it would be beneficial or taking it away/ limiting it would be either. So why must we always discuss it? I guess a wishy washy article wouldn't be a story but come on time to let this go.
It depends on the job and the person. In my experience, writing and supporting software systems for a global corporation, working from home was far and away the better choice. Here are a few reasons why working at home was a good choice for me.
1. my commute was over two hours round trip, on most days, but when there was an accident or road work, it could be over three or even four hours. I had to leave the house at 5:30 am to be at my cubical by 7 am. Working from home gave me time for more human activities, like getting some exercise or watching the sun come up. I did not have the stress of a commute added to every single day. And I made more money without the long list of expenses of driving and wearing out cars.
2. working odd hours to meet deadlines and meeting with people on the other side of the world presents logistical challenges when doing it at the office, in a big city. So it quickly devolves into more stress when you have to keep hours at the office and at home.
3. my work required focus when solving difficult problems. I am a morning person so for me that is when I have the most brain energy. See no. 1. I was able to rely on the quiet and solitude of my home office to think through problems, carefully and methodically, which typically resulted in better results. This added to my happiness. No surprise here.
Looking back, the most creative, productive, and satisfying work I did in my career was in my home office.
7
This article assumes that our co-workers are in our local office with us, and that its an "all or none" approach to working from home. The reality of it is that large corporations have members of the same team assigned to different offices, so whether you are in the office or at home you are still "remote" working from your immediate team members. And as with all things in life, its more about finding the balance of home vs work than all or none.
8
Yes! 0 people on my over 50 people team are in the office I'm assigned to. It would make no difference to my collaboration to go into the office.
2
In many ways, we still live in an atavistic society where the employer must keep an eye on the employee by requiring wasted time in long commutes, nonproductive meetings, and the physical presence of workers in a sterile office setting.
I believe this demonstrates the time tested McGregor's theory of X vs. Y style of management. The X style of management is characterized by distrust of the employee and requires close supervision by an autocratic management. The Y style views the employee in a positive way with an emphasis on employee self-direction that is conducive to working at home.
In my experience, I witnessed more of the X autocratic management style that in the end did not lend itself to creativity or collaboration as everyone was more or less siloed in their race to compete and please the boss.
3
I loathe working on-site with a passion. I was self-employed for a number of years as a Computer Consultant and worked remotely about 80% of that time. At a “normal” job, I used to spend over an hour each way to work and back. Not so with telecommuting. I would simply get dressed (in comfortable clothing!), go to my home office, and fire up my workstation. If I needed to clear my head, I would contact a coworker, do some exercise, or run to the store. Then, refreshed, I’d get back to work.
Contrast with my job today: I’m in an office building downtown. Fortunately I no longer have to commute so far, I can be to work in 20 minutes on a good day. I have my own office in a mostly (shudder) open plan building. Nevertheless, it is loud, sound carries. This has a detrimental effect on my productivity as I easily lose my concentration. The lights are either on or off in my office, there is no attenuating their intensity for personal comfort. It’s either too hot or too cold as coworkers fight over the HVAC controls. No quick 20 minute runs to clear my head any more. I must look presentable. If I need a break, I trudge to the water cooler, endure the stale smell of coffee and cigarette smoke on my coworkers’ breath and socialize. Then trudge back to my office. I’m one of those introverted people who can find too much interaction exhausting.
Ideally, I’d work one day once a week or two on-site and the rest of the time work from home.
9
Very interesting article and a number of points have been covered. I have read a few comments even. However I have my own opinion about it.
Not everyone can work from home that’s for sure. Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Pharmacists, Quality Control Chemists, Nurses, Chefs etc simply can’t work from home and so are blue collar workers.
Even those, who are eligible for working from home simply can’t do it if their children distract them from working.
As rightly mentioned in this article and by the readers, there are a number of advantages in working at home and also few disadvantages like lack of personal interaction with colleagues and loneliness.
Working environment and even home environment matters most. If the environment is bad at both places, then which one is better ? May be a million dollars question.
If the working environment is better, working in office will surely compensate for the stress and strain involved in commuting and also will be providing relief from day to day tension at home if any.
1
The point is that if you and the business are set up to do both, you get the best of both worlds. 100% of one or the other have significant downsides for most jobs.
1
Not everyone needs human interaction or external stimulation to get creative. Some, maybe a minority, but people exist who do their best work away from people and in the comfort of their own sanctuary.
6
For a place where a nebulous quantity like "creativity" is highly valued, consider the typical university department.
More and more academics are splitting time between offices and home these days because all the articles are online, and it is efficient and more organized to have an ongoing shared dropbox account and google drive folder with your co-authors.
Academics have also taken to videoconferencing like ducks to water, given the proliferation of international collaboration that sometimes means you need to skype your co-author at 10pm.
Furthermore, many university campuses are placed rather far from high density population centers, meaning we either decide between living in a tiny locale or commuting around an hour for work. If it weren't for classes, meetings, and (for some of us) lab work, many of us wouldn't come in but once or twice a week. This feeling has been particularly acute lately since many face-to-face classes and meetings have been cancelled this semester due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
So are we missing some sort of spark of collaborative genius that comes only from spontaneous face-to-face encounters with colleagues? I can't speak for my compadres, but in my case I can safely say no. This happens already at conferences.
5
Working from home your carbon footprint is way lower. Seen the satellite images of clean skies over China recently? Imagine all those freeways around the world not clogged with emission-spewing vehicles twice daily during commute hours.
4
Group creativity is overrated, unless everyone in the group is creative. The most powerful people in the group can tend to tamp down creativity for the sake of their own more conventional thinking. And ultimately, most of the "creatives" in a work environment—writers and artists—do their work alone. That's when they can bring their creativity to bear on a project, even if the "idea" (think advertising) has been imposed on them. Between that idea and the finished product is the necessary mediation of a creative mind.
8
I work from home and love it. As for collaboration, chat applications like Teams and Slack work great.
4
If you work in a happy (or at least respectful) workplace then this op-ed has a fair point. But if, like many, you work in a stressful (or even toxic workplace), then it will be a silver lining on the current cloud to get away from that environment for a while. Hardly cause for celebration, when contemplated more deeply, but for now perhaps a welcome respite and relief.
4
Been working out of my home office for more than 20 years now and have no interest in traveling to a work place, especially when I have my 7 year-old Irish Terrier Suzie to entertain (and protect) me. She protected one day a few years back when she was barking like a cat had invaded the house. When I got out of bed to investigate I found a stranger roaming my house. I got my 38 caliber revolver and escorted the unwanted visitor off the property. Meanwhile Suzie discovered a mouse hiding in my TV couch. Finally I had to overturn the bulky couch so that she could get at the little rat. She killed it and then left it on the floor for my inspection. So I think I will stay home until they come and get me. Blissful solitude with Suzie works for me.
4
The best thing companies can do is to offer both! I work for a company that says its totally fine to work from home but encourages people to come into the office for the social bonding aspect.
So if I want to really grind with 0 distractions I might choose to work from home but most days I go into the office
Creative people don’t need to show in the office to create. Most artists, musicians, painters, writers, etc. etc. did their magnificent works, not in the office, but at home or any space they could find. Let’s not blame lack of creativity on working from home.
10
What unnerves me about the "work from home" gospel is that some bosses then promote an unwritten rule or impression that with the ability to work remotely, you are to be available 24/7, since they are. Salaried staff, who do not get overtime, are then caught in a bind. Sure, no one can force you to be online 24/7, but if the majority of your remote colleagues are (or logging in multiple times per day beyond their stated work hours), the impression you then give promoting sanity and work/life balance is that you are not a "team player."
1
Sorry, I strongly disagree. I worked in an office for 6 years before going freelance. Now I've been working from home for the past 5 years and I couldn't do otherwise. My job - translation - is a creative one, and I find it way more stimulating and more inspiring to sit at my desk, with no office workers making noise around or being able to go out for a walk or a run if my mind is blank without asking my boss if I can take 30 mins off in the middle of the afternoon. And when I come back from that walk, I find inspiration from my own resources. Yes, working from home has its downsides - very little to no interaction with coworkers (but not all coworkers are nice!), you may end up working more than 8 hours, your breaks are sometimes the laundry or other small chores, to name a few. But you don't commute (this is priceless!), nobody will ever shout at you if you start work half an hour later and you can start at 7am if you want/need, you have no dress code to follow, you have basically more freedom, you can walk the dog in the middle of the morning, sometimes you can do things (shopping/doctors/errands) during the day rather than after 6pm like everyone else.
The bottom line is: it's a matter of personality and strong discipline.
7
My 13 and 14 year old daughters have absolutely no trouble being creative and spontaneous with their friends through Facechat, Roblox, Minecraft, and other digital social networks. While I think there is still value in face-to-face work, I suspect that some of the issues with work at home today are due to the fact that older workers didn't grow up with the tech that our teens have grown up with. In some ways, this may be similar to the way that it took children to convert an artificial language (American Sign Language) into a full-fledged natural language.
3
Working from home works great for lots of us. I've done it for 20 years, and never missed the "spontaneity" that came from having to be in a space that was not my own, a chair and desk I didn't choose, a lousy or nonexistent view, having to dress up, no place to lie down, constant scrutiny and interruption.... There are lots of entirely remote workplaces that function just fine. At my current job, I feel like we communicate more rapidly on Slack than we every could in person. I agree it's not for everyone, but blanket declarations that it's not viable are inaccurate and unhelpful.
3
I'm an extroverted writer who, aside from university teaching, has worked from home for two-and-a-half decades. Working solo has felt a bit lonely, true, but I do take walks and run errands each day, which allows me to impress my wife with the store clerks, bakers, security guards, sanitation workers, car salesmen, landscapers, firemen, cable technicians, Amazon deliverers, bus drivers, and golden retrievers I know by name. I wouldn't trade it, couldn't trade it. There's something about going to an office that always felt like being back in 6th grade to me. And there's something about waking up each morning and making my own schedule, free to come and go as I please, that has always felt like playing hooky from 6th grade. A life that has felt like playing hooky has been a good life indeed.
11
I suppose I have the best of both worlds. On average I work from home 2-3 days per week. Although I find myself more productive and better able to concentrate from my home office (and my dogs like the company), I have staff and meetings to attend to and feel strongly that certain creative and collaborative functions are, for the reasons mentioned in the column, better performed or enhanced through direct personal contact.
Any sense of social isolation I experience can be easily offset by working from my local library or favourite coffee shop.
As a company, we feel that offerring flexible, home working arrangements is critical to continuing to attract an age diverse and talented workforce. I can no envision ever returning to an office based environment. Hopefully, as I will retire in 6-7 years, I’ll never have to.
3
Unlike the author I cherish cabin fever.
I can transform my commute into more sleep and I can have a 1h nap at noon which is invaluable given my health pb. The commute alone can eat away between 1 and 2h daily, just think about it.
Interaction with others is easy, I’m already used to work asynchronously and this is a strength.
Sure, social helps once in a while but not all the time.
6
There's no question that, working from home, you lose the energy and creativity of others that surrounds you in the workplace and contributes to your own energy and creativity. There's a reason aspiring screenwriters in LA and NYC like to congregate in certain coffee shops. They're probably not talking to each other much, but they're feeding off the shared energy of belonging and creativity.
There are many ways to "bump" into people electronically. We have Whatsapp, twitter, slack, other instant messaging applications, email, facetime, webex and even something called a phone that you can actually talk into and hear another person's voice! When I want to collaborate and talk with people, sometimes it's planned - but many times it isn't and I can have an imprompu, quick conversation easily - whether typed, video, or voice.
2
I’m an introvert, but I’m motivated by external pressures. The office provides the necessary structure and social conformity for me to do my best. Working at home I fall apart, eating too much and slacking off.
I get along well with my coworkers. If I didn’t, working at home would be a welcome respite.
1
You mentioned commuting, badly designed workspaces and the upside is being around others?
What about introverts who do best alone? Or self-motivated, hard workers, eager to be productive, but brought down by office politics and worse.
Ha ha, I'm so grateful I can work from home. I could write a book about working with others. Hostility, insecurity, disorganized, noisy, competitive, not productive are a few words which come to mind.
I won't detail more because it causes me too much stress to even think about it. Glad you enjoy it. But wow, I'm betting there are many with similar stories as mine. To each their own.
10
I’ve worked semi-remotely for 33 years, gradually getting further distance from people. It worked beautifully when I was a single parent and made my own schedule. Finally, I decided to quit the last portion of my job that kept me in actual human contact three years ago to get off the road. It’s been the most hellish three years of my life. I live in a vacuum: I have no idea what my co-workers look like, let alone think or feel; how I rank in quality or production within the group; I speak to no one all day, but get plenty of unavoidable negativity onscreen 8/hrs a day. There’s no one to turn to for immediate help, no mentor, no friend, although I reach out. I’ve also developed anxiety, insomnia, cancer and fairly severe heart disease which I did not have before then. Yeah, I’m a production machine. And that’s just what I feel like: a cog in a wheel that would never be missed.
4
@MaryToo It's the same in person too ("cog in the machine") unless you have your own business or something similar (sinecured position) but I would say that humans are social animals and we need to be around each other. I just think it's bad for work and creativity (of certain kinds, perhaps most kinds) but it is great for other reasons.
I also think a hybrid approach is good. I go in once a week and sometimes I'm tempted to skip and I do if I am sick or if the weather is bad, etc. but I have a group I work with and we're very close but just that I don't see them more than once a week except in person.
1
Working from home exacerbates the appalling work-creep we are already experiencing in our late-capitalist lives. And we are social beings! Shortening the work week - to 4 days or 5-hour days - is what gives me hope.
3
Wuhan ren have been locked up inside since January 23. My friend has two young children. He is the only one he allowed to shop for his family of four, only when he is in full protective gear, with a mask and goggles covering his face, disposable raincoat and shoe cover. The two young children haven't stepped over the threshold for the entire time. Today, Wuhan has 0 new case. It's supposed to be clearing up now, still, my friend is still skeptical about letting his kids out.
No matter what you think, whether you like it or not, social distancing and self-quarantine are the only options we have, with dwindling supplies of masks, without proper diagnostic capacity, hardly enough medical facilities, without vaccines, without cure, and with too much love for others and our home.
5
@Lam sorry to say this but the virus that emanated from this part of the world seems to be as a consequence of the culinary preferences of the folks who live there. Preferences for what are considered delicacies such as wild animals complicates the processes of trying to determine the source[s] of the deadly viruses that originate from China every couple of years. When these viruses prove to be as deadly as the coronavirus people have to be quarantined in infinitely huge numbers, in their homes, inconveniences not withstanding. If their kids can't leave the house for days on end or if one of the parents has to put on cumbersome protective gear before leaving the house, then blame the virus. Inconvenience subsumes much of what we once thought was so important in our daily lives. But if you're angry or frustrated, refuse to believe the severity of the virus or merely view it as more hype or, worse, a hoax, well proceed at your own risk as long as you don't risk the lives of everyone else. Once again, we, as humans, are learning the hard way that in order to prevent hideous pandemics individuals, countries, groups, etc. will have to rein in their food preferences and/or how those foods are prepared to at least minimize more world health events such as this one. And please don't blame the bats, or the civites, or the pandolines who are all carriers of these many viruses. Just don't cut them up and use them for medicinal purposes or eat them.
@M.Wellner Don't get fooled by propaganda and deception.
Chinese scientists kept naming new animals, such as bamboo rats, snakes and pangolins as the intermediate animals for the mutation of the virus, but these claims are unfounded. “Maybe rabbits, but definitely not pangolins.” My friend in Wuhan has gone to the market for fresh seafood in December, when people first show symptoms of an unknown pneumonia at that time. Those photographs of wildlife in cages shared on news coverage and social media were taken long time ago.
“Huanan Market has been around for 17 years. It’s a market for common people. Who can afford endanger species? Xi was just in town for the Military World Games. Who dare to break the law?” he said.
For this huge international sport game that ended in October. The city had imposed the strictest sanitation law to welcome tourists. Wuhan even had an emergency drill against a potential virus epidemic on September 19, 2019. My research shows that the first confirmed case and many others have never been to the market.
Consumption of wildlife has been outlawed since 2017. Pangolin has nearly extinct in China. In recent years, China has intensified its investigations of illegal pangolin hunting and cut off pangolin smuggling channels. Chinese elites view eating wildlife as a status symbol, so you may find wild game on the menu of an exclusive private club. Wuhan ren don’t crave for game meat, when there are plenty of other cheaper choices for protein.
2
I’m going to throw my hat in with the WFH crowd. Instead of a commute, I get time for yoga on my back porch. Instead of a coffee break, I get a brief walk with my dog through the trees. Instead of distractions, noise, and chatter, I get the peaceful din of my office. For a change of pace, I’ll go downstairs with my laptop and throw on a vinyl record.
All of that feeds my creativity, because my mind is rested and at ease.
8
Hear! Hear! (Figuratively, I mean.)
1
Working at home after working in an office (and vice versa!) requires three to four months to get accustomed to. I've done both more than once, but wound up working at home for about 25 years! Yes, your daily interaction with others is reduced, but perhaps it is because I grew up as an only child that my need for such constant interactions is less. I was certainly no hermit, and found many ways to socialize way before the advent of social media -- going out for lunch, going to the gym, going to concerts, meeting up with others who shared my lifestyle (while others toiled away in offices). But this all takes time, months, to adjust to and reorganize your social life.
1
Two things I’ve found about working from home (I’m a commercial photographer who frequently spends long hours in front of the computer between shoots): First, it takes discipline to work from home. No playing with the cat, doing the dishes, laundry, constant snack trips to the kitchen, Facebook checking, eBay shopping etc. You’re working from home, and that’s what you should be doing, not everything else (and particularly if your livelihood depends on that discipline). Second, I find that I can be extremely productive at 2am thru 6am — why? Nobody is emailing me, calling me, texting or FB messaging me during that time, so I can just put on the BBC and stick my head into my work.
Actually there is a third thing, and sometimes it can be a bit of a conflict. As the writer points out, working from home can be socially isolating, and I can sometimes go days without talking to or seeing another person during the course of my working hours. Consequently when my wife comes home from her 8-4 office job, I am craving conversation. My wife, on the other hand, has just spent 8 hours in an office surrounded by coworkers, so oftentimes the last thing she wants to do when she walks through the door at 4:30 is to engage in a lot of conversation, so there can be a bit of push-pull trying to appreciate what each other goes through during our respective work days. But in general we’ve struck a good balance and it’s worked for us for the last 20 years.
7
"best work came from accidentally bumping into other people"
Bumping into people, accidentally or otherwise, is of no benefit to me.
Building up a good library at home, decent internet-academic connections and subscriptions, quiet, but being able to work while listening to my music, with no need for earphones, that will produce my best work.
People? Telephone and email and Skype are sufficient.
I will grant though that teaching is best not when done remotely but in a classroom, but not all my colleagues will agree.
In the old days, I had to work from a library and got sidetracked and interrupted and wasted time.
Now I can do research and every now and again take a newspaper break. I waste less time.
Working from home is just fine. Even when healthy.
5
540 comments and counting, and my read of over 200 strongly supports the advantages and preferences of working remotely. Even considering the (dubious?) benefits of ‘hallway conversations’ and other serendipitous ‘collaboration’ that in-office meetings might encourage, the reality of (each way) 1-1.5 hour commutes completely negates any benefit of being in-office. Remote work is here to stay!
7
I agree. Have been working from home for several years now, and I'm thoroughly convinced that what you really want is the *option* to work from home when needed or desired. I'm very much looking forward to getting an office outside the house again sometime over the next year.
2
I've been working from home for weeks on end. Not sure if I'll ever go back to office. My whole team is remote anyway. Now I can walk my dog 3 times a day and get some fresh air. Though it is hard after so many years of commuting to escape the feeling of "playing hookie".
3
If you don't like working from home, go to the office. No-one is forcing you to stay home.
1
@ Bob: You’d be surprised, Bob. Telecommuting is dirt cheap for employers, it’s not going away.
I was telecommuting decades ago.
There are problems being a renter. A landlord's preferred tenant is a tenant who does not actually occupy and live in his or her rental unit.
You work seven days a week, but after the critical deadline stuff is completed, you can take time off to have a wonderful cappucino in the early afternoon.
But.
It does transform you into a person who does everything in work and when you find yourself employed under everyone's thumb again, you have to deal with their incredible ignorance about what you can do. Most workers are really not very bright people.
1
10 years in I wouldn't change it for the world! Plus I am productive...no useless meetings and forced water cooler chat. The savings are great esp for the environment - no containers or cups and my waistline is thankful. I'd be hard-pressed to get back into the real world...thank god my boss is amazing ;) (it's me!)
4
Working from home:30 second commute. Total commuting time 1 minute
Working in office Average commuting time 45 mins each way.
Savings 1.5 hours per day. 375 hours per year
Working from home Preparation to go to work 5 mins
Working in office: 35 mins
Working from home: Changing after work 0 mins
Working in office: 10 mins
Savings: 166 hours per year
Working from home: 0 commmuting cost
Working in office: $20 per day
Savings $5,000 per year.
The equivalent of 50 workdays and $5000 plus clothing and dry cleaning costs
7
I work form home most of the time....I feel far more creative surrounded by my books, my references, listening to music and the feeling the sunlight than I ever would in an office, or slammed on a train every morning.
Best of all, I can wear comfy clothes!
10
This is all quite whiney and self centered in the face of a pandemic. During this upheaval we stay at home not only to keep ourselves safe but also consider the safety of others. People who are truly creative find work arounds in most any situation. Try harder.
8
@Lillies, seriously. Creativity can be sparked by anything, not just hanging out with your work clique gossiping and showing off (which is what it sounds like this author is really missing.)
2
I spent the week with a 20 year old, dying cat. Today I voted at 7:12 a.m., continued a 121 day crossword puzzle streak and shopped online, spending about $600 on tools (work related - kind of). I've been working from home for six years and worry more about cabin fever than coronavirus. I also cleaned the house because my wife is one of those millions of teachers who have to show up.
My advise - make a work list and try to stick to it. I hated the open office and found it stifling.
3
I wonder if some companies could stagger the days at home so 20% or 30% some come in everyday. That way you would still make contact with some of your fellow workers.
2
I've been working from home for almost 6 years now and I'm losing it. I get crazy bored and yes, I feel that my creativity is wearing down (I am a graphic/web designer, so you get the picture). I'm seriously considering moving to a WeWork. I need to see people.
