
Why remote work is hard and how it can be fixed - BerislavLopac
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/can-remote-work-be-fixed
======
gopalv
The post-covid "remote work" will be very different from the present day and
past WFH.

Right now, WFH is a struggle not because of the "FH" part, but because of
"cabin fever" effect of being around everyone all the time, the complexities
of avoiding the disease - things which were done by professionals is back to
self-run, everything from cleaning to child care.

In the past, I've WFH'd only when I have had a good reason to justify that.
This was in the pre-Marissa era @ Yahoo and I was probably one of those
people, if you counted VPN time. However, the good reasons which required to
be remote are often the opposite of productive - my reason was that my dad was
on suicide watch for 4 months.

But with EVERYONE being WFH without choice has changed