The work environment is not only about the individual. While you may not feel you're gaining by sharing an office with people, others may gain by being there with you. We influence each other, often in positive ways that build professional skills - like self-presentation, good judgement, listening and focus ability. Sometimes we even learn jokes.
2
I'm considered an extrovert, and yet I am much happier and productive when working from home and keeping phone and email interruptions to a minimum.
That said, I do enjoy going out into the world and meeting up with my colleagues every so often. Conversations about work are more productive when they occur infrequently, and the small talk and complaining are kept to a minimum due to lack of time.
I return to my solitude energized and eager to get more done.
Laszlo Bock got it backwards for someone like me: My ideal is 1.5 days at the office and the remainder at home.
4
Sorry but I loved working from home before I retired!
The office was too cramped and full of people talking, chit chatting, milling about etc. That was a major stressor for me as I had deadlines and a heavy workload (unlike them).
I also have always had my own groups of friends outside of the office and do not rely on work for friendship or company. If you have your own friends and like your own company, it's a different world, I think.
6
Working at home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but I seem to last longer in jobs where I’m off-site most of the time so I don’t have to be personable 40 hours a week, and people don’t have to be around me all the time. I like being around people though also and tend to get agoraphobic, so I’m fortunate that I can be both on site or remote pretty much at will.
I’ve worked mostly at home for 25 years with occasional days in the office. There are strong advantages and disadvantages for each. But social distancing could benefit by just reducing the number of people in the office at any one time. A plan where certain groups each go into the office one day a week and work from home the rest could allow for the best of all worlds.
4
Don't agree at all. I'm some kind of a "hard core from home worker". I've been freelancing for 20 years plus and happy that I pretty much never have to work in an office filled with other coworkers. I dislike teamwork very much and can easily spend weeks without socializing in an office. I'm working in a so called creative job, I have to come up with new design-ideas on an almost daily basis. I'm way more creative if I don't have to deal with tiresome office politics, forced small talk over awkward lunches and those awful office meetings with endless talking back and forth to little effect. Call me weird but working alone from home is just perfect for me. Sometimes I go to the gym in the middle of the afternoon and then simply work longer at night. Sometimes I'm working out or cooking while listening in on a conference call. I think it's unreal how chill my working situation actually is. No commute, no getting ready in the morning to be presentable, no hassle, no nothing. Straight from my bedroom to the living room, with a short stop for coffee in my kitchen before hitting the desk. Bliss. That said, if I have to I do work harder and longer than full time staff at their offices. But then the next day I can usually take it easier again. Perfect.
19
I came to that conclusion years ago after several stints of working at home. I'm a writer and I found being around others lit a fire under my creativity, simply because I was exposed to different ideas, opinions, ways of working. I was out of my bubble. AND colleagues help relieve the tedium associated with office work. Plus they give you something to gossip about at home.
2
I've been working from home the last 6 months. It's not as great as I thought, but I am able to focus more and am more productive. Though I'm an introvert I miss being around others, which came as a surprise. One of the downsides is the only space I can work is in my library, which means I've lost it for personal use because I now associate it with work and avoid it otherwise. I'll certainly take it over an open air office environment, which seems specifically designed to inhibit productivity.
3
I loathe being forced to "collaborate." It's something I know extroverts love but I am infinitely more productive alone and believe that creativity is best served by solitude. You quote Jobs so I counter with Wozniak (though I'm certain someone's already done it, here):
"Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me — they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone — best outside of corporate environments, best where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has ever been invented by committee… I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.”
19
My thoughts, as a creative professional who worked in/out of offices:
Offices are great for: socializing, inside jokes, fun lunches, gossip, 1 out of 6 meetings sparking an idea.
Home is great for: doing the actual work.
Even in an office, I often had to wait until people were leaving at the end of the day to get anything creative done, as the constant interruptions, distractions and mind-numbing meetings made concentration impossible. I struck out on my own and also kept doing remote work for key clients at the old job. My work was better and the collaboration with the old team was more efficiently productive. Plus I was much less exhausted. It's the way to go.
17
I know two new mothers who work from home but have no babysitters or family members helping at home. I am not sure how much “work” is being done.
2
As a field serviceman my primary job is to repair equipment at customer sites. I had a walking territory in Manhattan for 15 years and commuted daily. For the past 22 years I have a driving territory and work out of my house. So I guess I get the best of both worlds, no commute, customer visits, and the rest of my work from home.
1
I disliked working entirely from home. As a freelance writer, I learned that I desperately missed having coworkers and the structure that comes with having a schedule. So I found a menial part-time job that gives me those things that I missed while still focusing creative energy on my writing. Great piece!
6
Kevin, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Working from home is a god-send for people like me who need peace and quiet to think/mull/contemplate. I’ve worked remotely for most of my 40 years of employment and the home office set-up has served me well. For really young folks who are new to work or in entry level positions, being in an office environment/schmoozing at the water cooler/developing relationships/hashing out ideas can be valuable and pleasurable. But for the rest of us, give me a quiet home office with no commute and no distractions ANY day. If I need to bounce ideas off of someone, I CALL them on the phone. I use slack, TM, email, whatever it takes. I make the effort to reach out. It’s an effort that maybe most people, yourself included, are not willing to do, but absolutely worth the trade-off.
16
It depends on where your team is located. I have truly enjoyed being with people I actually work with on a regular basis. Going out to lunch etc.
But for most of the last 10 plus years I have been a part of teams whose members were in other states or other countries. I could be in an office and be with people who also worked for my company, but it did not really impact my performance. Those other folks could have been with a different company. My bad for not reaching out more but it is hard to create a work relationship with someone who doesn't work on what you work on. Working from home was just as efficient.
3
Wow, the top comments are depressing. I have wonderful warm, deep friendships with people who were colleagues 30 years ago. We visit each other, we talk on the phone for hours (as recently as last night). We built friendships in person that have lasted decades. Something terrible is going on that so many people feel so alienated from the people they work with.
8
I do agree that working from home has its drawbacks, like this article noted, but having worked in an office and at home, I would take remote work any day. Getting to spend more time with my family and just being able to focus on work without any of the distractions of the office or time wasted in commute is such a blessing.
5
Due to the corona virus my work is now remote. This is excellent in that I now save 2 hours per day in commuting time, reduce my carbon footprint, and am home to socialize my dog, and do laundry during work breaks. My supervisor is happy with my productivity and we work to complete the tasks not follow the clock. I am fine with working beyond the normal hours to complete projects when allowed comp time. Home internet is fast so work is productive. I still interact with work mates via phone calls and zoom meetings, so it’s improved collaborative work without the downside of a noisy shared work place. I hope this becomes the work standard!
3
Any leader who says that creativity and collaboration bloom best in an office environment has sniffed too much of the corporate fertilizer.
For any job not requiring an on-site presence, work should be a thing you do, not a place you go. That being said, working remotely does require a unique skill set for both workers and supervisors. Organizations that create work from home policies and take the time to upskill their workforce see the greatest results.
As for the rest of it, well, I remember my father's work philosophy: "It's just a job. Deal with it. And if you don't like it, find another one."
5
I get it. Esprits de corps and joie de vivre have more in common than language. The office and its denizens becomes a tribe, a team you belong to. Birthday lunches, celebratory cakes in the coffee room, happy hour and even the much maligned holiday party are all things I became nostalgic for as an independent contractor. Having colleagues of different genders, races and ages also expands one's sphere in a way that can't help but enhance the end product.
I gave up the office to raise my children. No regrets. But occasional onsite gigs energized me in ways that working at home did not. Here's hoping all the siloed workers like the article's author can return to their cubicles and colleagues soon.
3
I work from home 3 weeks a month and then go into and work from the office about 1 week per month. I love this cadence and balance - I get the jolt from others and the deep work time by myself. When I first started I felt isolated during the remote work weeks but I mitigated that by moving all my calls to Zoom video meetings.
It's also helpful to have a dog at home. I get to take a real lunch break and walk him midday. I also go to the neighborhood dog park at 6pm every day. I see the same friendly faces and socialize, just like I did at the proverbial water cooler when I worked from the office daily.
As an extrovert I generally prefer working from the office but my remote set up has showed me how adaptable I can be, and that I can in fact modify my home work environment to meet my needs.
3
I literally just started a fully remote job, and I am in love. My job requires very intense concentration for long periods of time, and that's just not conducive to office work where I'm continually being distracted. At home I can shut my door, put my earbuds in, go into my zone, and sling code like no one's business.
10
I love working from home. I can take breaks when I need to think something through. I can take my dog on a walk and decompress. As for creativity, as a introvert, I do my best work from home. I can go out to lunch, meet a friend for coffee mid-day. True, I am not quarantined, but even those who are have space to be creative. And you can skype or do FaceTime if interaction is needed or desired.
7
I get all these introverts writing in about their awesome dog and their at-home gig, but you’re absolutely right that people, especially extroverts, are more creative in social exchanges and generate ideas in the presence of- and in response to- others . This is socio-cultural learning theory, Vygotsky, and has been around for half a century at least. We need each other. It takes a crisis like this to recognize what it would be like if we took this format individualized and hyper excluded reality to the extreme. There has to be a balance.
3
In his memoir, computer legend Steve Wozniak, better-known as Woz, co-founder of Apple, says "Groupthink can be the archnemesis of creativity." Speaking of inventors, engineers and artists, they "work best alone, outside of corporate environments."
6
I've worked from home for years and I love it. LOVE it. I put maybe 150 miles a month on the car, I don't sit in traffic, I am comfortable in my work environment, no office to rent, etc. it's great for me. Definitely no loss of creativity!
7
Sorry but working from home is definitely not overrated.
In my 20+ years in engineering R&D, marketing and sales roles, I have worked in open-plan offices and from home. Working from home works much better for me.
There is no need to be with co-workers 100% of the time to solve problems. Some time with co-workers is very productive, but not 100% of the time. You need to think about the problems on your own, before discussing them with others. Thinking in an open-plan office is not easy. Thinking at home is much easier.
The best way to promote team cohesion is to spend time with work colleagues OUTSIDE of work. Team events away from the office worked great for us, and those working from home were happy to attend. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive. Another easy way is to have a happy hour at work, for example 3-5 PM on Fridays - this is a good time to have random discussions with co-workers and have those wow-moments that Steve Jobs talked about.
It is definitely easier to balance work and life while working from home. No time wasted in traffic, no costs for commuting, no risk of being in a car crash.
There is no need for companies to try to keep remote employees happy. If you love what you do, you will be happier doing it from home.
I do agree that working from home works for some and doesn’t work for others. Those for whom it works should be allowed to do it more often.
10
I worked from home for 6 years as a post retirement necessity due to the Great Recession. Not good. I was cloistered from my friends, I drank too much and generally just agitated most of the time. We are social beings and should work in groups not in isolation.
2
@Mike
Everyone is different and different jobs require various social as well as other skills. Most people here are discussing 'office jobs'. These are not the same as jobs such as construction, where workers have to be 'social' in the sense of looking out for each others' safety, but not so much in the interest of 'creativity' as there is concrete (literally and metaphorically) work to be done. I wonder how well the author would fare in that sort of environment.
And some people are just loners, who find the enforced social interactions of the workplace about as inviting as they probably found the middle school scene. It's quite possible to work competently and efficiently from home and still engage in social events -- the difference being that such workers get to choose who they will socialize with and when. In my case, that means singing in opera and symphony choruses. Works for me !
1
I think something else worth considering is how working from home is liberation from microaggressions related to race and gender. I have noticed that now that I work largely from home, I feel a little less on edge because I can focus on the actual work-- not answering a million questions about my hair, not enduring off-color jokes and remarks, not being cursed out in meetings and having no one defend me, not being touched without my permission...yeah. If anything, working remotely has allowed for more bandwidth for creativity because I'm using less energy for dealing with how combative office environments can be.
13
@Daniey I have a bullseye on my back, it was super glued at birth, an S tattooed on my forehead, standing for scapegoat and a B on my breast that says Bully me. My sister says I have a victim-mentality. I've had lots of fun at work, laughing uproariously and interacting with my co-workers. But there's ALWAYS a contingent of people who loathe me and deliberately torment me. I've been mocked for everything: having cancer and losing a breast, my age, cleaning my workstation daily, my speech, the way I dress . . . Macroaggressions related to race, age, class and Jealousy.
2
I don't agree. But then again, perhaps it depends on where home is, etc. I live on a waterfront which is a rustic environment where I can walk around like a huge park (exurban WNY) and I prefer to work from home and I'd put our work as among the most creative humans can do (science, medicine, drug discovery, etc.) which involves traditional creative stuff like excellence in art and writing.
While I agree F2F meetings are also good creativity boosters, my best groundbreaking ideas have come alone while secluded in nature.
5
So you're selling a book. I have worked at home part time for over a year doing computer work for a very successful corporation. I love it. I don't spend any of my life commuting, I don't have to put a suit on every day, and I can pick my hours. I can easily communicate with supervisors and coworkers when I need to. A couple of times a year I go into the corporate offices for a half day of training. That's it! It works for my particular job, but of course there are obviously jobs where it's not possible. I know there are many who would love a legitimate work at home job like I have. It's not some horrible scourge on the worker, it's just another alternative that I was lucky to find. Let it go.
13
I’ve worked primarily from home for 20 years or so. My current virtual assistant of 17 years and I speak on the phone maybe once a quarter, just because it feels like we should. I’ve never met her in person. But introverts like us get along just fine. Seeing how many people commenting here prefer working from home makes me wonder how that book project will go over.
8
Spoken like an extrovert.
As a white collar, Gen X introvert who enjoys periodic opportunities for remote work - including a rather lengthy one just getting underway - I don't see a downside to it.
9
This is the wrong opinion. I've been working from home for 15 years and, while there it requires structure to avoid isolation, i've never felt more free, more motivated, or more productive.
I schedule in person meetings with all my clients, make sure to get out for a working coffee break, and love the freedom of being able to get out for exercise whenever the weather is good.
Working from home is the ultimate expression of an adult relationship with work, where emphasis is not placed on the trivialities of schedule and appearance but the bottom line of getting excellent work done.
I hope to never work office hours again.
20
The creativity argument is nonsense. This whole view of spontaneous convos resulting in the next big thing I’m not buying. Having worked in WeWork spaces all you see are millennial lemmings with their Bose and DrDre headsets staring at computers or looking at their phones.
The creativity/innovation gap happening now is likely cause led by limits to what/where we can improve the human experience. The throwing about of “AI/ML” is getting tiring. AI/ML is the next phase of mechanization that can potentially eliminate even more jobs. Those that say it will help people focus on “higher value” problems is even more nonsense. We’ve squeezed so much inefficiency out of the “system” that there’s not much left for adding value. It’s just shifting value to someone else’s corner of the game board.
I work in the tech industry for one of the largest firms in the world btw...;)
6
As a civilian attorney for the Department of the Army (now retired), once the Army finally allowed working from home, I was NEVER as productive at my office as I was at home. The only problem was, I would work more hours than federal law allowed a GS employee to work in a day. But I never told anyone!
6
My company is gradually rolling out telecommuting, most of my team does one day a week, but I don’t. My manager is based in a different state and drives in once a month at best. I don’t care for it. Most days I have “telecommuted” were days I had put in for vacation, had nothing to do and logged in to do a little work to stay on top of things. I like face-to-face human interaction.
If you want to encourage collaboration and seridipidous meetings, maybe have some dedicated social events and stop putting everyone into open office plans where everyone is watching everyone, everyone is trying to appear harder working than everyone else, and any conversation immediately irks 3 people. It's also pretty obvious these days and maybe years ago that a lot of people either real introverts or just cranky people find any socializing at the office annoying .. which is kind of a sad way to spend a high percentage of your life.
Right now, we probably have to give it a try, just read some of the terrible news out of Italy's hospitals (I think we were lulled into thinking corona wasn't that bad by the lack of free press out of China). Let's keep our elders safe and leave hospital beds for those who can't avoid contact or who are just unlucky.
Also maybe you can support some businesses near your house, not quite the same as those in your work neighborhood, but it is likely safe to get some take out a few times a week.
2
Please. I’ve worked from home for 18 years. I travel maybe a half dozen times a year, make sure I go out to eat a lunch (Chinese, tacos, pizza) once a week, work in a coffee house maybe two days month for 1/2 a day. It’s fine.
11
This is partly an introvert/extrovert thing. If you’re extroverted at heart, you’re not going to understand that offices suck productivity, and indeed life, out of people that aren’t like you.
Working from home encourages entrepreneurship in my opinion: something we need more of.
16
Count me among the legions of WFH fans. I too am far more productive in my home office and if I need or want a change of scenery, I work from Starbucks, the library or my company's actual office. I treasure the cost and time savings, flexibility, minimized environmental impact, and as a single mom with no extended family nearby, it's invaluable to be accessible to my kids after school and during summers and school breaks. As a result, I'm a loyal, high producing employee with a great attitude. A win-win for both me and my employer. Of course it has drawbacks, but nothing in life is perfect and the positives far outweigh the negatives for me. I don't feel any less creative at home. I'm healthier too. Office jobs and long commutes can minimize one's ability to stay physically fit consistently.
I find the office isn't very social either. People seem afraid or self-conscious about talking and many email or text each other anyway, even the person in the next cubicle over.
13
I get it. A lot of you are used to your regular jobs. Your regular hours. Your favorite lunch spots. Those of us who have been working the gig economy our entire working lives do not have the luxury of working from home. Some of us no longer have work at all. (Caterers, lets talk!) My husband is a working actor and if/when his show is no longer allowed to run bc of this pandemic, we will have NO income. I'm so incredibly tired of those of you with salaries and health care plans telling us in 600 words that it is harder to work from home. Yes. We know. We work three jobs.
Some from home. Some of us may not have income for the foreseeable future. These articles about how your dogs are disrupting your workflow are ridiculous.
8
I’m right there with ya, man! I mean we all know Beethoven did his best work when he could spend a few hours a day hanging out eating donuts, drinking bad coffee and making chit chat with the receptionists and file clerks in the office ‘micro-kitchen.’ That’s where the serendipity and creativity happens, bro!
And just think what that Thoreau guy might have accomplished if he’d been able to sit in a conference room with a committee — make that a ‘sub-committee’ - feigning attentiveness and interest in a powerpoint presentation on something or other while surreptitiously checking email, facebook and instagram on his phone! I mean what did the world lose out on there? We’ll never know, and that’s just way tragic!
15
@chambolle, indeed. Well-played...:)
1
Extrovert. About 50% of the population is not like you.
12
I'm a mad extrovert, but I LOVE working from home. It saves me money and time. My cars get little use, so my 2001 and 2010 vehicles are still in great shape and insuring them is cheap. (We'll see how the 2001 survives after my son starts driving it.)
I'm hard pressed to find any disadvantage to working from home, at least from my perspective.
8
Working from home in a highly competitive environment isn't easy if others are still working in office.
Without actual face to face interaction you end up getting lower profile/lower tier assignments. Emails asking for specific assignments or more responsibility can be missed or ignored but someone showing up in the boss's office can't be ignored. No high profile assignments, you can forget about any advancement no matter how much work you get done or how high the quality.
1
ummm.... I find you extrovert energy vampires annoying. I find the pantry and elevator small talk draining and when you intereupt me while I am in highly productive deep thought annoying and the farthest thing from a creativit boon. Stop sucking my energy so you can get your creative ideas. Let me work and connect with you over Webex when I have something meaningful to share.
18
The premise of this article is silly. Whether you are more or less productive/creative/focused etc is highly situational. It depends on your personality, your work relationships, your company culture, your job, your home situation, and much, much more.
8
These Crosby, Stills & Nash lyrics pretty much sum up my life as a work-from-home consultant whose job also involves face-to-face meetings with clients, which I do look forward to: "Are you thinkin' of telephones, and managers, and where you got to be at noon? You are living a reality I left years ago, it quite nearly killed me."
3
Typically I find that bumping into people in the office results in wasted time faking an interest in their lives or them trying to rope me into helping them do their jobs. I love working remote.
7
There are other people at the office? Go figure! I guess that's the source of that annoying buzzing sound I ignore.
...Andrew
2
I get too cooped up working from home all the time, but there is absolutely no boost to "creativity" in an open office plan where everyone is distracted and plugs into headphones anyway.
336
@NH
Battery hens, rats on a wheel, guinea pigs, mice in a maze, Pavlov's dog, the Matrix... exactly.
7
People that work from home are usually the same people that don't speak at an office.
3
No free meals and baristas at Google and Facebook? How sad.
Working in an office might be more productive if your commute is under say fifteen minutes each way. Anyone want to try to make that happen?
It helps if the entire team is remote. Navigating office politics remotely is often impossible.
It also helps getting together physically now and again if the travel is deemed advantageous to the workforce rather than a drudgery.
I can put my creativity into fighting my way through traffic (and show up at work exhausted) or I can put my creativity into my work. You decide.
6
I hate working from home. It’s lonely, I miss the interaction and the opportunity to noodle things around with colleagues. If we are confined to quarters, I’ll send up chewing the carpet.
2
The real risk of COVID-19 forcing work from home quarantines is that is will peel back the veneer of those who can produce and those who strap hang. In any organization, the biggest and most entrepreneurial producers tend to be doing their thing regardless of where they work. Indeed, these individuals are often on the road, of on the phone with clients or investors or conceiving new ideas and strategies. Indeed, collaboration can assist in this process, but most offices are top heavy on their core producers. What happens if companies realize who’s producing and who’s not as these quarantines play out? Might we see layoffs for the marginal? Promotions for the exceptional? Technology is already a pernicious factor changing employment and productivity in our modern economy. An exogenous event like a pandemic could accelerate our socio-economic challenges faster than we wish.
6
Love working from home, especially the clothing optional, bedroom slipper commute. And instead of office gossip, I can throw in a load of laundry or take the dog out for a walk. Efficient multi-tasking at its finest!
9
"And I’ve now come to a very different conclusion:
Most people should work in an office, or near
other people, and avoid solitary work-from-home
arrangements whenever possible."
Jeepers--I'd wager this guy never had to write
reams of software to deadline.
The _only_ time I ever got a decent amount of coding
done was on my telecommute days.
8
My husband has been working from home for the past four years and it is awful. It changes the entire dynamic of the house. Work and home needs to be separate.
4
I had a lab job which I commuted to for 16 years. When I was laid off, I ended up at another lab job but it was so bad I quit after 4 weeks. I then started my career in sales, which is remote. It was hard for the first 2-3 years; not seeing my friends each day that I had known for so long. But over time I’ve come to very much appreciate my life. I currently get paid quite well, travel about once per month out of my area to meet customers, and get to see my friends for lunch. The trick is to have enough contact with your home office or boss to keep the ideas flowing (which I do). Business development and sales jobs are perfect for working remotely (and I’m reasonably extroverted - I like people). But some jobs, especially in the sciences or engineering, certainly thrive off of interpersonal interactions to foster ideas. It just depends on the job.
3
I agree with Prof at HBS. Few people have ways to get relevant social interaction. Working from office or away from it is an individual fit. For example, a researcher who has never met a single home loan defaulter and researching on the topic using data, newspaper articles or talking to his colleagues does not have direct experience of the situation, hence may not develop the wholistic view or a consultant incorporating only the views of executives visiting his office while charting out governance policy of the company does not know the employee side of the story whom he may chance upon while doing grocery for his home snacking.
I have worked for years in an 'office' (or cubicle) environment and I couldn't disagree more w/this author. I admit I don't know what he does, but for me, I am able to focus on my work when there isn't noise around - and the sounds most 'co-workers' make, for me, is noise. If I need to confer with someone I can message, email or go to talk to them. All the others - no thanks. And commuting is a huge waste of time and resources.
10
Can't people bounce ideas off of each other via computers , they can even see each other. The one very positive effect of this new virus which just mysteriously appeared is that people are not traveling to work as much and air travel is cut down. That is something everyone needs to consider anyway. Don't travel -especially fly-if you don't have too. And if you have to drive to work have the decency to get rid of your v-8 engine and/or large tires.
1
I've done it for five and a half years. You get used to the lack of in-person human interaction and find ways to boost your creativity. Your production goes up, and creativity is more necessary in some positions and a quiet home office with no drama and less stress is better for someone like me, a programmer. So your very limited (days?) of working from home makes you no expert on the subject and hence not qualified to paint this article with a broad stroke deeming all work from home employees somehow less valuable than their in-office counterparts.
8
My personal preference is working from home. That said, going in to the office for collaboration doesn't mean a whole lot when the people you work with are in other parts of the country. My boss and her boss are in Charlotte, NC. The IT folks I work with most closely are in Phoenix and Charlotte. The business folks I work most closely with are in Minneapolis and San Fran. So, if I go into the office I'm "remote" anyway -- why bother?
10
"But research also shows that what remote workers gain in productivity, they often miss in harder-to-measure benefits like creativity and innovative thinking."
Well that's interesting. My office of 200 people feels more stifling and conformist than creative. It could be that creativity is on a continuum: the not-very creative might get an encouraging idea together with a colleague. But the higher-creativity people (like me) require much much more stimulus generally not found in a suburban corporate office. I'm much better at thinking outside the box, when not stuck inside the box. Working at home allows me the freedom to not repeat safe, dull ideas that are rewarded inside the office.
6
With the exception of 6 months in NYC on a project, I have been working from home and supporting a family of six for almost 17 years now. During that time, I spent only a few days in an office setting, and I cannot imagine going back to that way of making a living.
I have a rich internal life and I find myself to be plenty creative in my chosen profession, which is software architecture. So I just don't buy the thesis of this argument - at least not for myself.
12
I worked from home for three years before retiring. I came to think of it as being under house arrest. As an introvert I enjoyed it at first but it negatively reinforced my introversion, even though I was expected to be reachable by phone or text at all hours between 7:00 am and midnight. Working in the office, on the other hand, helped me make decades-long friends and come out of my shell. And the distractions of the office were nothing compared to the dirty dishes, the refrigerator, the spouse, and the television at home.
5
I am an introvert who deeply values my alone time and needs it every day. I also hate working from home. If I spend an 8-hour stretch without talking to another person, I start to feel unnerved and sad. I am much more productive at my office,where I am not distracted by a sink full of dirty dishes and loads of laundry. The occasional chat with a coworker gives me a much-needed break that makes me more productive when I return to my computer. I recognize I'm very lucky to like and respect my coworkers, who I genuinely enjoy seeing every day. I was unnerved that almost every Times-pick comment is from someone who abhors interacting with their coworkers. I'm terrified of a future where offices cease to exist. Humans need interpersonal interaction!
7
I first worked from home when I left a moderately large company to start my own business (almost 40 years ago and it has been successful, thanks). At first, I sorely missed the loss of regular interactions with people in my field and the stimulation that came from daily conversations with them. And, I had not anticipated how I would miss the daily social interactions (not necessarily professional or work-related) that I had had on the job. So if you decide to work from home, be ready for that. Maybe today, connections with people on the internet can mitigate those downsides. But I wouldn't count on that.
5
I am an introvert yet completely agree with this article.
I find it difficult to fully engage with colleagues when I work from home (yes this is nice sometimes as it facilitates focused work, but overall is detrimental to my value as an employee). It is also hard to forge a bond with the few remote employees at my company. There’s just something about being able to stop by someone’s office or have a conversation walking down the hallway that makes work interactions not just easier but more meaningful.
6
My office recently renovated so that we could "collaborate" better. What that really meant was more people put into one room, the removal of partitions that gave us a semblance of privacy, being unable to avoid every conversation and every crunch from a co-worker's snacks, and sitting under too-bright lighting. Even our small meeting areas have glass walls, so there's not even a place for a quick 2-minute respite. Switching to remote work has made me less anxious and more productive and creative. I also have more time to socialize with friends. To each his own.
13
All of these comments provide excellent, totally legitimate reasons for commuting. It sounds wonderful - for introverts, for creativity, for climate change even! But what if your home is not conducive to getting real work done? Kids, general chaos, and a kitchen full of food are really distracting. I welcome my time away from home each day!
I have also supervised employees that telework sometimes, and honestly I don't see nearly as much getting done.
Depends on the field, the worker, and the home environment?
4
Duh, there are pros and cons, and they can vary in role, by person, and how studied. Maybe we should expect managers to manage to get the best results from the team. Hopefully the books will help them (we need it). If not, well, there's an idea for your next book.
3
Amen, I couldn't agree more. As a field technical specialist who works from home between visits with customers, I find myself at a local coffee shop, Starbucks, or back at headquarters at a hot desk surrounded by colleagues eager to share their thoughts, advice and ideas. Steve Jobs is absolutely right. Sorry Jack Welch, you are and will always be wrong.
2
I'm a small business owner, cannot work from home, need the sewing machines, as do my staff. Most of my work, and all of my creative work, is done at night after the staff leave as it is the only time I can think...if we are forced to stay home, my home will be staying at work 24/7 in order to try and keep up with everything my staff will be unable to come in and do...oh!! -the joys of small business ownership, and if my staff have to stay home they should at least be allowed to claim unemployment, a payroll tax cut won't help them..because if I have to pay them while I am trying to do all their work myself, I will be bankrupt pretty fast and they will all land on unemployment anyway!
3
Jobs was not really creative. He was good at hitching his wagon to others who were productive creatives—people who were creative AND produced. He was a good storyteller. If you are the kind of person who is not intimidated by a “blank page” or doing everything yourself, remote work is sublime. If you need others to bounce ideas off of or you can’t complete your work on your own, you won’t like remote work.
12
I work at home and will never go back. Having my own food, my own bathroom, no worries about clothes or office gossip is fabulous. Commuting used to take at least 2 hours out of my day. I have plenty of online contact with co-workers and web ex meetings whenever we need them.
14
It's interesting how you viewed this as such a dichotomous choice. Either work from home or work in the office. My team is engaged in highly creative work (designing interactive online learning experiences), and we find that a balance between remote and in-person work really maximizes both our work and the benefits we can offer.
My team generally spends half their time in the office or at meetings with project teams throughout our organization, and half the time working at home. The time spent in-person is heavily focused in creative collaboration, socialization, and coordination meetings. Then the remote time is spent implementing all those creative ideas. The balance as well as our focus on team dynamics has been very effective for us.
9
Yes! This!
Studies say this. Studies say that. I say it depends. Some people thrive with company around them. Some people like me thrive alone to think. I’ve noticed throughout my working life how workers simply cannot be alone. It has nothing to do with their job. They simply are terrified to be alone. I love being alone. I’m not a loner, I’m just comfortable in my own thoughts, and I thrive in my work. Oh by the way, I’ve never heard of a good idea come out of the mini kitchen at the office.
10
As a friend of mine said we writers are in self quarantine at home for most of our lives. Fundamentally we like it but it can be lonely. The commute is great — you walk across the hall!
3
Working at home, for me, always proves more fruitful creatively than in an office. When I find myself creatively blocked, I can go for a long walk or exercise and inevitably push through the block or just feel better about the possibility I eventually will.
5
We have layoffs at least twice a year and our teams are being reorganized constantly, so people disappear without explanation and I'm always justifying my existence to a yet another new boss who isn't familiar with my work and has no idea what to do with me. Sure,"being near other people also allows us to express our most human qualities like empathy and collaboration" but that doesn't extend to employers. If we're all "plug and play" and can be "unplugged" at any time, why does it matter where we plug in from? And if the company thinks you're not being creative enough, you're easy to replace.
2
With more than 20 years of working from home, I’ve learned that there are certain personal characteristics that make workers successful...or doom them. Some people need the elbow-to elbow social contact and office chaos to keep their motors running efficiently and effectively. Some find that they are more creative, more efficient, and better workers from a home office. Some require the structure of the commute and the office; some thrive with their pooch at their feet and their refrigerator just steps away. Technology, especially the ease of virtual meetings, has made the at-home warrior just as available as the folks at the water cooler. I can’t imagine returning to the office cubicle but I encourage the author to give up the idea that people who aren’t in the office can’t be as creative, spontaneous and engaged as those who are.
8
The people I know working remotely are in tech and other support capacities. There really isn’t a lot of creativity going on. This is the perfect circumstance for expanded telecommuting. Why should they go into the office, sit in a cubicle wearing headphones while problem solving for a client in Kazakhstan?
5
Sorry. Not buying it. I am creative anywhere. Started a great screenplay on the subway. Whatever works for you.
3
We have a climate crisis...why are all these people going to work? aside from docs nurses and a few other professions we do not need to burn fossil fuels in a commute....I love working from home and while it took some adjustment time after 20 years in an office I am never going back...run every day at lunch with dog, do not waste time commuting, zoom calls for social interaction, save money from not commuting and smaller work wardrobe...win win for the environment, my health and my work.
13
Sorry, but you're wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. I've worked at home, and still do quite a bit, for decades. Love it love love it. Might be wrong for you, but don't tell me it's overrated because you can't cope.
23
After five years of working from home, this introvert never wants to work in an office again. I'm at my best in yoga pants and flipflops, dog napping at my feet, and no annoying cubicle mates yapping about last night's Netflix binge. I get human interaction from people I like, not a bunch of annoying people I'm forced to endure for the sake of paycheck and 401K match.
518
@Casa de Cactus
I'm with you.
My company obliged me to work from home and it made me incredibly productive. I would get up early, run, and talk to my boss at 7:30 a.m., happily, get my assignments and report. I, like you, am an introvert (tested with introversion off the scale) and I detested the office noise, gossip, and listening to other peoples' music.
I actually got promoted because of my productivity.
I now work for myself, and it's fabulous, because I choose my clients, firing the rude ones, work in peace and quiet with my cats and my music. It's my third career, fueled by referrals from happy clients. No dealing with management, no fending off advances from superiors. Maybe the writer is an extrovert. I never seemed to want what they want, but extroverts seem to dominate most business environments.
69
@Casa de Cactus So true! Isn't is always better to interact with those we chose instead of being forced into it? Not if you are an extrovert like this writer because they get bored with the chosen pretty quickly.
22
@Casa de Cactus Most companies (through the latest consulting crazes) are set up to promote the power of "teamwork" and the old theory that 1+1 will equal 3- sometimes. The contribution of introverts can be ignored, typical "teamwork" situations can stress them out.
Companies often overlook introverts to their own peril- especially today in the world of endless self promotion being seen as the key to entrepreneurial success- whether it is real or not- (Like Trump, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk etal.)
22
My married daughter with kids loves it. My childless single daughter hates it. Wouldn't work for me .
In working from home I love being able to listen to my favorite music way loud, move around when and how I want, talk to myself out loud, tweet without guilt, have my pup sit in my lap, start work really early in the morning, drink coffee brewed the way I prefer, drag the work day out, spy on the neighbors. To name a few bennies. Oh yeah, get up and dance when the spirit moves me.
244
@Barb Davis No offense, you sound like a very nice person, but the kind of people who call benefits "bennies," spy on neighbors, and spontaneously get up and dance are exactly the reason I prefer working from home.
10
I consider myself an extroverted introvert. I'm very comfortable being alone with my own thoughts, but I also greatly enjoy the company of others, especially when they're funny and kind. I'm saddened reading so many of the comments from those who apparently can't stand socializing with others but more so by those who describe their office environments as unsociable places where everyone's plugged into their devices and avoiding their coworkers.
4
Sounds like you just aren’t very good at working at home. Try harder?
6
Kevin, the sweatpants were your choice. Feel free to wear your khakis.
2
@Mark That's exactly what I was thinking! Funny.
1
So much media coverage about people working from home. Let’s switch the focus to people who CAN’T work from home. I work in downtown Seattle in the area dominated by amazon buildings. Amazon employees, excluding blue collar labor, may have been sent home but, I see and hear the worry in people’s faces and words who can’t work from home. Cooks, servers, small business owners, etc...count on people to not work from home to pay bills and survive. Working at home not so great? At least your livelihood is t in question.
216
@Mark Kelly That is why the Dems in the House are focussing on targeted help for the people you mention, rather than tax cuts for hotels and frackers.
40
@Mark Kelly There can be benefits to everyone for those who can work at home doing so. This allows for less crowding on public transport and other places so that people like my daughter who is a nurse can have a better chance of avoiding the virus to the extent possible. Instead of being resentful of those who can work from home be grateful that they can help increase social distancing.
18
@Mark Kelly
Good reply.
3
Are you kidding? Really? I'm a creative professional, so called subject matter expert. I've been working for myself, from my home, for more than 15 years. Your collaboration is nothing other than group mind lock. You want creativity? Paradigm shifting thought? Look to the individual. Never going back!
310
@Geoff SME's are not creatives, you're confused.
4
I have a different point of view.
I worked remotely for 16 years. I agree it can be lonely, and that's the worst thing about it. That was balanced by the fact that the entire group worked that way too, over two continents and across all of North America. We made sure we took "water cooler" breaks--starting business conversation on Skype that veered off into chitchat. I liked Skype because it wasn't plugged into the company's network, and I made sure that the conversations weren't saved. We had frequent phone meetings, which frankly were just as boring as the ones I attended in person when I was in an office. The time it took me previously to commute to NYC--two hours door to door each way--were spent working. Not to mention the hassle of getting dressed for the office every day. I cherished it. But yes, it's lonely and too quiet sometimes.
141
I've worked from home for nearly two decades. Going into an office environment is the psychic equivalent to fingernails on a chalkboard.
Most of my work involves writing large, complicated documents. Every single "have you got a minute" interruption means letting go of all the components of the document that I have balanced in my head, watching that "minute" turn into minutes, and then having to gather all the threads in the document that I had to put down to deal with the interruption. So the length of the interruption grows by the amount of time it takes to re-establish my tight focus on the work.
At this point, most of the people I work with are multiple time zones away, so face-to-face isn't even practical anymore.
And all those extroverts who cheerfully bounce into the break room every morning for coffee and conversation? Glad you're happy. Leave me in peace.
361
@Claire Elliott Bingo! I used to say the same thing about programming. When I did coding, I’d have the whole context floating in virtual space in my mind. A single interruption caused it all to crash to the ground. It took time to re-establish that mental context and get cranking again. Certain types of work require uninterrupted concentration which can be difficult to achieve in any setting. I was always an open office antagonist when it came to developers, but some fads win over first hand knowledge and experience...so this generation has to invest in noise cancelling headphones at a minimum.
18
To each their own. Working from home allows flexibility and productivity often unavailable in a structured work space. Some people need personal contact for stimulation, while others need uninterrupted time to excel. Losing a couple of hours commuting and the associated expense isn't rational, but being in a workplace that sees "face time" with the boss makes one more valued upsets that equation. The best managers value employee satisfaction and get excellent outcomes wherever they work. Finding a culture confident enough to let employees do what works best, whether at home or at the office, can benefit everyone, including the environment.
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@Better4All the thing you seem to not acknowledge is that you can interact with people while working at home...it just takes, um, creativity. So it is odd that you think being in an office makes you more creative. If this were true you would have realized this...through your improved creativity.
2
Congratulations: you're an extrovert. Some people find forced social interactions in confined work spaces strenuous and counterproductive.
852
@Federico I sometimes take the long way around the office just to reduce the number of people I have to walk by. Another layer of stress for an introvert.
55
Being introverted myself, I find it happy and easy to lose myself in my own thoughts - the external buzz of the office actually focuses me on my work rather than myself.
13
@Federico That is so true.
9
There's a happy balance between the two. I've done both. Full time remote is not for me but I'm now in a completely open environment that is too distracting. You can't think and be creative if you can't focus.
1
About six months ago I became a remote worker, in part due to the impossible housing prices in the Bay Area, and thanks to my organization's flexibility. As someone who has to do a lot of editing and proofreading, getting out of a noisy room of cubicles held a lot of promise.
Well, it's taken me almost the whole six months to get accustomed to this. The office noise and activity that used to drive me crazy is now something I miss, or more precisely, the opportunity to do my work in a space that's not my home. When before I could attend a campus exercise class without guilt, now I feel bad going out of the house for a twenty-minute walk. It's getting better overall, but it takes a lot more work than i thought it would.
One note about tech giants like Google and their snacks--please, it's not primarily to “get those moments of serendipity.” The free food, laundry, haircuts, exercise classes...they're to make being at work your default state. Which is more or less what I've achieved by bringing my own work home.
4
Waste time in excessive meetings, chatting needlessly, waste time on office politics - a time-waster's Eden! The last time I worked in an office, I kept my door closed with a note that said "do not open this door --see my assistant."
Of the 20 people in the office, I alone accounted for 23% of the revenue. Bottom line--I see mostly waste of working with others and little offsetting benefit.
114
I have been retired now for several years. Looking back over my forty years working all my good memories are about the fun I had laughing, working, joking, even solving tough issues with the people I worked with.
I met my husband at work, most of my closest friends. I guess there were plenty of days when I wasn't the most productive I could have been but my life wasn't always about being productive, it was about living, laughing and having memories worth something. Yeah, I did some great work in my career, developed some solutions to problems that really did make people lives better. I am so glad I had the privilege to work with so many great people, even the people that I didn't like taught me me a great deal and helped develope better solutions to the issues we needed to address.
Today I work on my farm, mostly alone and never in an office. I love it. But I also loved my job and there are days I miss the people, not the work, just the people.
146
@Patricia Tawney Well said. I retired six years ago. I love my very active retired life, but do miss the social and technical interaction with my former colleagues. For me a mix of open spaces, closed door offices and work at home was the best. Pick the best venue for the fast at hand or just hanging out to chat with other great humans.
9
@Patricia Tawney Well said. I retired six years ago. I love my very active retired life, but do miss the social and technical interaction with my former colleagues. For me a mix of open spaces, closed door offices and work at home was the best. Pick the best venue for the task at hand or just hanging out to chat with other great humans.
1
@Patricia Tawney
And Ancient Geek.
Yes, yes, yes. I met so many good people at work ( and a lot of idiots, but then, you have to learnt to get along with all kinds.
I did have a massive problem at work with open space and constant interruptions when trying to focus on the kind of activity requiring sustained focus .
But sometimes the interruptions themselves are a part of the job, and also provide inspiration or solutions, as well. I spent a short period doing work almost exclusively from home: I liked the opportunity to do research and putting together material, usually in long periods of hyper focus, but then craved some time among humans. At one point I explored if I could set myself up in a quiet corner of the agency I was doing work for, so that there was a little bustle around me, and the chance to see humans during breaks. Home both offered too many other competing demands and too much quiet.
But - I also was diagnosed late in life with ADD, which accounts for some preferences.
7
This seems like the author has a personal problem, not one that needs to be forced on the rest of us. Times are a changing. My cat is a better co-worker for productivity purposes than the ones who come to chat with me hourly.
6
@Caiti A Agreed!!
1
I find that working from home cuts down on bullying in the workplace.
4
Apple had those kind of people..the type that were already divergent thinkers, outliers who saw much of the world like Escher and Magritte and were not afraid to expound on those thoughts. I know, was there for 12 years.
Most work places are not like Apple...more hum drum, routinized, and meeting-to-death with boring agendas and lifeless-presenters.
Boring people in boring places doing repetitive things for uninspired leaders with dubious goals.....the fate of many....will being home better ? being in the office be better ?
good luck with that
2
I wholeheartedly disagree. Creative work requires quiet space and time to think. Unless you're one of the lucky few with a quiet, private office at work, a cubicle or desk isn't going to offer that.
Collaboration can be scheduled to help brainstorm ideas - and I imagine for most people, 2-3 hours of meeting time per week is plenty - but afterward people need time and space to themselves to let those ideas grow.
8
tone deaf pep talk from a privileged observer. I too have the luxury of working remotely but I am not using the current circumstances to lecture others who do not have the possibility to stay at home and earn wages. The advantages of remote work are measured by this writer only in in terms of "profitability" for the employer and are in no way an affirmation of independence.
1
I LOVE working from home. No distractions, unless I want them, and I can still put a baked potato in the oven in time for dinner at a reasonable time (and not post-commute 8:00 pm). I am never lonely - that's what IM and FaceTime/Skype are for. If I want in-person interaction, I go out for lunch. The 2 1/5 hours I got back not commuting are my gym time, walk the dog time, fold the laundry time. I
23
I LOVE working from home. My company went to split schedules today with half in/half out of the office until further notice. I’m hoping this at least gets us another remote day during the week when things go back to reasonably normal. We’re being moved to an open office plan in the next 18 months and I dread that day, I plan to leave my headphones in from the time I get to work till I leave to block out noises and discourage people from talking to me.
5
Employers can't have it both ways. We are compelled to use technology-based tools such as email, Zoom, and Slack which discourage face-to-face interaction. We are piled on top of each other in open-plan "pods" that are noisy, disruptive, and utter failures in encouraging "collaboration". I spend my entire day wearing noise-canceling headphones just to get my work done. Most of us are too busy trying to hit our OKRs to hang out by the water cooler. So much for collaboration & innovation.
10
One size definitely does not fit all. I am a tech specialist, working mostly with small computer networks (up to about 40 users) and split my time between home and a few client sites. I also maintain a full computer lab at my home. A lot of my work involves research into security and user applications. There is really no need to be on-site for the bulk of this. Indeed, I have installed applications for entire offices without needing to set foot there. And yes, sometimes there's no substitute for being there, so I go.
For the most part, it's a VERY efficient way to go. For me.
I can access most of my client's computers, servers, and related equipment remotely, and can be on-site fairly quickly when needed.
A win-win all around. As they say these days: YMMV.
2
I used to get into work around 5:30 am just so I could get work done without interruptions. In the two and a half hours that I had to myself, I could usually accomplish almost a whole day's work...without stress. Once 8 o'clock rolled around and people were everywhere, work slowed down and stress increased. Working from home was not possible then, but now it is for a great many people. Given the choice, I would much prefer working from home and maybe going into the office one day a week just to basically say hello to my fellow workers.
9
As someone who has worked from home for 20 years, when I saw this headline I just thought, wow, are you wrong! When I work at home I am less stressed, less tired, less bothered. No commuter and no dealing with people that frankly, I'd rather not spend time with in a place I'd rather not be.
It is me and the cats, who are great as office mates because they sleep all day. Okay, I am a little jealous about that. Or they come in once in a while and purr while seeking a pet, and if you have not heard, petting an animal to totally relaxing. i don't need to be in an office to find input or discussion. It is just a phone call away. Remember that device? The phone? Yeah, It puts me in touch with people who can help me think it through and I can do it while in my pajamas. Just saying. I am totally in control of my environment (no arguments about whether it is cold or hot, no issues with noise, no issues with someone cooking fish in the microwave for lunch). I am in control of what I do and when I do it. Sp long as the work gets done, it really is no ones business.
17
Serendipitous collisions are happening all around us at global scale. Where the interaction is not deep enough to foster creativity, it is individual and group lack of understanding how to work remotely that holds them back, not the nature of remote work itself.
2
I've yet to meet anyone, or experience such an event myself, who claims to have benefited from random office interaction that "fuels creativity" or whatever other moniker you may wish to use. Unless you work in a very small collection of jobs and industries, this often-touted benefit of open floor plans and dense offices is complete hogwash.
Work from home and avoid sick people and annoying conversations from all sides, yes please.
16
If working from home means not connecting with your coworkers and don’t have a creative culture means you (or your company) aren’t doing it right. Many of us will be on a learning curve, but many of us have been working on dynamic, creative, hardworking teams that thrive in virtual workplaces. Have faith that it can get better.
4
How many of us actually need to be creative in our jobs?
9
@Will
I was wondering that, too. It seems almost everyone responding here has a "creative" job!
2
Not terribly complicated, if commute time can become family time, or time with friends and pets, or time to give to the community in the form of volunteering — it can be quite beneficial.
It does require a little bit of planning or coordinating to get into the swing of things, but I found that the result is a life where social interactions are on the whole more meaningful and enriching, instead of forced and mindless.
5
I love working from home when I can. I'm a psychologist and much of my job is talking with patients, families, and in meetings with colleagues. I try to keep my door open when I'm not meeting with others, but then have regular interruptions from others who at times barge in without even asking "do you have time to talk?". If I could work from home about 1 day a week I'd be in heaven. Some of us need to disconnect rather than connect more.
3
If we're talking about the practice of TYPICALLY working remotely... Certain personality types do really suffer from not having face-to-face interactions with others in the hallway, at the water cooler, etc.
For me, working from home actually IS more productive. And I don't find it hard to shoot an email to a co-worker who I feel may have good creative input on problems I'm working on... or picking up the phone.. or asking for a Skype session, etc.
The large majority of the hallway "water cooler" discussions have absolutely NOTHING to offer to the projects I'm working on. At the office, people often drop in for really NO purpose, and you can't really say directly that you're working without offending. Really, it's nice that they like you (really, it IS), but there sometimes is really serious work to be finished.
Developing valuable ideas via blog/document sharing, email etc ensures that the ideas are recorded, and that is often helpful. In fact the best ideas from the water cooler discussions have to be written down eventually anyway.
8
I think you misses the most important point. Self isolating isn't about having a great time. Self isolating is about protecting vulnerable people from potential exposure.
Moreover think yourself lucky that you can work from home. Many fine people I've spoken to recently don't have that luxury.
12
Mr. Roose,
There will come a time when it will be considered environmentally irresponsible to have millions of people clog roads and trains in the act of getting to work.
Collectively (socialism!), that seems like a steep price to pay for some supposed, usually exaggerated and practically quite hard-to-quantify creativity.
18
Retired now but when I was working I loved working from home. It wasn't full time but loved it never the less.
5
Working from home is a no go. No socialization, discipline is taxed and exchange of ideas is difficult. Isolation is destructive.
3
@NOTATE REDMOND yes...exactly what the article says
@NOTATE REDMOND Solitude is bliss.
Hey... not so fast introverts!
I’m an extrovert and I fully agree with you!
I hate the tyranny of open office plan. There is no way anyone, introvert or extrovert, can be productive with all the “energy and creativity” raining down on them constantly throughout the day, day in and day out. Anyone who claims otherwise is probably the person who’s sending me emails and documents full of typos and half-baked sentences.
It’s an N of one, but I split my time between an open office plan and working from home. I estimate I lose at least 1-3 hours of productivity on days when I’m in the office. In order to accomplish everything I set out to do on days when I’m in the office, I end up working longer hours even when I keep my “socializing” to a minimum. Why? Because it takes me longer to do everything. The noise! The distractions! It’s just not worth it.
20
I think you need both, the interaction at the office and also time to be alone to work in a comfortable place, usually your home but not always, to do your best work. The solution? In my ideal world, a short office work day (6 hours, just like school) followed by homework at home (or someplace else). Works for parents, caregivers, and really everyone who wants a balanced lifestyle. Creativity doesn’t come from serendipitous encounters in most industries or most companies. It comes from really knowing your stuff and interacting with others who really know their stuff. The long, hectic, needlessly unproductive work day I think hampers people’s real understanding is their work and hence creativity.
1
I’d rather a 3/2 day schedule than commuting and having to do work for 2 more hours at home. Reducing the commute is key.
I agree, work from home is overrated but travelling 2 hours one way to get to office is that worth? I do more work than those in office and breaks in between are very rare. So, I myself can't wait to go to office and have my social life back and do normal 9-5 stuff but 4 hours total commute too and fro is very difficult.
2
Why not work from if you can? The carbon reduction from eliminating commuting, heating and cooling office buildings and other things that support moving people and from work would be immense. Not to mention, the reduction in hot air expended at endless pointless meetings. For workers, it would be like a raise to not have to buy clothes, commute or buy meals. For those who lament the loss of social interaction at work, it might be time for them to get a life outside of their jobs.
12
I've had jobs where I fully telework and others where I have to be in the office daily. My job is not creative at the university. Even though I am on campus, 98% of my work is done via email or zoom. I would like a telework arrangement for at least 2-3 days/week, but, oddly enough, working in ONLINE education requires me to be in the office.
9
Try commuting 4-5 hours a day, and spending about a 1000 dollars every month (post tax) in commuting costs while you skip on coffee to save money and carry a huge backpack of your day's worth of food because it's too expensive to buy in the fancy shops; you might just appreciate the savings - both time and money.
Who knows, one might even end up being more productive assuming they are using time savings well.
18
@max @max Not to mention the enormous environmental benefits of not commuting.
11
Google just mandated all of its North American employees work from home...
2
@Retired Work at Homer It has not been mandated, it has moved from "voluntary" to "recommended."
1
This might be news to you, but teachers work A LOT at home.
15
@M.B. We sure do!
1
No mention at all of the ecological advantages of not commuting!
10
Article is more accurately titled "working from home is not something Kevin Roose enjoys" with the lede being "I've determined that people whose personalities are similar to mine and who have jobs similar to mine and/or require frequently working in teams benefit from being in an office."
47
@ALW515
Notice (also, too) that Mr. Roose doesn't seem to be multitasking (as in tending small children or elders, etc) while he works from home. If he was, he might not be so bored. Because that's what he is. Bored.
5
I am pro remote however whatever works for you.
2
True. Back to the office, TG.
You've given an excellent overview of the challenges our household has experienced with remote work over the years. Some people thrive in isolation, and I don't want to discount that, but long periods in a home office do have negatives that are all to easy to overlook. Thanks for showing the flip side. Working from home is not necessarily all it's cracked up to be. In my experience, a little goes a very long way.
4
@Allison I think we could make intelligent decisions about when and how much we need or want to be in an office or classroom. For instance, in my experience, hybrid courses work very well.
1
@BC: I didn't mean to imply that you could not. Like the author, I shared an opinion based on my personal experience and expressed gratitude for the author sharing his own.
Working at home is infinitely more productive for me. I remain a frequent business traveler (2-3 days per week) but a fully functional at home office -two 40" screens, video conferencing, a great (landline) speakerphone for long, high-quality calls, my full complement of the right software (without IT interference) is a productivity supercharger. What really makes the difference is rolling out of bed without a 45 minute commute, the full work environment for weekend productivity and the flexibility to take walks with my wife, a nap if needed and no co-worker small talk.
26
Get over it. It’s a national health emergency. It will pass and then you can go back to your workplace.
15
Why do so many NYT opinion writers present their cases as if what applies to them also applies to everyone else? Sometimes it's primarily the headline that is guilty of exaggeration, but often, as with this piece, the authors seem to be trying very hard to convince everyone else that their experience is the only one that anyone should care about. Judging by the comments on this article, I have much company in finding this type of writing to be very off-putting!
15
Indeed for those of us who work in a laboratory - we basically
can't do much at home except read and dream of the lab.
2
If you die from having caught Coronavirus at the office, that’s a lot more creativity you’ve just lost...
3
There is a la-de-da attitude toward working from home that I would expect from NYT readers.
How does one work in the trades from home? Work construction from home?
Stock shelves and replenish inventory from home?
Work retail from home -- manning registers and check-out points?
How does one to mechanical work from home?
The list of blue-collar or laboring jobs that cannot be done from home is almost endless.
It really makes one wonder whether NYT readers/writers have ever done any real work in their lives.
3
@Observer
I definitely agree that the mention of folks who can't work remotely was brief and dismissive - teachers and restaurant workers, as if that was all he could think of … like, sure, working remotely doesn't work for everyone, but there's kind of a vibe that it works for everyone who COUNTS, except they'll get lonely and be less creative ...
@Observer Oh, I have. Farming, construction, frelght loading, janitor, security, . . . on the way to my PhD and my current job from which I can telework. You seem to miss the implicit assumption in this article that this ONLY applies to telework-ready professions. Or you wanted to vent at EastCoasters. Either-or.
2
@Observer: I took the article to be a play on the 'be careful what you wish for because...' and then the writer included a current news event - COVID-19 - to round it out. Thank you, I enjoyed it.
1
Soul-crushing commutes may not be so common if our cities were properly designed. Recent studies show that car commuters would choose to teleport to work if they had the option. Seems obvious, but the majority of those who can walk or bike to work would actually opt not to teleport.
Pleasant commutes can be another stimulating and enticing reason to work outside the home.
Ugh.
Working from home makes me far more productive than sitting in an open office endlessly distracted by yammering coworkers. Inflicting open offices and cube farms on human beings should be an international crime against humanity.
34
The three enemies of people that work from home are: the bed, the refrigerator and the TV. Take it from a veteran. Oh, and get a dog and take them for walks in the sunshine.
2
@Katrina Bowman
Maybe it’s the job. Or you...? When I worked from home for nearly 9 years, after 3 corporate office jobs, I never watched TV or went back to bed and I ate better then, because I looked forward to tinkering in the kitchen to make a good lunch for a nice break. I had a job to do. If you can get away with goofing off a lot, maybe it’s not a real job.
4
Hooey. I've worked as a remote employee for almost 20 years for several companies. Deadlines, metrics and other productivity standards must be met and adhered to. Team structures encourage creativity and foster strong work relationships. Today, video conferencing through Zoom, Go to Meeting, etc. are very effective.
7
No commute time outweighs a lot of the other issues. Commuting is maybe two hours of torture to say nothing of, cost, time away from family and after work total exhaustion with the need of a libation or two.
9
Some of us don’t want to die! Sorry our economic creativity isn’t maximized in a pandemic situation.
5
When working from home, it helps me to take breaks and get away from my desk. Maybe Steve Jobs was wrong: It is not the interacting with others that generates the ideas; it's the taking a break.
Just like doing the same movement over and over again leads to repetitive strain injury, digging into the same problem for too long is detrimental. Just a bathroom stop can already give new ideas.
3
@Marc
Agreed. I always somehow think that if I work at home, I'll take more breaks, move around more, drink more water, stretch, take short walks, etc. In reality working at home I move even less, I can sit in the chair for hours motionless and I actually have healthier habits when in the office.
@Marc
Agreed. I always somehow think that if I work at home, I'll take more breaks, move around more, drink more water, stretch, take short walks, etc. In reality working at home I move even less, I can sit in the chair for hours motionless and I actually have healthier habits when in the office.
The one place that Roose makes a point, one that most here seemed to have glossed over, is that many of us working remotely do work that could be automated and that being in the office, to socialize, empathize, and strategize is going to allow some of us to keep our jobs.
I work as a software developer, and sometimes a lead for teams and projects, and one must realize that anything that can be systematized can be automated, including my type of work.
Even then, when it comes down to who gets kept in a downturn, it is very likely the ones that have strong social relationships, not necessarily the best skills, although one can see from the comments, there are some successful, creative people working remotely exclusively.
6
@James Igoe That's a really good point. (Now I'm just a bit more nervous than I was before reading your post.)
1
While it’s nice to build rapport with colleagues, the phone and video conferencing satisfy this need. With time and money saved without a commute, I can now commute to a gym (or Mt Bachelor ski area) and interact with people in that setting, which is like setting a reset button for reviving work enthusiasm and I’m not made to feel guilty about it. Disclaimer: I run my own business now, and have laid a claim to a “trust me to get it done” set of clients. Never looking back to an office environment if I can avoid it!
1
I remember when I needed validation from my colleagues in the office to feel fulfilled. Working from home I get personal fulfillment from my family and dog,
3
Does it have to be a one or the other option? Could companies save money by providing unassigned ‘hotel’ desks and create happy employees empowered to decide if they want to come in or work from home on a given day? Not all jobs are creative, not all jobs are process-driven, however I would guess that most are not exclusively either. I work from home a few days a week and come in a few days a week. Mixing it up helps me avoid burnout and boredom. But for someone else they might need the ‘real’ person to person interaction. What if we just let people chose for themselves how they work best...
1
I've been working from home for 12 years now. I can't focus in an office. I can't imagine going back into an office having to deal with people. I'd rather join a monastery.
12
In my view, Gary Noleds gets it right. His comment is contained within my comment right here & you can see his post somewhere below. "You're confusing creativity with problem solving. Many creative people are introverts". I agree & have always felt that many of my jobs that required technical writing were best done in the library or somewhere where there were minimal distractions. Some firms I worked in had their own library, so that was often a suitable place, except that, inevitably, someone important was looking for you like your boss. Writing from home has the best benefits for me, ideally a designated office space [or room] where there will be some semblance of peace & quiet. A lock on the door wouldn't hurt either.
7
I've worked from home for several years. I love the flexibility and do not miss the commute. However, I am the only team member in my time zone, so I rarely see my co-workers in person. I agree the flexibility comes at a cost, and I've considered looking for a new job that allows for a couple days of work from home a week.
Love working from home. No more bumper to bumper commute, no more work clothes, no more girl cliques, constant interruptions, etc. I do think once a month could be an office day or day with the team but aside from that....
9
I went into the office for the first time (its optional at my company) a few days ago. I walked about a mie to a pretty nice, big, office, with free catered lunches and all the snacks and drinks you can think of. After a few hours, I missed working from home. Would rather cook my own meals and not be disturbed. Immediately there was "that guy" that couldn't stop talking and butting into conversations or those people that talk too loud. Productivity plummeted and yea, so did creativity. So, I don't agree.
9
As a natural scientist and university professor, I found some degree of isolation helpful to imagination and creativity. But "home-made lunches" are very bad: they require not only an effort to be made, but an effort to be consumed, and then the dishes made. Better to supress the hunger by a good cigar, accompanied by strong coffee.
1
As a natural scientist, has anyone ever warned you about the dangers of smoking?!
2
There is absolutely nothing redeeming about commuting back and forth to work. It is soul deadening, potentially dangerous, and if you're sitting down most of the time, it's murder on your body. As you get older, the utility of assembling in a conference room w others every 30 minutes becomes more and more meaningless. As do the awkward conversations with colleagues in the office kitchen, and attempts to make others feel comfortable as you pass in the hallway. Leave it all behind and work from home.
13
I did once have a purely remote job, and after I seven months I jumped at the chance to work in the office. What I did miss about the office is an increased general level of excitement. I am a middling extravert/introvert, and I do find energy from the people around me. Nowadays, I remote in 2 days a week and otherwise have a 15-minute commute walking, a good balance.
As for creativity, although some people might find other people around helpful for them, I find the office's 'mind' oppressive. If I need to think, and think big, or think new, I step out, maybe pen and pad in hand, or take a walk. Getting away from the office is what I find creative.
Yes, sometimes there is a need to solve collaboratively, but I tend to think that is overrated, as I find assistance from people that are not versed in what I do, software development, more of a distraction or a nuisance than helpful when done directly, and instances of synergy don't necessarily have to be in person. When collaboration is less specific, I find other's sloppiness or lack of enthusiasm troublesome, making more work for me, although I do generally respond positively to feedback from others as customers to make my products better.
3
Working from home, what a joy. No office politics, no pretend to enjoy listening to the jokes, no company meetings that accomplish little, no bosses who know everything. Home, where you can bite into something and stay with it until you are satisfied, no matter how long it takes. Home where you lunch when you are hungry, noon or 3:00 PM. Home where time previously spent in the car is now spent working. Yes, home, the most productive place in the world to work.
27
After an exciting and stressful career at two big marketing agencies, I opted to start my own marketing firm and work from home. One can only image how many hours of Seattle commute time I have saved myself in the past 16 years. At about 8-10 hours per week, it adds up quite fast. People don't ever get those commuting hours back in their lifetimes. And that doesn't even address the utter frustration of being stuck in traffic.
Do I miss the interactions with colleagues? Sometimes. Maybe 10-20% of the time. And people always assume we sit around in sweatpants. I can't remember the last time I did that when I worked from home (or anywhere).
They are choices. I personally love the work/life balance I can have now. Walking my yellow Labrador Retriever several blocks at lunchtime generates as many new ideas as any meeting I have ever been in.
14
Working from home is the best decision I ever made. Not only am I vastly more productive for my company, but I get all the typical perks and am so much happier in life (no comparison). Further, my relationships with coworkers are absolutely strong via email, phone, screen sharing, and an occasional office visit every couple weeks.
All that said, I remember the very first migration into this role and it took 3 months to feel normal. It requires a dedicated office space and desk...and if people don't have that they will absolutely feel unproductive and unconnected. This virus scare cannot be the all-revealing litmus test for working at home vs. the office commute, as people are inherently going to feel discombobulated via sudden and total break in routine. Let's take this for what it is and not draw absolute pro/con conclusions from a temporary and disorderly event.
12
So, let's see. . . as far as I know, farmers work from home. Millions of others have their businesses in their homes. Just about every woman I know has done some sort of work from home. Day care workers work from home. Private music teacher work from home. Working from home doesn't mean isolation. I read about a Wall Street broker who worked from home and had meetings in his dining room. . Is it an adjustment? Probably, but not a bad oner if you have as good imagination. How you work at home is your choice. Didn't work for you? Too bad, but please don't generalize. Isolation with an illness is one thing, working at home no matter what is a choice, and a very healthy one.
10
The problem is people working from home sometimes do not have the best of work ethics. Working from home on company time does not mean one can do side chores while not focused on the tasks at hand. I had this issue having relaxed work from home office culture. People are harder to find and message replies have been delayed compared to working from the office where people can be supervised. This varies on what industry you're in ofcourse.
@Aaron O, your point is absolutely valid. I would argue though that those people need a performance plan and/or coaching. As a remote worker I'm always available and I have the opposite problem of certain in-office workers never being reachable via slack/Skype/etc. If those people can only work when directly supervised then they're probably immensely unproductive in-office as well and just flying under the radar. If a person thinks work ethic stops at the office door, do we really want those people as co-workers?
@Aaron O What workplace doesn't have workers who lack a good work ethic? How does that really differ from the workers who chat in the kitchen for an hour every morning; the constantly late from lunch worker; or the office gossip? All of these people take up significant amounts of company time as well, leading to the same issues you've noted.
2
Like just about everything else in life, moderation is key. I would never consider taking a job at a company that wouldn't allow me to work from home on a regular basis but at the same time I also never want to go back to working from home 100% which I did for several years.
Whenever possible, companies should adopt policies where employees area allowed and encouraged to work from home one day a week. If just the 5-6 largest tech companies here in Seattle adopted such policies it would mean a noticeable reduction in traffic congestion. This would in turn benefit all the people for whom working from home is not an option. Those companies would also see a reduction in voluntary turnover. I work as a recruiter and one of the most common reasons people tell me they're looking for a new job is because they don't want to deal with long daily commutes. I've talked with several people who have even been willing to take sizable paycuts just to avoid dealing with the commute over the 520 bridge.
4
I am a ghost writer in the business sector and my stock and trade is creativity. I have worked at home for over 25 years and love it. I realize not everyone does but the point is people should have the option to do what is most productive for them. Too often companies are afraid of letting their employees work remotely which is a shame. Remote work would solve so many problems from climate on up. I find that this article sets us back when it comes to creatively reimagining the American workforce. There are a lot of ways to interact creatively with colleagues without getting back on the nine to five hamster wheel. The more we explore these options the better for us all.
12
My management philosophy:
"Life is bigger, its bigger than you, and you are not me"
You can sing the rest of the song if you like, but this is the most important thing to realize when building a team. We have varied strengths and weaknesses, optimal and sub-optimal ways of working. I have been working from home for 15 years with a group of other work from home engineers and many other onsite engineers and managers. We build the in hose eCommerce platform for a large multi brand multi national multi billion dollar company. There is no lack of creativity and communication. Each way of working has its own challenges. The WFH folks are often surprised how people in the office sometimes don't talk to each other, while the in office people would sometimes like more time to talk. In the end, a lot of work needs the sort of focus that comes from working independently in order to get things done and let ideas percolate. From the days of Yahoo Messenger, to the modern days of Slack, we've always made it work. Work from home or in office are suited to different kinds of people, and we should strive for diversity in all things. I'd like to see a world where neither is some assumed or pressured default for jobs that can benefit from a mix of approaches. Headlines like this don't help.
5
This is such a classist argument. I'm sure most workers in the US (and elsewhere) do not have creative jobs or jobs where where they don't need to be at their place of work.
(Think hospitals, food service, farmers, manufacturing of all sorts, military, postal service)
I, for one have had enough of these articles about working or not working at home.
1
@m.pipik
Not necessarily - there are home-based administrative assistants and the like. We don't make a lot of money!
The point of remote work should be to spend less time on the job and more time on yourself and your family because you're more productive and get more done than those in the office. In practice, it just enables people to start work from the moment they wake until dinner is delivered in the evening.
8
@Steve S
Yup. Been there and done that.
Back when offices were actual offices, or even cubes, going to work made sense. Now, you're just thrown at an open table with a dozen other workers and you don't even have an assigned seat. No thanks. I'll stay home.
30
I work from home doing telepractice so I’m interacting with people all day over video, very different from what an office teleworker would do. My last job I did home visits so sort of similar, just don’t have to drive around.
2
You're confusing creativity with problem solving. Many creative people are introverts.
8
Yet, two clicks away, Kathryn Hughes writes in her NYT review of Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty, "In this lyrical yet finely argued book, Johnson sets out to show that being alone — so different from loneliness, its direct opposite, in fact — is absolutely essential to the creative life." It is surely a matter of your character, temperament, etc. and what you are doing that will determine what is overrated and what is absolutely essential.
4
I was a lead of a distributed technical team of about a dozen people for about 20 years. The team meets up in person every two years or so. We hired people who valued flexibility and good salaries rather than titles, could produce high quality work independently, and were willing to follow the basic rules that enable distributed teams to function.
One person on our team spent years working while living in foreign countries. Several of us ended up working while starting small farms. One home-schooled 5 children. Some of the men as well as the women spent significant time during the week at their kids' school events, and made it up at night.
We had - still have - incredibly low turnover. The team is still going, led by someone that started with us as a grad student. A remote work culture allowed us to lead the kinds of lives that would have been difficult or impossible otherwise.
Interestingly, for a few years we were studied by a team of social scientists who were determined to prove that face-to-face contact was essential to sustain teams. Our team lasted longer than theirs.
No going back here.
16
I agree roughly with the remote / in-office balance. I make the most overall progress when I collaborate in person, but do my ‘lone work’ remotely. Like classes + homework, but for a gen-x.
Another point (of many) missed. Remote work makes it possible for people to live in lower-cost areas and can aid the housing crunch; and it gives companies access to the best talent regardless of where people live. Win win. Tools like Slack enable "over the cube" chatter, and using public channels allows others to "overhear" conversations. You need to have best practices, like having everyone be on camera on video meetings, and everyone participating verbally. They are the same best practice that make any meeting effective.
7
@Bill Yup. It's funny because I remember that one of the early promises of the internet is that it would free businesses from the constraints of geography. Instead it wound up causing the real estate prices in many cities to skyrocket.
1
I would love to at least have the option to work from home several days a week. Like others have written, I have a miserable commute that I would gladly give up even if it was just for one or two days a week. It would be wonderful to be able to sleep in and have a leisurely lunch or go to the gym and then just finish up after with no time limts because of a miserable commute.
6
Can't wait for this book to come out so I WON'T buy it. Kevin is unable to balance priorities, such as the one may others have mentioned: saving 1 to 2 hours (or more) in commuting time. Trade 2 or 3 hours for the occasional boost in joint problem-solving? What a laugh. Kevin just adopted an idea, and is now trying much too hard to make it work.
You just keep going in to the office every day, Kevin.
9
The most enjoyable part of workday is the morning drive, while listening to the radio and drinking coffee.
I also enjoy the lunch break and long town-hall type meetings where nothing is expected of me.
5
Good article, Kevin, but as with different workers needing different amounts of socializing, I think that the success of the work-from-home strategy also is dependent upon the type of work being done and the workers' relative mastery of their jobs.
I work from home, as a writer for a magazine publisher. After several initial months of working at the office to learn how the company operated and to get a handle on the various magazines (for various industries) produced, I now work entirely from home. As a very mature writer, I don't think I'm missing out on too many "ah ha" moments that could occur around the coffee machine or in the company of my colleagues. Staying socialized is important but I think it can be found in extracurricular activities.
So as a mature, experienced worker in an industry that does not require a lot of innovation or Eureka moments to get the job done, I find the at-home environment to be just fine.
3
If you're not having face to face discussions with people because you're working remotely, you're doing it wrong. We have the technology!
8
Just removing 90-120 minutes of commuting makes working from home a winner. My last 5 years before retirement were from home and they were the best years of my career.
12
I have worked from home quite a bit over the last 25+ years and I love it. Works for me on so many levels. Maybe as a writer that is why. But I also love being to set my own schedule, talk to and spend time with people when I want to, run errands when others are at work (the roads and stores are not packed!), take walks with my dog on my lunch break ... I am so much more relaxed and creative than when I have to be up at a certain time, shower and dress, make sure everything's in my backpack, get the dog to doggie daycare, then navigate the commute (no mass transit available where I am) and spend the next eight hours sitting at a desk under fluorescent lights surrounded by people who do not seem to realize how loud they are when they talk on the phone. I understand that creative interaction is important too, but honestly I get so much more work done (and better quality) when I work from home I will gladly take that tradeoff.
9
No, it's really not.
- I roll out of bed at 7:30 and am "in the office" by 7:45.
- I don't have to play Mad Max: Fury Road for the 4.5 mile commute that can take up to an hour easily, to say nothing of the cost and emission savings.
- I don't need to go sit in an open-office setting where everyone is so focused on not disturbing others that there is nary a peep nevermind any sort of creative collaboration going on.
- I suppose there are occasional "peeps" in the office but it's mostly sneezing and coughing followed by that person using the keyboard/mouse that someone else could very well be using the next day, since there's no assigned seating.
- I can take the dogs for a midday trip to the park, run errands, sign for packages, run a load of laundry, and do whatever other "life" things that might come up, within reason of course.
I finish my workday around 7/7:30 and there's no round 2 of Fury Road, I'm home. Happiest and most productive I've ever been at work and all while I'm working 10-12 hour days, the longest I ever have. Hopefully my employer won't see this but I'd probably take a significant pay cut over having to go into the office given the choice.
13
Yeah, I worked in high tech for 30 years. When you go into an office, the alpha males spend their time (and everyone else's) holding pointless meetings so they can sit with their forearms on their heads bloviating about tasks we are already performing and already know how to do while most of us are furtively checking our email. They go have two hour lunches or loudly play ping-pong and other children's games while the rest of us (the introverts) are trying to get work done. Those collaborative meetings? One senior engineer holds the floor while the manager hustles to take credit for it while the rest of us sit in silent resignation over another badly written and untested app gets thrown into the work stream to bollux everything up.
The only times I've seen work from home not work in my profession is when employees don't send their kids to childcare during the workday.
14
"And I’ve now come to a very different conclusion: Most people should work in an office, or near other people, and avoid solitary work-from-home arrangements whenever possible."
While the other does later say that he supports certain groups of people where working from home may be beneficial, this above line is the real problem in the work-force today. Inevitably, you will at some point face a manager that has decided everyone should be in the office, and he forces that view on his entire group or worse on the entire company. Reasons may be reasonable, but when applied to an entire large group they are usually arbitrary and unproductive to each situation. And worse, they don't foster a workforce of respect and trust in the employees that work there.
2
Despite an ever increasingly bad commute, a recently mandatory work from home session made me realize that I hate working from home.
Like all things, not going into the office has it's pluses and minuses. But if I had my druthers, I would go to the office daily, isolate myself in an enclosed, remote cubicle if I didn't have an office and only interact with my colleagues when necessary (staff & client meetings, in passing during breaks, etc.). I would make more efficient use of my time even on extended workdays and push the social aspects to the margins since I don't want to eliminate them altogether. The commute would be (and is) an unfortunate evil.
I find there are too many distractions at home. I end up spreading my actual work over more hours in the day to make up for those distractions and end up feeling as if I'm still at work if I never left home in the first place.
2
I used to leave jobs every 2-3 years. I can say with certainty that working from home, and thus, reducing my exposure to certain personality types, has been a godsend to me. I may choose to stay at my current company for 5 or more years (imagine that!) because I can work with much less stress. I am ultra-productive both in the office and at home, but the stress of certain personality types generally leads me to quit perfectly good jobs. It's my Achilles' heel. I am a major contributor to these places and they usually love my work. The issue is admittedly mine. I'm one of those 'highly sensitive people' that are negatively affected by narcissists. I know that many extroverts work around such types with a greater finesse than I have. I'm sure my employer is happy that I won't be quitting this job anytime soon. I produce, and that makes them happy. I work from home, and that makes me happy.
12
One thing that seems missing from this discussion is breaks. At home, breaks can be productive AND refreshing, like shoveling snow or bringing in a load of wood for the stove. Or even playing a short tune on an instrument. What can a person do at work to take a break and yet also be productive? Socializing can be productive, but not all socializing is productive and many times the participants don't actually enjoy it, so it's not a break.
3
I've spent the better part of my working life trying to find a way to work from home. A decade ago that opportunity found its way to me and I have loved every moment since. Working from home saves time, money, and is more productive. I get plenty of stimulation via instant messaging and phone meetings, and have been there when my kids get home from school. If I really need to do a face-to-face (which is rare) we meet at a coffee shop. What's not to like?
9
I don't know. This reminds me of all those essays about how how paper-and-pen brought contemplation and creativity that would be lost in the age of the infernal word processor. I've been largely working at home for over a decade and the phone, skype, and the occasional face-to-face have improved my creative video work, not hindered it. Solitude and community are in balance, and more of my time is my own.
9
This will be an incredible corporate experiment. I live in the mountains outside Silicon Valley. Bay Area traffic is horrendous so working at home is essential IMHO. I do business development so F2F and conferences are essential for networking. I am always ready to meet people as usually I am alone at home (loving it).
I don't have the fatigue of daily commuting. I don't waste hours of exhaustion with no value.
I believe that once companies see the results of working at home on fatigue and life style, they will more largely adopt it. This will benefit those who stay at home as well as those not having their company in traffic.
Sadly, on the flip side, I am sitting here on Zoom on an all day tech conference where I had hoped to meet clients and can't.
Speak for yourself, my boss will testify that my production has increased since I started working at home. It removes a dangerous, tiring commute from the start and end of my day, and my cats are happy to have me home. I save money on burning gas (public transit is the pits in the DC area) and still have energy at the end of the day.
12
After years of working on site in a high school for adults environment, I have no issue with working remote.
Creativity is increased with time and space to think and imagine.
Productivity is increased since I'm not required to socialize with extraverts that have the need to reach out and feel whatever.
Our Team is close knit, we come together to manage projects and support each other.
I love not having to spend money on:
Daily eat in or out lunches.
Clothes to impress or follow dress code.
Makeup and hair to make others feel comfortable because women and men don't like seeing another women who is not done up.
Working remote allows me to slowly start the day with an hour morning meditation and in a peaceful healthy way.
9
@PNP - I worked from home for a good ten years teaching law at the online division of a brick and mortar university and I was in heaven :) I followed my morning meditation time with a steaming mug of tea accompanied by lighting my favorite Japanese incense...never met any of my law colleagues either then or now who had the good fortune to start their day off in such a peaceful and nurturing way...
1
There will always be differing opinions on this topic. The type of work done is critical to the level of success. But, ultimately everyone is capable of maintaining work-related "connections" even when working alone in a home-office. I've been doing this for 20+ years and the thought of going into an office for work, makes me both physically and emotionally ill
13
Amen. I've worked from home for 19 of my career's 23 years. While I wouldn't trade the flexibility I've enjoyed, it has definitely come at a price. My life has perhaps been better rounded, overall --- in fact, it almost certainly has --- but I do think that my career has suffered. Creativity suffers, indeed. No one person can have all the best insights and ideas, and great and valuable creative ferment comes from regularly bouncing even partial, small ideas off colleagues.
It is true (if surprising) that one tends to waste less time at home. I always noticed how much time (some) folks absolutely send down the drain in (some) offices.
For my part, moreover, I'm gregarious and have just plain old missed being around people. My social skills have probably even been blunted somewhat. On the other hand, I've generally avoided seasonal bugs and the permanent threat of picking up the latest, hideous corporate-speak. (I've managed never to "utilize" anything that I can just "use," for example, and have done nothing "per" anyone's direction. ;-))
The article hits it pretty dead center, in my modest opinion.
4
I have worked from home for over twenty years. Since I am a landscape architect, I have frequent face to face meetings with clients and contractors and make visits to job sites. Each day, I try to schedule a meeting, a lunch date with a friend, or a yoga class so I don't get too isolated. I've managed to make it work and love the flexibility, especially when my children were younger.
7
I have a two-hour commute (I'm very thankful for the Amtrak). My co-workers laugh about me living in Canada. I work from home sometimes and honestly, I wouldn't want to work from home full-time. Too many days at home and I miss the energy of the office and the city and spending time with my coworkers. But for some tasks, isolation is perfect.
3
I fought so hard to be able to work from home (1 day per week!) At the time, I was the only mom who did it, and the only employee in my department who did it, so I ensured that I was always available and always producing on that day. I still dealt with so much blowback for it! Now I suppose I wince when I see it described as 'overrated' when it's such a game-changer for folks who need it and work so hard to keep it.
13
There are extroverts as introverts and not all working environments are equal or alike. Creativity is not usually associated with teamwork but isolation yet times change of course. Creativity by numbers is popular for mainstream success, a business model for sales yet not great for the arts. Anyhow you are very fortunate to be able to complain about it.
3
I'm on my 12th year working from home for a 300+ person, globally distributed company. Approx 60% of us work from home across 30 countries.
Prior to that I worked in various offices (open concept) for about 11 years and hated it.
I do some training for our new employees on coping with working from home. Once can combat the lonliness by making a plan to do so. After work, many days, I go out and be with people.
Unlike in an office, I get to choose who they are.
I will never work in an office (full time) again. The constant noise and distractions, commute, costs associated with commuting and parking, and lunches out... no thanks.
I also think working from home is healthier and gives me better balance. Due to time zone differences and sometiems workload, I can easily break up my day, with some downtime mid day to exercise, take a nap or even read for pleasure.
I know working from home isn't for everyone but I think its for a lot more people than the author implies.
14
Buy, beg or borrow a copy of Managing Telework. The principles of success for both employer and remote worker are covered there.
First, not all, people have jobs, and some do not have personalities, suitable for teleworking. Second, teleworking is not a full-time option for most; a certain amount of regular face-to-face interaction is needed, commuting trauma notwithstanding. Third, most teleworkers feel more creative as well as more productive as a result of their teleworking; objective measures back this up.
To put it simply, face-to-face (f2f) time is for periods of uncertainty, such as getting a new project organized. Remote working time is for periods when actual work must be done. For most situations the f2f part is the smallest.
2
Consider yourself lucky right now. There are many people in much worse circumstances.
If you're seasoned--sure working at home is fantastic if you have all the software, networks you need. If you are starting out, nothing, nothing beats the proximity of mentors across the hall. It increases the learning curve exponentially to have access to in house mentors. Nothing beats it. But yeah-if you are forced to stay home in this climate--what can you do
2
Sitting in your sweats? You are at work, not hunkering down for a Sunday full of football and buffalo wings!
Get up, take a shower, and get dressed as if you were going to work. Go to your work space as if you are walking into your office. And then, work like you are at your office.
I’ve never understood working from home while wearing pajamas, robe, or sweats.
Show some respect for yourself and what you do for a living!
4
@Nancy - I can respect myself in my PJs :)
While I get what you are saying, to a point, I think it unnecessary for me (or anyone) to put on a business suit or even business casual clothing (nice slacks, not jeans and collared shirt or sweater) to work from home. But I generally do choose to wear jeans and a t-shirt or sweatshirt on my telework days.
1
@Nancy Clearly you don't work for a tech company! I've seen people roll into work at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. wearing sweats, yoga tights, etc. This includes people in senior management roles. Mark Zuckerberg has a hoody his fashion trademark. Personally, when I do go into the office I like to wear a shirt and tie if for no other reason than it throws people off. :)
1
I'm an introvert (ISTJ) and unlike some others I absolutely hate working at home. Home is too comfortable to focus and I don't like bringing work-related stress into my house, where I have nowhere to escape from it.
Walt Disney originally designed the Magic Kingdom in Florida to be separated from the main parking lot by a lake so that people left the real world behind and traveled across the lake (or around by monorail) to get to a distant land. For me, going home from the office is like going to a distant land.
7
I've worked from home--at a professional job for a large company, with a six figure income--for over ten years. As an lifelong introvert, it works for me. The tipping point for me was attempting for two years to work in my employer's open-plan office, which, as the author points out, is truly horrific for anyone who actually has to focus on their work.
And 35 years of work experience tells me I've been far more creative on my own than when being surrounded by indifferent co-workers.
9
Did this article actually say anything?
“It’s a very personal decision that works for some and doesn’t work for others. Some people are more productive and happy and find other ways to get social contact if they work from home. And some people aren’t happy working alone.”
Why was anything else needed? It doesn’t really go into any specifics, like the kinds of jobs or companies that do or don’t lend themselves to home offices, the kinds of people, etc. How about some examples of great epiphanies that couldn’t have happened in a home office? I hope this article isn’t an indication of what Mr. Roose’s book will be like.
I had a wonderful home office job for almost 9 years. Everyone in the company was “virtual.” We conferenced a lot—far too much for my taste, in fact. And I’m not anti-social. I am still close friends with many co-workers from past office jobs (I even married one!). But I was in sales, “highly leveraged,” as they say, and thus highly motivated and in a sense pretty much working for myself. So I loved being left alone to get my job done. And I hardly ever wore sweat pants all day.
4
A little over a year ago, my company moved to new open offices, so I lost my own office. And the new building is farther from home, so my commute is now between an hour and 15 mins and two hours each way depending on traffic. That requires over two hours commuting each day. If I couldn’t work from home at least two days a week I don’t think I can cope. On the plus side I do find it I enjoy being in the office and interacting with people more than I did when I went in the five every day. It’s a nice balance.
3
Not only is working from home much better for the environment (due to fewer miles being driven), it is much more cost-efficient.
People with young children do not need to pay for childcare, and companies do not need to waste money paying for unneeded office space.
4
@Matt Teleworkers for the Fed govt are DENIED telework if they have young kids at home - they don't want to pay for daycare. Firsthand experience
@Matt I work from home 2-3 days a week and commute the rest. For me, the option to have a mix is what works best.
However, I still use child care while I’m at home and working. I can’t run around after a 3 year old and be able to do 2 hours of back to back meetings on a video conference. So, anyone that feels working from home = no child care is remiss in that assumption.
@Matt As a parent of two kids (ages 9 and 5), I genuinely cannot picture a scenario where telework = no need for childcare? In my admittedly limited sample size, kids of all ages are constantly hands on, and ours rarely even slept. I'm an experienced remote worker (have been home-based with periodic travel since 2007 across multiple roles/companies), but working and providing childcare at the same time would have been completely impossible for me.
2
I teach at an international school in Beijing; we've been online for six weeks now, and still don't know when school will reopen. As a tech geek with introvert tendencies, I thought I'd love working from home And I did for the first week. The isolation grows old quickly, however. Zoom chats help connect, but they're no substitute for the face to face interactions, the random meet-up-in-the-hallway discussions that spark ideas. Just being in that environment creates motivation. We've found it gets harder and harder with each week for students and teachers both to stay on track. Teachers and students are spread around the globe, and there's a lot of effort in just keeping track of students and ensuring they're not falling behind--though many of them are. It's given me quite a bit of insight into the flaws behind all the "who needs school when you have Khan Academy" arguments; believe me--we need schools!
4
I've never understood why the ultimate goal of everything was to not leave the house. Amazon, Fresh Direct, Blue Apron, Dominoes, working from home, etc. What is so awful about leaving the house every once in a while? I think the idea situation is to work in an office Mon-Thurs, and WFH on Fridays. I worked for an advertising agency that had this policy and it was great. You got all of the serendipitous creativity that Steve Jobs espoused, and you got an extra day home to go for a run, do some errands etc. in addition to any work that needed to be done.
3
@Bart Redflag
There is a difference between not leaving the house, and not leaving the house for work.
3
This is spot on. Full time working from home is quite an adjustment... it’s a balance... sure there is the greater productivity, no commute, household chore flexibility but there is isolation even with all the virtual conference tools, the ability to constantly snack (I am a consistent 10 lbs heavier WFH over 4 years than before), camaraderie.
I believe it is a balance of some office time and some WFH.
1
I think there's a balance of home office and work office that hits a sweet spot of convenience, productivity, creativity....etc. In my world, that's 3 days home, 2 days commuting to work. However, if my commute was less than 1/2 hour, I suspect I would prefer a bit more onsite and a bit less home. Wasting 1 1/2 hours each way on a commuter train can flavor your opinion here.
6
I don't know about y'all but I am absolutely NOT a homebody and I know I would go completely crazy if I lost that reason to get out of the house. Imagine the psychological damage of never being able to clock out and leave work in a different place than where you go to seek refuge and relax.
2
When I have worked remotely in the past, the two-and-a-half hours I don't spend on the subway gives me more time to connect with other people, not less. Living in an urban neighborhood, I have plenty of opportunities to connect with other people.
15
Wow, the comments here definitely skew towards remote work... but I was offered a remote position last year and turned it down.
Personally, I find there are more distractions at home than the office and I'm more productive there. Even though I'd self-describe as an introvert, I still recognize my need for relationships and couldn't imagine not seeing people on a daily basis.
And, since I handle recruitment for an educational program, I find being on campus helps my outreach efforts so much more-running into our educators and coworkers gives me anecdotes and other info that isn't in our print materials. I feel so much of that would be lost if I were to leave the epicenter of our programs. It's not so much creativity, but a better understanding of the big picture that is essential to my work.
5
Whatever, my friend. Most people (including me) are not working at jobs that prioritize creativity. In fact, my job, which requires the application of legal code requirements into fair and impartial documentation, could be said to be the antithesis of creativity for a very good reason. Having worked both at home and in a traditional cubicle setup, I can tell you that quiet, freedom from of interruption and lack of toxic office behaviors contributes enormously to my own productivity and happiness. Unfortunately, most old-time supervisors are still stuck in the "butts in seats" mode and think a desire to work from home is equivalent to a desire to goof off at the company's expense.
50
@Fiddlesticks Sorry you feel that way. I for one like my coworkers and get more motivated by seeing them working hard than I would by having to generate 100% of my own motivation. Then again I also loved team sports in high school so I'm predisposed to thriving in a herd.
IMO There is a lack of accountability working from home. Just because your connected to the VPN doesn't mean your working. Collaboration often makes a difference and too many people don't have the ability to effectively communicate. Also the self motivating aspect of the office is a good thing. Very few can really be productive long term working alone.
1
@C That's a lot of projecting there.
4
@C That's true. Personally, I'm always afraid the higher ups won't believe I'm working so I've got some fear-based motivation to be productive when I'm WFH.
@C It depends on the job, personality, and the culture of the workplace. Have you ever heard of ROWE? Results-only work environment. It works very well for some companies including large ones like 3M for certain positions. "Accountability" is not about in-person attendence time but other metrics -- e.g. ability to meet deadlines, generate profit, fulfill goals, etc.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/this-is-what-real-work-flexibility-looks-like/425823/
In-person attendence is overrated for some jobs and people. Even ahead of remote activities, I was in a position where 70% of my time was spent in the field without any supervision. I hardly spent time in the hospital/ clinic environment as a healthcare professional who did home, assisted living, and nursing home visits. Yet, my company had no problem it it: our small team was near top in the region for all types of outcomes whether health or patient satisfaction related. I set my own schedule and had flexible hours as did my colleagues. We gathered 1-2 times a week for 1-2 hours in person to discuss issues.
For me, and the last 10 years of my 30-year corporate career, working from home was heaven. I am an introvert and hated the time wasted in small talk in the office, having to avoid certain people I didn't like or respect, and trying to stay focused with constant interruptions or feeling the need to be sociable when I wasn't feeling it. I am self-directed and essentially created my own position so I knew full well what had to be done each day. I still attended group meetings and traveled to the team, but at that point I had nothing to prove and was never challenged because I still did what needed doing, without oversight. The only drawback for me was having the occasional business visitor in and having to make a 'conference room' out of the kitchen table.
12
It's funny, as an introvert of 50 years I prefer to be in-office because it's healthier for me. I get to be social and productive in a structured environment. If I worked from home, i'd probably never see anyone but the Amazon delivery person.
2
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Personally, I like a mix. My ideal is work from home Mondays & Fridays, and be in the office Tuesday through Thursday. At least one day per week of working from home is fantastic for clearing the inbox & doing solo work like writing.
11
It depends on the job. I commuted to work for a corporate job for 7 years and found I had little in-person interaction during that time and communication revolved around messenger and emails. There weren’t really any brainstorms or spontaneous meetings to speak of.
Now I work remotely for the past year and find I have more verbal interaction through video conferencing. I don’t miss the commute of 45 minutes one way which was soul-crushing and not environmentally friendly. However, I agree that my work life balance has gone out the window.
5
This is more of an opinion piece, and should be titled "Working From Home Is Not For Me (Your Mileage May Vary)" -- I've been working from home for the past 18 months, after years of commuting to office jobs. I don't miss much about being in the office, and I miss nothing about the commute. Yes, there are times when I have the urge to strike up a conversation with a colleague, and I'm sure I miss out on opportunities to learn through casual conversation. But given the peace and calm that is such a huge part of my work-from-home life, it's hard to imagine going back (your mileage may vary).
17
The key is this: explaining your idea(s) to someone else, out loud, is itself a creative act that stimulates more brain connections, as does the reaction of the person listening to your explanation, their questions, comments, and facial expressions. Such face-to-face interaction is essential to creativity (for artists the equivalent is looking at other people's art and for musicians the equivalent is listening to other people's music.) We all need to balance face to face with the deep internal work time. It is not one or the other.
1
I work with people on three continents all of whom are working in home offices. We all get things done and have gotten to know each other but have never met face to face. It is seamless and with mutual respect I never experienced in an office, particularly since I am the only woman in the group. The secret is all have impeccable manners and ability to work without excessive supervision. Offices breed negativity rather than outcome and tend to have a boss with a need for unnecessary demonstrated power.
11
@poslug Great point. It cuts down on office politics and office gossip and keeps boss's power in check.
2
I’ve been working from home for 15 years and have been involved in launching multi million dollar companies with other people (also working from home). There are a myriad of communication channels that enable sharing and co-creativity among people and teams. No wasted commuting time, no high office overheads, flexibility, freedom, self discipline, the benefits are many. As to the myth of the office creative environment and the oh so tired “Steve Jobs said...” justification: so old school, sorry.
6
A lot of different opinions in the comments section. I like to WFH when there is a blizzard on the way or if I need to fly that day.
Having an office makes it a lot easier for me to switch from work to home life.
I've been a software developer since the 1980's, and really have only had the option to WFH about once a week (official policy)
1
Did this fellow suggest that people working from home can't be creative? Has he never heard of an artist's home studio, writing desk, composing room? Next to the internet, other people are the biggest distraction from sustained creative work. Sure collaboration is necessary to fit pieces of a puzzle together but for raw creative power, better to be locked away in self-quarantine with caffeine or whatever fuels your engine.
22
Having the ability to work from home is a godsend for parents to young children like me. I agree, however, that some time in the office is usually helpful. The answer, as always, is balance. I spend two days at home, and three (shortened) days in the office. As a result, I love my work more than ever, and I feel connected to my young daughters. I am loyal to my employer and unless I find a "better deal" elsewhere, I will be committed to my company as they give me the flexibility I need.
9
I teleworked full time for the final eight years of my career, and loved it. I'm an introvert whose work involved periods of intense concentration involving technical documents for a national program. My colleagues worked all over the USA; we only met face-to-face a few times a year anyway, conducting our routine duties via conference calls and email. For me, not having to drive downtown to sit in a cube, and being constantly interrupted by other employees who did not work directly with me, was a godsend.
I'm pretty good at setting physical and temporal work boundaries, but on days when I needed to put in extra time, it was far easier to have everything at home with me than to go in to the office over a weekend or work late and drive home even later.
As for experiencing compassion, a sense of connection to others, etc., I am far more likely to find these human traits within myself when I am not stressed out. Daily insight meditation facilitates this, too.
I suspect the differences among those who find telework too isolating and those who thrive with it have a lot to do with extroversion v introversion. Like those on the autism spectrum, many introverts are highly sensistive to sound, light, vibration, etc. We probably use up lots more energy trying to screen these stimuli out while trying to get our work done than extroverts do (or maybe extroverts consider mere interaction to be productive?). The controlled environment of my child-free home is perfect for me.
16
The day I must work in an office again is the day I retire. After years working in variations on cubicle, office, and God-forbid “open” communal spaces, I am blessed to be alone to structure my day for productivity. Email, IM, and occasional calls are all I need to be synergistic, creative, or whatever buzzword you want to apply.
27
Having done both, I prefer remote work, but only because getting an actual office these days is so rare. My preference would be a nice office to myself, which used to be the norm for legal work. Inhouse legal teams are forced into open seating these days like all other departments, even though the work requires intense focus. I am up for a rare remote position right now with a global company and reading this story helped me realize how much I want that again. However, I am decades into my career and no doubt reaped a huge benefit from working in firms. Technology has made remote work a greater opportunity for older employees, ironically, who don't need anymore training.
I worked from home for a year before and found it is best to shower and wear work clothes everyday to keep a separate professional identity from my personal home life. Most days I attended church at noon or went out to lunch and then "went back to work". I had no problem sitting for 8 hours at my computer and often had to force myself to eat or take a break.
7
Given the opportunity, I'm a fan of a healthy balance of work from home and work in the office. There are pros and cons for both types. While I find I accomplish more at home and work longer hours, I also find some people think working from home means I'm more available. Working in the office certainly provides the work environment but it can be distracting with the casual interactions as well as restlessness that comes with sitting at a desk. I do think for those who can work from home, times like these are where it is best applied.
5
I have worked from home 2-3 days per week for most of my career. Sometimes, if I don't have interpersonal contact it gets to me, but mostly I love it, especially since I have on-site time the rest of the week.
The way to make it work is to have a schedule, really. You can make the structure. And sometimes--taking yourself to a coffee shop--is just what you need.
8
Oh grow up, do!
You don't need to be in an office or a glammed up micro-kitchen to be creative. You need merely to open your mind to possibilities.
What you seem to be missing is social interaction - a valuable thing, but it should not be mistaken for true genius creativity.
True creative geniuses rarely work in environments that ultimately require conformity, teamwork and strict adherence to a narrow set of social behaviors and values.
Generally, the work product of true creatives is hanging in art museums, a object to wonder at in a city (extraordinary architecture or amazing public art such as the Vietnam Memorial) or found on a bookshelf - great literature.
As for social interaction, isn't it tech that virtually eliminated the need for face to face encounters to accomplish great things?
21
"Mr. Bock... said ...balancing office work with remote work is ideal."
That's been my experience. I can often work from home and do so frequently. I can indeed by more productive that way. But after a few days of that, I get bored and need some direct human interaction.
The present reality is, however, those of us who can should work from home as much as possible for the sake of everyone's health.
P.S. If you are isolated at home, what the point of hand sanitizer? The only germs around are your own!
8
I was diagnosed with ADD when I turned 50...in retrospect writing was always a struggle but it I could no longer ignore it when I started primarily working from home.
Home is not synonymous with structure...nor do i get the informal not important interactions that allow me to focus. Oh then there’s the dogs
2
"Mr. Mullenweg, whose company’s work force is fully distributed, sees a silver lining in the coronavirus."
This column is rather a different reaction than that accorded Wilbur Ross for expressing a similar sentiment.
1
I work in IT for big corporation and it, like most big corporations in America, has moved most of the work to India. I could go into an office near me, but I would still be working "remote" to the rest of the staff.
5
@Tim, I'm in IT as well, and I've been telecommuting for almost 18 years now. It's modus operandi in this sector, and our job nature allows it. I do go to my office from time to time, not necessarily for face time, but it's great to mingle with other folks.
More importantly, whether one can work from home or not is highly dependent on job nature. The work has to be goal-oriented, results and performance measurable. Then of course, some tools in the trade are a must, including webmeeting (zoom, webex, whatnot), messenging apps (slack, flowdock, etc), all of which allow a virtual "presence". And, the individuals have to be motivated enough to keep going when no one is breathing down your neck.
2
I've been working at home for the past 6 days and its really getting to me. I miss being able to grab a colleague, go into a conference room and brainstorming ideas on a whiteboard or jointly developing marketing story lines from different perspectives or grabbing coffee with someone to commiserate about a colleague who is not pulling their weight . I appreciate that I have the luxury to do work from home, but like the author, I am so ready to go back to the office.
1
@Sipa111 The first thing can easily be done with stuff like MS Teams. The second thing is simply wasting time.
2
I’ve been working for home for 15 years and every time I have to go into the home office (approximately once a year) I wonder how they get anything done. So much time is wasted in meeting rooms, desk visits, and lunch/breaks (not to mention the commute) that it’s easy to see why I’m able to consistently out-produce those poor folks. And days missed due to illness in the last year? Zero.
19
@Chris, I've been telecommuting for 18 years or so. I don't necessarily agree with your assessment that we telecommuters don't waste time. Afterall, meetings will always be meetings, whether you're virtual or not. And, I doubt if you don't take lunch breaks or get away from your desk while working from home. But, we save time and hassle on the commute which can definitely drain our energy.
4
Meetings are much easier to work through from home (especially if you aren’t essential to the conversation). And lunch breaks are invariably shorter and come when they work best for you, not when everyone in your “crew” is going.
But if you just factor in work done while others commute and the lack of distractions, those themselves would make you more productive than your peers.
On various occasions someone informs me about the latest office drama, and wow I don’t miss that someone’s not sitting at my desk talking about that hot mess.
2
@tiddle Eating at your kitchen table or going to a restaurant. Which do you think takes less time?
1
This seems to be yet another article written by or for the water-cooler people. You know these people.
They're never at their desk, consistently chattering, and immensely unproductive. I don't go to work to make friends and socialize and sit in meetings all day. I go to work to accomplish things. You can easily have face to face meetings remotely and the creativity flies as it would in-office. I agree that remote work is not for everyone and particularly not for people who have trouble separating work from home life. However this article doesn't seem to be about those people. This article seems to be about the people who crave attention and for whom work is just a necessary evil to get that interaction and attention. If you can't do your work in sweatpants and you can't focus when you're at home I'm willing to bet you also have trouble focusing at the office. The difference is that there's plenty of other people there like you to hide it. Meanwhile the rest of us working remote are busy getting work done.
94
I love all these responses from fellow introverts so much! Thanks, y'all, for speaking up!
64
@Jean, I've been telecommuting for some 18 years or so now. I like working alone, but I also like interacting with others (various messenger apps, before slack becomes vogue) as welll. I don't necessarily think that every telecommuters are introvert, though there is one side of us that likes to work in peace and quiet. Beware of pigeonholing yourself.
3
I wonder if the writer is more bent out of shape from being forced to stay home in the name of public health vs working from home being an actual option. I'm not an introvert, but still find it hard to focus with constant interruptions in the workplace.
8
Like many commenters, it does depend on what you do and on your personality. I worked from home half my career but don't now. I tend to think I have the work from home personality where I can balance work with house chores and exercise. And with VC calls and meetings I get the face to face then. My wife on the other hand is the one who works from home but probably shouldn't as she's more social and has trouble pulling herself away from the computer after 6pm (she starts at 8am).
3
Better bored, than dead.
12
I love working from home.
12
"I’m getting plenty of work done, but I’m starting to get unnerved by the lack of stimulation. It’s been hours (days?) since I interacted face to face with a human who is not related to me, and cabin fever is setting in."
Is this supposed to be a dispatch written during the siege of Stalingrad?
Grow up Kevin. If by "creative" yuu mean those god awful pharmaceutical or auto insurance ads, or techie junk, stay in your bunker.
10
@george eliot, I have worked from home for some 18 years now. I have my home office, but I keep my room in office as well. I do like to go back to office from time to time, if only to get some fresh air and to mingle with my peers. Sometimes, you do need to meet someone face to face in order to truly know/feel that person, which is something you can never do with video stream on zoom or webex.
1
Who says creativity is lost? I work from home as a writing consultant for academics, AND I finished writing two books, got a publishing contract for another book, and wrote a chapter for an upcoming anthology. What a load of nonsense!
32
Perhaps change the headline so this doesn't read as the entitled whine of someone who doesn't think they are going to either get ill or spread the illness to others if they continued working in the office. No, working from home would not be your first choice. Too bad.
10
Oh, come on, are you telling me that in the era of social platforms, and of people always attached to smartphone screens, we need to really talk with a real physical person for triggering smart ideas?
It's a tremendous tackle to computers, internet, AI and everything! You are telling us that we should go back to join together and solve problems together like 50 years ago.
What about if you think that you live just only one time ? I know that it is an old fashioned quote, but maybe more time in reasoning about you, what you are doing, how much is an absolute lost of time to loose your time in not useful meetings just for giving someone that you consider stupid, a sympathetic "like", is better.
1
I'm going to bet you aren't nearly as productive as you think at the office though you may enjoy it more if you are really extroverted.
14
I spend a fair amount of time in Silicon Beach in LA where many of the tech crowd supposedly work from home on Fridays.
So why are the roads extra busy on Fridays? Why are all the restaurants so crowded on Fridays?
Aren't all these people supposed to be hard at work at home?
C'mon, let's be honest here. The whole Friday work at home thing of the gig economy is really a back-door adoption of a four-day workweek.
During this health crisis, these people aren't working at home. They're out there at Costco buying up all the toilet paper!
6
Deadlines keep you on track. Mature adults can manage their time and make deadlines.
1
Me being forced to see you daily is ruining my creativity.
15
@mark
This is so funny. Needs more recommendations.
So, this is a quite young guy (according to his CV, he was under 30 in 2015), who has vociferously changed his viewpoint on a subject that was very important to him and very present in his daily life, 180 degrees from what he vociferously espoused just a few years ago.
Imagine that.
4
I hope the author gets the bump in sales of his forthcoming book he is hoping for here; however, working from home while a pandemic spreads is not about individual creativity and all about the common good.
7
Nopedy Nope. Never going back to an office. Worked in offices for 30 years. Working from home the last 3 years. I will stop working before I have to go back to an office.
Other people yelling on the phone;
Interruptions for chit chat;
Required office "parties;"
"Boss on the rampage" alarms;
Sharing the refrigerator or spending huge sums on take out;
Having to get dressed like everyone else;
Not being able to pet my cat when I need a calming moment;
Missing children's events;
Trying to figure out when to be home for when UPS will actually show up at the door;
Finding house repair people who will work on a weekend;
THE COMMUTE!
No thank you!
The key to working from home is establishing your office whether it be a room, a space or a desk. Have everything an office needs (printer, fax, paper, supplies, good internet, good computer). Set work limits (get up when you are done for the day).
Set up lunch and coffee dates with people you WANT to spend time with or people whom you need to meet with.
Read interesting articles. Go to conferences or seminars when you want to learn. Don't shy away from going to a meeting in person if its better to do so and not just because you can stay at your desk.
To each his/her own. Let the WFH crowd exist in peace.
73
Roose states: "Most people should work in an office"
And what does "working in an office" entail in the year 2020?
1. It entails contributing obscene amounts of pollution to the atmosphere via cars, trucks, buses, trains and planes.
2. Due to point #1, "working in an office" therefore makes addressing CO2 emissions that much more difficult to achieve.
3. "Working in an office" entails ignoring the technology that has taken over office spaces over the last 20 years. Technology like computers, the internet, phones, web-meetings, skype, etc, etc, etc.
4. "Working in an office" entails sitting in front of your office computer...doing the exact same tasks you could be doing from a computer at your home.
5. "Working in an office" does however provide those added joys of interacting with annoying, incompetent, mean, irritable, arrogant co-workers.
Conclusion: Roose has no interest in addressing CO2 emissions...and most likely fits one of the descriptors in point #5.
10
As far as I am concerned "creativity" is overrated. How about just some hard work? Thank you.
6
Your typical office is made up of extroverts who leech off the creativity of introverts. No wonder the former sing its praises. Our boy Kevin is clearly among that ilk.
This said, as someone who has worked creatively both at home and in an office, and who despises as a matter of principle all-isms, I think a better article could be written about the DIFFERENT types of creativity elicited by each environment.
10
Not everyone needs to be around people all the time to be "creative". It's easy to communicate electronically. Some jobs benefit from being without noise for hours so workers can "get in the zone". Programming is one case. Difficult programming; not superficial, easy programming.
I hate articles like this that reinforce what clueless managers want to do: Keep everyone in sight lest they goof off. Clue: It's easy to look busy while not doing anything productive.
8
@Kelly Lee, I can easily think of 10 reasons pro and against telecommuting. But, "creativity" will not be among the top 5, that's for sure.
3
@Kelly Lee
Spot on about the clueless managers. Thank you.
Which is better? Hammer or screwdriver? Silly question, right? Depends on the task at hand.
If you're complaining about a loss of creativity, you're really just complaining that it's more difficult to leech off the creativity of others.
BTW Newton did his best work in isolation during the plague.
6
"I'm a garbage collector and I love working from home."
Not.
It's all very lovely, these comments. You all should consider yourselves privileged. Working at home is great as long as there are people manning the shops, delivering the boxes and polishing the infrastructure to keep you happy/unhappy working at home.
If they were all to go away, you'd be starving at home.
7
This is about doing office work in an actual office vs. doing the same work in your home. Don’t try to turn it into something it’s not.
3
Maybe it's just you who experiences less creativity working remotely?
5
Sad, just sad. Have people lost the ability to be with their own mind and thoughts? for stimulation and ideas and creativity? In just a few days.....sad.
11
I've been working from home the majority of my adult life and would gladly live under a bridge before taking a job in an office. I'm (quite candidly and happily) NOT a team player - I'm a nonfiction author, researcher, and freelance journalist - and therefore miss absolutely nothing by working alone. I feel bad for folks who feel compelled to work in a group, although I totally get that these folks are entitled to their own preferences.
15
I could not disagree more strongly - I love the long stretches of uninterrupted thought, where I can spend time to read and pursue idea development in consecutive time. Working from home does not mean you are on a deserted island. It means you don't get interrupted unless and until you want to be interrupted. By reducing the number of interruptions, each of my projects can progress in bigger blocks per day, which in turn generates more thoughtful input from others simply because each idea is fleshed out. Contrary to the author, I find impromptu meetings tend to generate mindless banter about recent events whereas scheduled meetings usually follow an agenda, so a ton gets done and small talk is minimized. That can be tough on people who thrive on comparing their favorite professional sports, or whatever entertainment just happened.
We are all so connected anyway that a meeting is as easy as reaching your apps on your phone.
18
@worriedbuthopeful
Well said.
Totally depends on what you do, what your company focuses on, the culture of the company, commutes and what the physical environment of the workplace is. I work from home one or two days a week and it is bliss. The massive company I work for put thousands of us in cruise ship-like dining hall spaces a few years ago and it’s a nightmare. We are shoulder-to-shoulder and contend with ubiquitous noise distractions. I quite literally get twice as much done when working at home.
I do agree that for collaboration and creativity purposes, meetings and in-person meetings are key. In my industry, 3-4 days in the office is MORE than enough to get what’s needed in those areas done based on what we do/I do.
3
I have a different experience. When going the office, for me, it's "Did you fill out this project sheet", "What about that training requirement", "Please attend the Town Hall meeting" - it's pretty close to 100% overhead - friction generated by an overstaffed institution where many requirements are generated by the bureaucracy rather than by the end-product job. No thanks - at home I can work full time, concentrate, be productive, get things done, finish my projects. Even before telecommuting was common, I'd have to do my work at home after wasting most of the day in the office. If you are self-oriented to work accomplishments you might eventually realize that office attendance and its associated make-work is wasting what time you have in life and subtracting from your achievements.
5
As an introvert, I have been preparing for this my entire life.
14
I’ve worked in both remote and non-remote settings and far prefer working remotely. I find that I am much, much more productive as I am interrupted much less throughout the day. I make an effort to spend time with people (friends and coworkers whom I like) outside of the office, but no longer have to spend hours per week on silly small talk like “what are you doing this weekend?” and “how was your weekend?” I also find the flexibility amazing. I love getting up and tackling several hours of work and then doing to do some exercise.
Are the conference calls annoying? Sure. Do I miss going into the office. Absolutely not. Would never go back to going in five days a week.
6
It depends on the person. My wife worked from home for a couple of years about a decade ago, after having worked in an office environment for twenty years. She started working from home again, starting a few months ago and the result has been the same. She's struggling with the isolation and is unstimulated. God bless the people who can do it. I don't think I could.
1
Technology was suppose to allow people to work from home. Increase productivity reduce our carbon footprint.
That was the technology mantra years ago , now we have the Coronavirus and everyone is acting that we are not prepared to work from home, we are not prepared for anything we have technology but we have gone backwards
School system were suppose to have curriculum on line per Apple and the innovation of charters and now we find out that we don’t even have internet connectivity in certain zip codes
Look we were supposed to have rural hospitals not close them but have doctors work remotely via technology to address patients well that doesn’t seem to be working very well.
As usual Madison Avenue marketing is more fluid than our reality of process and implementation. If we actually did what Madison Avenue said we did there would be no issue with working from home
It’s been a very long time since we had creativity in anything or out of the box thinking
If we did we wouldn’t be in this mess of our own creation
2
Face to face time is absolutely important for building relationships, and can certainly foster creativity. It's not the only way. I've worked from home for 20 years - as a creative - and find no lack of sources to fuel that. If you're an extrovert and you need to work in an office in a team, great, do that; but don't try to fit workers into that box. It doesn't fit.
Also: the reason companies have snacks at the office? It ain't to help create those little serendipitous conversations that spark an idea. It's because companies have learned that providing food on-campus means workers are less likely to leave for a lunch break. It's a pure productivity play.
Nice try, tho.
38
@Joe Thank you for pointing out the bit about food in the office. When I read that, I thought the author couldn't possibly be so naive. Of course it's to keep you in the office working!
2
I've now worked longer remotely for my current company than I worked in the office. It was the best decision I ever made.
I would not go back to working in an office environment, under any circumstances.
7
As a very introverted person - I need the office, otherwise I might never see another human being. I've always found working from home highly inconvenient and it blurs the line between home and work. I like to leave it all behind at the end of the day.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing - blended plans seem to work better than all one way or the other and of course knowing you have the option is nice in case of long term illness, child care issues, etc.
1
I've been working from home full-time since 2016, and love it. I'm immunocompromised, so not being sick on a regular basis is great. I don't think it's a big deal to interact face-to-face, particularly when I am interacting daily over email, IM, and Skype.
Maybe it makes a difference if you're not exactly the most popular person around, or not the most attractive, or older...etc. My annual reviews have never been better, and I credit some of that to not being stereotyped by my appearance.
12
I have to absolutely disagree with this. This article put too much emphasis on the creativity boost from working in the same same, but at what cost?
Being a tech worker in the bay area which is the technology center of the states, if not the world. I have to absolutely denounce large campuses and requiring employees to work in the same space.
I am talking about the mental stress of commuting. The traffic here is the bay area is ridiculous and a one-way commute of 2+ hours is not unheard of (the director of my organization does it). I spend 10% of life everyday in a vehicle. By the time I get to work I am already exhausted, let alone being creative.
This comes also at a cost of environment pollution and social problems. The real estate around the few tech centers (like Mountain View) is astronomical and created huge problems for homelessness.
I honestly think the creativity argument is overrated. A lot of work happening in this sector is already highly decentralized. I spend 1/4 of my office time doing video conference with remote offices anyway. Even coworker in a building across the street is going to VC with me.
The reality in my sector is there is a lot of collaborations outside of the organization. A lot of important projects have contributions around the world.
Instead of investing into real estate and big campuses which only benefits land owners, companies should instead invest into making remote work efficient. I think this is much more beneficial for our future.
15
Different strokes for different folks. I'm not extroverted, nor particularly introverted either. When I need to brainstorm Skype is fine, or Teams, whichever, the internet lets us do that now. I get to not drive 43 miles for 90 minutes in my Prius listening to the preternatural ramblings of radio threesomes. I get to sleep an extra 1/2 hour. I work in my pajamas with my dog sleeping next to me. I like most of my coworkers, but mostly not more than my dog. The occasional face to face is needed, sure, just like with my coworkers in other states and countries. As the tweet my daughter shared says "I guess we're about to find out which meetings could've been e-mails after all…"
9
I started a virtual tech company 25+ years ago betting that the internet and collaboration tools would arrive to bring this bet to life. Fast-forward and now we have a culture of 50 who are very comfortable and productive working from home.
However, what we've found is that WFH is not for everyone. You have to have the inner fortitude, great (and I mean great) communication skills, self-starters with curiosity, and a team-based attitude to be successful. If you need the water cooler or office 'surroundings' to be productive, then WFH is not for you. Yes, it can be lonely at times and I encourage my staff to take breaks, spend time with their families, go on errands, etc. as long as they meet their objectives.
They are empowered to define their day. And with great power comes great responsibility.
4
Self-confessed introvert here. But I do find that the proximity to others in the workplace makes way for a synergy I can't feel from home. 1-2 days of remote work a week is definitely advantageous for focused work, but I feel that a group of colleagues in a room, or a bump-into in the cafeteria or pantry provides another level of familiarity that allows for a freer flow of ideas.
1
Part of the allure of working at home is the dream “corner office”—your own bathroom, a kitchen, a nice yard, maybe even a “comfort dog” to tend to your anxieties. But these things can provide distractions that can eat into your productivity. So at the end of your “work day” you may have taken the dog for a walk, thrown a few loads of wash in, and “accomplished” a bunch of other non-work things, yet possibly have gotten a discouragingly small amount of actual work done.
In my work-from-home career I hit a crisis where I found I wasn’t cranking out enough billable hours, even though I had the work, and all I needed to do to get paid was to do it. Part of my solution was to faithfully log 100% of my time, not just what was billable. This gave me some “analytics” to get my work day up to almost eight hours, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. This also made me feel OK about taking a well-deserved break.
I agree that in general the traditional office provides a higher quality of badly-needed human interaction. But gathering people into the office only to lock each in their cubicle with their computer kind of defeats the purpose of having them come in. So employers are attacking this problem by redoing the office with more open work spaces and what I would call “coffeeshopification.”
Note also that working at home doesn’t have to be all or nothing. One huge advance in the modern work place is cool employers who give their people the option to say, “I’m working from home today.”
1
Nonsense. I have been working at home for a decade. Created a company that serves clients all over the world — Singapore to Frankfurt in any given month. We have a senior team. We reach out when we need to collaborate. We work independently at home or in hotels for long Periods of time.
No creativity sacrificed.
I still prefer the Big Recommendations meeting to be done live, face-to-face uniting a team from all over the world, but that’s sometimes not possible. In the end, there is very little that you can’t do currently remotely that you can do face-to-face.
I would never go back to a commute and a fixed office if I could avoid it.
3
I've worked from home for 11 years and previously 17 years in an office environment. I agree with arguments on both sides. For deep thought, isolated type assignments WFH was the best for me but collaborating with others is also very beneficial. Some of my best work came from impromptu meetings in the hallway. WFH has one major drawback and it is many times you are not kept in the loop when there is new information or changes. I believe the best combination is working from home a few days a week and the rest of the time in the office.
2
If I hear the word "collaboration" one more time, I'll go insane. My job does not lend itself to collaboration. I have to research difficult commercial insurance policies to suss out coverage. It is an intense activity requiring quiet and concentration--not shouting ideas around with co-workers. It's not sales and it's not innovative/creative. I vastly prefer to work from home to do it. At the office, I am constantly interrupted, then have to re-orient to figure out where I was in the process. I have to make sure to take care of myself by reminding myself to go out and interact with people (it's easy to trap yourself into being isolated). That's a relatively easy fix. In short: just because your job, Mr. Roose, may be enhanced by a "bullpen" setting, that doesn't mean that the rest of us need it. (there are also the matters of the hours spent commuting and the spread of disease, but those have been covered).
14
@Malvie I have a similar situation at my job, which requires me to read and interpret densely written financial regulations. I sit in an open office next to a group that is endlessly shouting back and forth to one another and often turns on their computer speakers in order to listen to the news. It's nearly impossible to concentrate.
1
Why does it have to be an all-or-nothing decision? I've done it all -- full time office, full time home, and a mix. By far, the best arrangement is a mix -- 3 days in/2 days out or vis versa. You get the best of both worlds, enhanced creativity and productivity, and don't feel isolated.
6
Commuting stress to sit in cube next to folks they don't really care about-that's the norm.
If companies even mandated one day a week as remote work, thats 20 percent reduction in commuting, traffic, stress. Perhaps workers may even start to enjoy working together again.
9
Working from home is all very well for those who can. No one appears to be offering a thought for, or assistance to, those who can't, or who don't get paid if they don't work and have no sick days, or are self-employed of have small businesses. The consequences of long-term quarantines will affect millions and may cause many to lose jobs, homes and indeed their lives - not from the virus but from the despair they will be unable to overcome.
2
Creativity is hardly the issue. Containing this deadly disease is.
15
The short version: Some years ago, I worked at home for a few years. It made me nuts.
9
@Karen
Finally, someone said "work AT home." How did the term "work FROM home" become the accepted wording?
I find that the collaboration that occurs from working at the office is very beneficial, but I have had some of my most creative moments when working from home; perhaps I think more freely while barefoot, and in the comfort of sweatpants and t-shirt.
8
Simply put, I disagree with Mr. Roose.
I work from home unless I absolutely have to be in the office for an issue which will not resolve remotely. The time saved is considerable (7 hours/week), my outlook on life is better as I do have to deal with ubiquitous phone involved drivers, and my creativity has not seemed to suffer.
I don't need the external validation that comes from being in an office environment. I just need to get the job done for which I'm being paid. That happens more easily when I'm at home.
21
I'm surprised more was not made of the environmental benefits of WFH.
My last school was outside of DC; many colleagues had spouses who worked in the city. To get there, you had to traverse Georgetown Pike. Because it's a historic site there are no shoulders. If a car broke down, the traffic jam could last hours.
A friend who worked for the State Dept stayed home to care for his infant daughter; when he noticed how much more productive he was and eager to be dad, he asked his boss if he might try working a few days from home. Nope. Even though he had demonstrated that he was doing more work faster, his boss wouldn't okay it.
Despite overwhelming evidence that productivity goes up, that cars are kept off the road, that parking is therefore easier for those who must commute, etc. businesses will not adopt this model for a simple reason: They don't trust their employees. There is a power imbalance at work in too many places and no one has the honesty to call it out. It's feudal in intent and execution.
Now layer in how abysmal the modern workplace has become. Who are we kidding? The moment I saw open floor plans with many cubicles crammed into a few square feet I knew we'd lost our minds. A recent study demonstrated that every interruption when someone is deeply into "flow" takes 25 minutes to recover from. Now do the math for how many times that happens a day.
WFH is a win win win. It should be actively encouraged whenever possible. We can't even do the easy things.
30
Like most things, WFH works for some people and not for others. I've been doing it for 15 years after 20 in typical office settings. My last 7 years have been freelance (I'm a copywriter). I've never met most of my clients; some I've never even spoken to by phone. But I make good money and get a lot done, with more work-life balance than I ever had going into an office. I don't think I could do it if I lived in a suburban or rural community; I would feel more isolated if I didn't see people frequently. I have dogs and walk them at least 2x a day, partly just to get outside and see people. Are there some things I miss? Sure. But on balance, it's been a great life for me and one I hope I can continue.
6
Not everyone thrives in a busy office with lots of other people. The authors seems to fall into the typical thinking a lot of managers do which is the every employee is an extrovert that thrives busy work places and that being around people increases creativity and problem solving. When in reality it's the opposite.
23
They are wrong. Did Einstein have meetings to figure out relativity? Artists do not collaborate on their art. Creativity is a personal pursuit.
60
@Mogwai
Definitely.
2
While I agree with your general sentiment, your assertion that artists don’t collaborate is simply wrong. Consider musical groups and TV writing teams, to name two.
4
It's obviously a personality thing. I'd be happy to always work from home. More extroverted, social people feel trapped at home.
But almost everyone has plenty of work that can be done from home very well, so there should be a healthy mix. I'd love to work 3-4 days a week from home and 1-2 days in the office. It would also save a lot of time on the commute, and relieve overburdened streets, subways etc from the avoidable traffic.
8
Until fairly recently, I had a work-from-home job. I can relate to much of what this author has experienced: for all of the nice things, I desperately missed the contact with other humans and I believe the lack of that contact affected my work (in exactly the ways identified by Steve Jobs).
That said, it’s great to be able to do it some, and I think the average of 1.5 days per week cited as ideal by one executive in this article is spot on. There are one or two days per week that I’m working on a big project completely by myself and it would be ideal to eliminate the commute (and wear jeans, etc.) on those days. I hope that will become the norm: 3-4 days in the office plus 1-2 days working from home.
4
I love working at home. No traffic hassles, dress code requirements and not having to engage in office politics is a win win situation.
12
As an IT person the productivity is higher from home on a given task. In any case trying to talk to my coworkers was an interruption to them. We all IMd in the office even sitting next to each other. That way we could include links and screenshots.
Only reason to be in the office was a project kickoff or sales celebration. And even then most didn’t attend.
I loved it and I’m a boomer.
1
I've done both, and am now back to spending most of my time at the office. My bosses are old-school, and I am certain that being on site has helped both my salary and career growth. I am seen as being more dedicated to my job and the company. What's strange is that I actually worked harder when I was out of the office, but somehow my contributions are more valued now.
8
@Sue So your employer equates just showing up as a sign of a great employee. Certainly not a sign of a smart management.
2
Well, for starters, there is no "silver lining" to coronavirus. Mullenweg is completely tone deaf on that one. And isolation is good for no one. I once worked remotely when covering a state legislature but purposefully spent my days in offices shared by various papers. To be creative, people need people.
3
So is losing some creativity (whatever that means) for a couple weeks is so much worse than helping contain a virus, that is highly severe in older folks?
5
Kevin seems to be a victim of his age (and/or location?). When I first came to California 30 years ago I tried to hire a good number of people to come to an office to accomplish creative work in advertising graphics and copywriting. The number one reaction was "I would be happy to work for (or with) you, but no one wants to come to an office. I work from home". And so we all did. At one time I had 30 plus "associates" producing wonderful, effective, client-winning and award -winning work. All from home. I found that working from home was a total joy (especially watching my young daughter grow up along side of me)...even when Laura Sankey, the VP of Coors at the time, showed up at my home office one morning and caught me in my PJ's. But it was Laguna so we went to breakfast...and I did not bother changing clothes. No one cared or thought it was odd. In fact, there were a few others (mostly high schoolers wearing PJ's for a morning coffee). The others at the restaurant (Zinc) were wearing board shorts and/or swimming suits or work out clothes. One woman was wearing a dress. At least I thought it was a woman. One guy had his parrot with him. At least I thought it was with him.
19
@Mark Shyres
I am not sure the parrot was with the guy. Oddly enough we have a few flocks (or, if you prefer a pandemonium or a company) of parrots in Orange County, CA. The story goes that people brought them here as pets and either some escaped, or were set free...and they seem perfectly happy and adjusted here - why wouldn't anyone?). Then again, since it was in Laguna I would go with "pandemonium". Especially in the summer.
1
Office working, how I hate thee - let me count the ways.
Wasted time and gas commuting
Being surrounded by distracting chatter
Constant interruptions
No privacy
Too many tempting snacks and sweets
In order to concentrate I need a quiet environment - period. Balancing several things in my brain at once requires concentration.
21
good things in moderation -- working from home 1-2 days a week is ideal, and i can get a lot of work done that i otherwise would not get done in an office, and work late at night and at odd hours. But having done it 5 days a week i can start to get stir crazy and not eat lunch until 1:38 pm.
6
WFH can be an occasional stopgap and luxury for people on teams that have worked together and know each other. Working remotely with people you've never worked with and haven't even met will never work. But it will happen because like open floorplans, while totally inefficient, they save money on rent - and that is what shortsighted managers cherish.
1
For gosh sakes don’t work in sweatpants!
I have worked from home most of my adult working career. I usually work in whatever I’d have to go out in to meet a client or pop into an office. In the case of the coronavirus you may not need to do that but you still may need to have a work outfit to get work done.
Uniforms set people up to get work done. Think of a fireman or cop - their uniforms are part of the utility to do there job. Can I work in sweatpants? Yes. But I better have shoes on or I’ll hit the couch on the way to the fridge.
Not so many fridge trips, either. In fact, do some time blocking to stay working for a certain number of hours. Set work hours and let others know what they are so you are not interrupted while working.
I am way more productive at home than at the office. The office banter seems trivial to me - plus I can get that over the phone. When I’m having a hard time getting work done I define my work more. I sit with a pen and paper and write out exactly what my duties entail. Then I get to work.
5
Some people don’t need to put on a costume to be able to efficiently perform their assigned tasks.
I love working from remotely. Not sure I could ever go back to commuting to an office. I’m usually logged in and working within 15 minutes of getting out of bed. I can make a hot lunch, let the dogs out, keep an eye on the garden, work in sweatpants and bare feet....
We use MS Teams so I don’t even miss joking around with my colleagues.
10
It's really unfortunate that more companies didn't continue their experiments ten years ago of working in virtual spaces like Second Life. The sharing of creative ideas, and the energy that comes with that, would be very useful about now.
It works really well for some of us ... and it would be nice if our in-office colleagues/employers would recognize that our approach offers public benefits, too.
5
I've worked from home 40% at one job and 90% at another. It's interesting to me that you view it as "either-or". My experience has been much more of a hybrid situation. I don't feel isolated at home when I see my co-workers on video calls or hear their voices frequently.
It's also interesting that you view the office as more interactive. When sitting at work, cubicles in many situations actually create a more separate and solitary physical environment.
3
I had early AM meetings, no stress about the commute, a healthy lunch and a great conversation with a retired neighbor who I finally said hi to today!
I felt very productive thanks to all the recent tools my company rolled out where I can access my documents (Sharepoint), team (Slack), and even have high-quality video meetings (Webex) with my customers.
I like this work from home setup!
8
I could go on and on extolling the benefits of working from home, but I’m too busy......working. I get far more accomplished three days a week at my dining room table - or a picnic table at the beach, if I’m so inclined - than I do during my two days in the office, each of which requires a three-hour round trip commute. Still, I adore my co-workers, and interacting with them in our highly social, too-cramped office is a highlight of my days there. For me, the mix - and the flexibility - is ideal and I consider myself lucky to have it, especially after having spent 20 years in a corporate cubicle.
8
I've worked from home for the past 20 years - almost my entire working life. This opinion piece is nothing more than that, an opinion.
I am an interior designer who also works in high-end technology design (home automation and the related). I'm also an introvert who loves being at home (LOVES). I work out of an office once per week and spend about another day on average at various job sites. Work aside, I'm at my most creative in bed, at night. That's how it works for me.
All that said, I work with a team of people in multiple states and countries. Some of today's video-conferencing solutions are superb - great audio, stellar video, etc, etc. I'm fortunate to have a leg in the tech world, but one doesn't need to in order to make remote work successful for them.
To each, their own.
4
I'm lucky in that I've configured my life to be able to do a mix of remotely-based activities and in-person activities. Some of my remote activities are not just myself: I collaborate with colleagues from around the country/ world using technology. As an introvert, this is great for me. Enough to feel connected but also enough time to do some solitary thinking.
So at least with coronavirus, things haven't really changed.
As a full-blown introvert, working from home the past few years has been a gift that I am consciously grateful for every single day, even the frustrating ones. Not having the stress and scrutiny and sense of feeling trapped in the drudgy routine of a long, unpleasant commute, of being trapped in an office, of feeling pressure to look/dress a certain way. If I want to be social or exchange ideas, it can be with people I actually want to be around. As such, I also recognize my privilege in being able to control my work environment. I would reserve my concern for the many, many people who MUST go to work, regardless of risk, in environments whose risk factor they cannot control.
9
My wife at first complained about her working at home because she felt disconnected. But I have noticed over time that her creativity in this situation as flourished more so than when she went to work every day. I think it has to do with respect from her supervisors but I also think that the relaxed, comfortable atmosphere of home allowed her to free up her cognitive abilities and be more effective.
3
I'd love to work from home solely because I'm a serious night owl. I've been fighting to change my sleep schedule for almost thirty years and I always default to staying up late. However, the silence and stillness of the night is when I'm most creative and productive.
My ideal schedule would be to lose myself in the intensive focus aspects of my work from 9pm-2am, sleep until 9 am, then be available for my occasional meetings as needed from 10am-5pm while I fill the rest of the time with errands, household chores, and an afternoon power nap. I could still spend evenings with my family while getting the solo time I fiercely crave and working my 40+ hours on my preferred time.
4
As an introvert who has successfully worked from home for more than 35 years, I am my best, most human self in sweatpants or shorts, saving my minimal need for human interaction for times, places, people and circumstances of my choosing.
Generalizations intended to include all personality types are usually full of holes and damaging to those who don't fit the norm!
3
As a person who spends 2.5 hours every day commuting to work and as a parent of 2 kids (whom I barely see) I think WFH is an amazing option, literally the best perk you can get. I work in team where WFH is not part of the office culture (even though in the company where I work it's OK), and I seriously considering looking for another job where I can work from home once a week and on days when my kids have doctors appointments or parent-teacher conferences, for examples. And yes, I keep going to office event now, during corona panic, using public transportation.
4
I had a job which could not be done remotely ( at least as effectively) as a judge. While I hated my commute and was glad it ended when I retired, I missed the interaction, mental challenge and laughter I’d had with the lawyers and my staff every day. I agree that not everyone is suited by personality to an active environment, but it seems that we are becoming more isolated from real human connection in our “ connected” virtual world.
4
Much like anything, too much, too quickly is a recipe for discontent and poor results. We have constructed a culture around being present in a physical space for 8 hours a day, and most workers accept it and are acclimated to it, even if they acknowledge how draining and incompatible with modern life it can be.
Working from home, flexible hours, and above all, the elimination of the antiquated, Industrial Revolution-era notion of a 40-hour workweek just makes sense in the 21st century.
However, those things take time to develop and cultivate in the broader culture. Employers and employees who have not accepted the possibility of having flexibility in the workplace, including working from home will naturally be resistant to change, especially if it is demanded overnight. This virus and the quarantine is a very sudden, and very rapid change in how workplaces operate, and I don't blame people for resisting it. It does bring about the bigger conversation we need to be having about work and life though, but it's sad that it takes a pandemic to start it.
4
@Austin I don't think the WFH concept is sudden or overnight. Back in 2002 I could have done my job from home (IT job, database administrator). So sad that most companies won't allow it.
1
@Kelly Lee You're absolutely right. It's not a new concept by any means.
There are many people who would benefit in huge ways from this. It's probably true you could have done your job remotely as far back as 18 years ago, but few people could have fathomed such an idea then. Now, we do have the resources but public perception hasn't caught up yet. There are many people who still cling to the idea that the world will stop spinning if they're not chained to their desk for 40 hours a week.
The author mentions that as a white-color millennial, they're "supposed to be cheering on the remote work revolution." Actually no, you're not supposed to be doing anything about remote work, except making the choices that work for you and your team. Flexible work arrangements are about just that - flexibility, not making everyone rigidly adhere to one way of doing things. I find this frustrating about American work culture and suspect others may too; people and organizations' desire to dictate what works best for everyone. Maybe time we gave that a rest.
2
If you work in an open office, creativity is not what you think it is. The noise levels and movement make it hard to think. Huddle areas which are out in the open, don't cut it. There is always the people with volume control issues. They usually like to wander so they annoy everyone. Try concentrating when you can hear both sides of a phone call. Especially if you are on a different one.
What is wrong with being on a call and sharing your screen?
12
No one size fits all. It is my business to be creative and innovative and I've been far more successful and happier at it since I started working remotely a few years ago. The ability to focus uninterrupted, and at will, and the productivity gains from simply not commuting to and from work alone are enormous. Add to that being able to clean, do laundry and pick up my kids from school whenever needed and the beauty and comfort of a nice home workspace, not to mention the impact on the environment, and you can understand why someone would never want to go back to working in a sterile office space afterwards. Of course some people would get lonely. But the kind of people that prefer to work with computers over messy humans with their quirks, antics and fraught relationships can only flourish from it. The only thing better would be to have a nice good looking robot play thing to joke with occasionally lol. Working from home is the best!
3
I have worked from home for 19 years.
It’s important to rise like any other work day, dress, eat and then sit down and work. Take a lunch break and stay focused. For me that means no music, no TV, no talk radio. I behave as if I am in the office. My whole team is remote but everyone is accessible - accessibility and responsiveness are key.
10
I'm sure the author of this piece is being sincere in their assertions, but I think if readers look behind those, they'll see some dubious assumptions that are ingrained by American work culture.
Haven't left the house for "hours (days?)" to interact with another person? Go to a coffee shop or meetup, make small talk with someone. Nothing stopping you.
Working in your sweatpants? Shower and dress yourself.
Missing a creative outlet? Pick up writing, a visual art, or any other creative outlet.
Need collaboration? Propose a project to a friend or partner (or your kids, if you have 'em).
The author's assertions show just how little value and effort we're conditioned to assign to time when we don't have to "go to work." There are tons of pursuits in life whose purpose is more than to add to your employer's bottom line, which you may find more fulfilling, and which might have more value to the society. Remote work enables us to spend less time at the office, but it's only worthwhile if we make use of the time we reclaim.
11
@Eric
like reading all these replies ...
@Eric Exactly. Thank you.
Curious why all the examples given are of companies (mostly software companies)? Does not-for-profit work not require productivity? What about government work? And charities and NGOs?
3
I’m saving 2 hours a day in buses. Being forced to commute for the past two weeks has giving me the chance to catch up on house work, spend more time with my family, and still get all of my work done. It’s going to be hard to return to work when this is all in the rear view mirror.
5
Well. My job is not creative. So WFH suits me
3
Did occur to you that probably this is not the right time to whine about working from home? This pandemic can collapse our dysfunctional health system and kill vulnerable people, and that is the real threat for our society now. Make yourself comfortable at home, have a nice warm cup of tea, until this is under control, for the greater good. Btw, you don't need hand sanitizer if you are at home :)
38
Are you really sorry, though? Because you don't actually seem sorry.
5
You don't really need hand sanitizer if you are at home, just wash your hands with soap.
4
You don't need hand sanitizer if you are at home, and did occur to you that probably this is not the right time to whine about working from home? This pandemic can collapse our dysfunctional health system and kill vulnerable people, THAT is disruptive for our society. Use common sense and stay home if you have to until this is under control, for the greater good.
5
As always, "overrated" means "I don't like it."
32
i hope there is an opinion piece cogently expressing the opposite somewhere else on the nytimes site. if there isn't, several comments make the case.
go into the office if you want.
work from home if you want.
but please don't try to convince me that working from home is overrated.
21
What rubbish. Most novels were written at home. Most screenplays too. Home music studios abound (see Imogen Heap, who won a Grammy for best engineered album from a home studio).
I worked from home for years and it allowed me to be there as a dad when the kids came home, while building a business. Now we have an office and I have to get out of there to concentrate on anything creative.
Get dressed. Turn off the TV, avoid Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. (Slack too), take your Aderall, and you'll be churning out Dickens novels by this afternoon.
32
@Everyman2000 Dickens reportedly suffered from piles from too much sitting.
2
Sorry to hear your creativity was stifled in the interest of the greater good. Insert emoji eye roll.
38
Oh, I'm so tired of dining on cavier, champagne, and truffles....
Do you know how many people don't have the option of working from home? For whom quarantine means losing their jobs, their homes, cars, families, even?
As for creativity--good for you. Do you know how many people are not in creative jobs?
Do you know how many people can't identify with Steve Jobs exclaiming Oh me oh my! I have so many ideas now!
For most people, no one cares what ideas they have. They're expected to get their mindless paperwork done, on time or faster, with a minimum of fuss.
You live in an ivory tower, Kevin--go see how the rest of the world lives.
60
I love it. What a wasted life it was being in an office surrounded by non-productive gossip, power struggles, and water cooler talk. If I want to speak with someone i call them. Works great.
14
Fewer sick days because the sick leave itself is a symptom of sometimes being tired to go to the office and breathing there together with the other 30 coworkers.
Sick leave is also a symptom of burn out. You’re not always really sick. You just need to take a break. To stay away of all that noise and productivity rush.
6
I am so sick and tired of people like you dictating who can and cannot work from home.
ALL office workers should have the CHOICE to work from home at ANY time for ANY reason as long as they're still productive.
It's outdated people like you that keep millions of us chained to our cubicles day in and day out.
Just because you prefer to not work from home does not mean the rest of us should have to do so all the time, especially if our job can easily and efficiently be done anywhere in the world.
11
At the office you can waste a lot of time visiting with coworkers and talking about non work related things. At home you work all day.
5
Cute 3D rendering illustration!
That might have been done from home by a freelance artist :)
6
If you feel isolated working from home, get on Skype or similar and have a video chat!
As for "Studies have found that people working together in the same room tend to solve problems more quickly than remote collaborators, and that team cohesion suffers in remote work arrangements."
I believe this is because most people are dumb followers depending on one or two brighter than average people in the office to help solve problems. Many think they are solving these problems themselves but they really are not. So when their informal "support" network is lost, as may happen when they are working from home, they become like a 3 legged chair, just wobbling along.
6
lol, i’d rather save my creativity not for a dismal marketing job or administrative position. give me my time and freedom.
3
We are arguing a topic that applies to maybe 1% of the population who has the option of "working at home", like writers and other paper pushing jobs.
3
I don't understand the Millennial need to begin an opinion with "Sorry, but ..." just as I don't understand the Millennial need to begin sentences with "I mean ..."
Why is Kevin Rose sorry? Why don't people just assume that when they say something, the meaning is inherent in their words?
3
@Michael-in-Vegas
" sorry , but " means
" I'm not sorry to tell you I'm right and you are not "
Can someone explain to this guy what the telephone used to be used for, before it became a camera?
14
After having worked in a highly stimulating environment for many years with bright, funny, fun, frustrating people on adrenaline-pumping deadlines, I find working from home dead boring.
2
I have been working from home for nearly 30 years. I would never go back to cubicles and offices if given the choice. I have temped within the last 10 years and been back in cubicles out of necessity and it is the worst thing possible for creative (writing) work or work requiring intense concentration, like fact checking. Working in an office is a nightmare for either of these because you have constant distractions and really, do I need to know why someone's husband does or doesn't put the toilet lid down, or why they wore red socks. And I get to work with my dog snoring nearby.
6
I've done both, although I haven't worked from home exclusively.
I'm in agreement with a few other people here: 1-2 days a week work from home is optimal. That means schedules have to be set (with set days that everyone is expected to be in the office) and more video meetings, but I find when I do 1-2 days consistently at home, I know which tasks I can do better from home/in isolation and which flow better when there are people I can easily find and bounce ideas off of.
With 1-2 days at-home work, traffic will still be lighter, workers get a break from driving, packing/buying lunch, etc. and offices get more productive workers.
Managers -- especially those dependent on micro-managing their workers -- will have to change. AND, that's where the most resistance is. P.S. I do know some workers who when given the chance to work from home, know themselves well enough to turn it down because they wouldn't be as productive.
2
Let me understand this better you've worked from home and loved it until you read a book that told your although you may be more productive, get sick less often, don't contribute to more air pollution by being stuck in traffic daily. I didn't even mention that they are saving money by not having to drive upteen miles daily and waiting in a lunch line every for unhealthy lunches they have to pay for.
Smaller offices, smaller pollution, less cost for your employer too.
Well, I not of your generation so I don't find intrusive people a need to die for and I've had plenty ideas over the years.
What you don't say is that Steve Jobs was a great sales man. He was and I admit it. He was also a person that didn't trust other people. Finally, when all your ideas occur in your home why should you share them with the company who is not going to pay you for them but is going to assume property of you intellect. You'll get your weekly hours for 45 years and the owners and investors get to retire at 40 to invest in other companies.
Hmmm? What do you see that is wrong with this picture?
3
"But I’ve realized that I can’t be my best, most human self in sweatpants, pretending to pay attention on video conferences between trips to the fridge."
If that's how you're going about your remote work, you're doing it wrong. I've worked from home for close to 7 years now and the boundary between being "at work" and "off work" should be maintained even though your commute is down the hall. I shave and get dressed normally, have breakfast, say goodbye to my family and "go to work" in the home office. This is essential both for being able to focus on work but also for making sure you "leave work" at the end of the day and don't bring it home with you.
10
Nicely put. Exactly my feelings in my current working from home situation.
When I find it frustrating though, I tell myself that it is MUCH less stressful than worrying I may either get or spread the virus to someone I love.
So at the moment it is the less stressful option. By far. We are the lucky ones.
3
Sorry, but these annoying clickbait headlines are overrated : Sorry, Stop saying, One Weird Trick, Overrated, and all the rest of them.
And all of this data cherry-picking to provide fake answers to the real problem : Don't decide how other people work for them.
Decide what you're willing to pay and whether the way they want to work works for you at all; then measure whether you're getting what you paid for. If you have no way of measuring whether you're getting what you paid for other than prescribing the precise conditions of the work, then you are probably one of the 80% of managers who have no business deciding anything for other people. If you negotiate with people as equals rather than treating them like children or lab rats, I find you get much better results. Oh, yeah, and you have to give meaningful evaluation, both upward and downward; every student knows "C+, no comments" is worthless; whereas a ton of comments, with follow-up discussion results in fruitful discussion among peers about how to make everyone stronger, including the manager.
I'm glad the research gets done, but I'm still not sure what good it does in practice because, if, e.g., you don't know that a shoulder-to-shoulder open-office plan is awful for coding, then no study is going to cure what ails your mind in this regard.
5
A better title suggestion: "Sorry, but Working From Home EVERY DAY is Overrated". Mullenweg wrote, "...build a culture that allows long-overdue work FLEXIBILITY.” Many companies accommodate employees needs with work needs. Examples: 1-2 days for my department where interaction does create synergy in our various locations. Though, we do quite well collaborating with global co-workers across India, UK and Pacific USA time zone. Regardless if in office or at home, we use Skype and Teams to collaborate w/video cameras for formal meetings. Long hours, catching early meetings, and having little privacy for sensitive personal phone calls, working from home allows us to throw in laundry, make MD appt., get to the 5:30 local yoga session etc.
Content workers, well rested is key to creativity and enthusiastic toward the technology that supports collaboration. This morning, in Chicago, I was in a productive and fun brainstorm with UK and NY city. We've never met face-to-face but we are on the same page on solutions a sharing idea.
4
Despite long commutes, I prefer working in an office over working at home. When I was between jobs, I often did some freelance work at home. It was a battle for me to ignore the dirty laundry and dirty dishes. I would not want to be required to work at a "permanent" job at my home; I don't have the extra space for my work materials.
3
I've worked at home for 10+ years.
The other day I had to go into the city in the early morning. Seeing rush hour traffic for the first time in a couple of years was an eye opener. How do people do that twice a day 5 days a week? The wear and tear on your car, your health and happiness must be incredible.
I'm much more creative and engaged from my home office.
Working at home is almost a lifestyle. I tell people, "I work all the time, but only when I want to."
17
@TFR
10-4
I love my job , but it's a lot of work !
Poor timing here focusing on the negatives. There is no one size fits all for people with anything including office/working from home. Look for the middle ground as a solution.
At this time, it would be healthier for all if you shared how to adapt and make it work , and gave your complaints a rest.
3
@Norville T. Johnston No sense of the nuances, huh?
2
@Kate Not now Kate. We need to give people guidance on how to isolate and work from home when possible. Not give them reasons to resist and protest.
We are in this together.
There is something to be said for the collegiality that comes from working in an office. There's nothing like being able to visit a coworker to ask a quick question or bounce an idea.
4
I've worked in offices and for the past 12 years have worked from home. Like most things in life there are pros and cons. While I miss being with colleagues on a daily basis, I enjoy the flexibility of working when I'm most productive (morning person). I don't miss the traffic of a daily commute or constant interruptions during the work day. Working solo does take getting used to but for me it's been great.
16
I think the best option is doing both, and taking into account the weekly workload. As far as human interaction, I wholeheartedly agree with the author, we need it. Isolating ourselves everyday would get old regardless of how productive we are. Here is where I disagree, I'd much rather spend more time at home than commuting/being at work -period. Have you never heard of weekend? Community Service? Bible Study? Wine Tasting? A telephone?
No, let me stay home, trust me, I will figure out how to keep my humanity and creativity.
12
That "1.5 work-from-home days per week" finding happens to be very close to what I feel most comfortable with, go figure. One full day per week + 1 (or occasionally 2) half days generally is all I need to achieve what I consider ideal work-life balance - for me. I do get cabin fever when working from home more than 3 days in a row. That said, my commute is only 20 minutes and my office is comfortable and modern, so its not a pain to get or be there.
4
I had the chance to work from home 20 years ago when it was just becoming feasible. After a few weeks, I asked my company to find a cubicle in a local office with computer connectivity. The experience was similar to the isolation I felt as a stay-at-home mother and I became depressed. I was much productive at an office even though no one there did anything remotely connected to my work. I'm happy for the people who can work at home but it is not for everyone.
2
Absolute hogwash. Net group creativity hinges on the quality and maturity of the individuals on the team, not the location of team members. I have run a consulting practice for 21 years of urban planners and designers individually located in Boulder, Park City, DC, and elsewhere, with the highest level of creative output. It takes a different kind of people and different kind of commitment; the location is not the issue.
81
Glad we have the possibility to work from home in this coronavirus crisis. Saves lives, a lot of them.
20
Au contraire, working from home is great. My management representatives didn't think that it would work out for the company. A year later they conceded that it was a win win.
That is not to say that it is easy. I had to wage a constant battle with my wife to disabuse her of the idea that just because I was there didn't mean I wasn't busy.
Still overall, I think that working at home can be much better than going to the office. As much as I worked at a great company, working from home was better. I was able to home school my son who is on the spectrum.
8
Of course working remotely has its benefits and should be an option. Sometimes. But I think what all us humans are realizing, as we stream movies, order in coffee, plug into our laptops in cafes, forego shopping for Amazon.com... is that we also need/crave human interaction. Often more than convenience.
4
I'm allowed to work from home when necessary. I wouldn't want to do it all the time though. Too many distractions at home, I get more done in the office.
2
What about all the people who don't have working from home as an option? Food service , uber/lyft drivers, nurses, bus drivers etc.(the list goes on) don't have this option to complain about getting paid to sit at home in their sweats eating food from their fridges during a health crisis let alone ever! It sounds like the author needs a vibe check and could put that pent up energy to maybe understanding that the system is broken for many and benefits only a few.
10
Finally, the superpower of introverts will take center stage! Or, rather, work happily by themselves from home.
31
Remote work doesn't mean being forced to work completely alone at home 100% of the time. It means working from wherever you want. I've been a telecommuter for nearly a decade, and it took me a year or two to finally find a routine that works for me. In the mornings I am most productive in isolation, so I brew a pot of fresh coffee to perk my brain up and sequester myself in my home office. By lunchtime I'm feeling more social, so in the afternoon I usually head to either a coffee shop or my local library where I am surrounded by people that I can choose to interact with should I wish to do so. (More importantly, I am far away from plush living room couch that beckons me to sweet slumber while my lunch is digesting.)
Bottom line: different people prefer different work environments, and the nice thing about remote work is that you have the freedom to tailor your work environment to your own needs. By all means, if you feel most productive in a traditional office environment, go rent a desk at a co-working facility.
12
Sometimes creativity is a necessity. Sometimes a necessity. But for most people, most of the time, is just getting some mundane task done. On time -- profound new explanation for existence of the universe does not really add much value for such tasks.
3
In my line of work (computer science research) I get all the stimulation I need from a couple of meetings or seminars a week. The real creativity comes when I have long stretches of solitude and can concentrate and flesh out ideas, and working from home is perfect for that.
30
Having worked freelance and home from decades I wouldn’t have it any other way. The freedom is too important to me, especially being a creative. I would literally die in an office from over stimulation from office bees. Set yourself up and you won’t turn back!
15
It took me a couple of years to get into a home-based work flow. It doesn’t happen overnight. You couldn’t drag me back into an office. My productivity would return to that disguise office workers hide behind. I swear, after years of doing this, an hour of home-base productivity is worth four of hours of office work.
47
"As a white-collar millennial, I’m supposed to be cheering on the remote work revolution. But I’ve realized that I can’t be my best, most human self in sweatpants, pretending to pay attention on video conferences between trips to the fridge."
You can choose not to wear sweatpants. This is an actual thing adults can do. Along with recognizing their privilege and not just their white-collar, millennial status.
44
@Kim Yeah, when I tell people I work from home they often replay with some version of, "Oh, you can work in your underwear," and I think yeah, but why would I? I don't understand why anyone would want to work half dressed, from home or otherwise.
1
This would be a legitimate argument if people had half hour commutes. As someone dealing with the worst traffic in America every day and a crumbling public transit system suffering from decades of disinvestment, I would be highly interested in hearing why I should value commuting for 3-4 hours to my job every day rather than spending that time with my kids.
191
There are benefits to both options. Working from home, you get to set your hours and have the flexibility to work appointments, kid stuff and other things into your day. It really can be quite wonderful and freeing to do this.
Working in an office has its own positive aspects. You tend to be more stimulated by officemates and others. You can create good, lasting friendships and you're not in your home environment, where, let's face it, there are distractions.
All in all, I'd choose working remotely. Office politics can create an unhealthy atmosphere. Then, there's company rules, etc. I'd rather wear shorts at home.
6
It's a worker benefit. The company I work for can shrivel up in a corner for all I care. If they want my talent then they need to excuse me from the daily dance of water cooler chats and straphanging.
11
Keep your creativity....my 20 minute power nap is not negotiable.
4
Working from home is overrated? Sounds more like sour grape.
6
I expect that within days, my workplace will mandate a work-from-home policy and I am absolutely dreading it. I am in my 60s, I have my way of doing things. My home has always been a no-work-enters-here sanctuary and I have thus far succeeded in protecting it.
Why would I want to isolate, apart from the obvious escape from possible viral contamination (I’m not an idiot, I get what’s at stake). I have friends I see through the week that I’d miss. I hate to cook. My coffee is terrible. And if my husband is stuck at home too, how am I supposed to work around him?
No – I need the structure, I need the stimulation, I need to get out of the house, I need all the focus that the office provides. My neighbors can be noisy jerks.
I mean, I love going home in the evening but I don’t want to be forced to stay there. Won’t work for me.
6
@Brian the neighbors' loud sex next door must make for some awkward moments on conference calls
1
I get that you want people to read your book, and as somebody who works from home myself, I fully acknowledge the tradeoffs mentioned here. But honestly, is this really the best hook for your story? How about refraining from whining about the downsides of working from home until after the global pandemic has passed? You know, when we don't have entire countries in quarantine?
37
I've worked a mixed schedule of telecommuting and working in an office for the last 20 years. I have yet to experience any of the serendipitous collaboration or creativity while in the office. Nor has anyone I have ever talked to. Maybe it is the nature of my work (computer programmer on a team of managers and business analysts) Everyone has noise cancelling headphones on in an attempt to block out all of the auditory distractions. The only advantages of open offices are as a place for extroverts to interact and mistrusting bosses to "keep an eye on" their workers.
My health improves due to telecommuting- I am able to sleep more, eat more healthy food, and stay out of a car and traffic. And, needless to say, I am way more productive. I hope that this grand experiment due to Covid-19 will convince more managers that there really are few downsides to having their teams telecommute.
280
Greg, I was really enjoying your comment until I reached the flippant words you chose to describe CoVid-19 -> A ‘grand experiment’?
How can you call something that has & is
a source of illness, suffering & death for thousands around the world?
The best estimates (this from the WHO, the CDC, & NIH) time the virus’ initial infection of humans to ~ mid-December, 2019. The nascent epidemic only garnered world attention a full month later -> the 2nd/3rd week of January 2020.
As of today, March 10, 2020 there are over 117,000 cases and 4255 deaths worldwide (in only 3 months!)
I‘m sorry for sounding like a bore, but I cannot understand how anyone can refer to this as ‘a grand experiment’. Every single one of the people we’ve already lost have left broken hearts behind.
May this end soon, good health to all!!
3
@MJ Storch I think you might have misinterpreted what he meant by grand experiment. I believe was talking about the need to WFH as a result of Covid-19 incidentally being an experiment in working from home that might cause managers to reassess their opposition to WFH.
17
@Greg Your post is so perfect. I couldn't agree more.
5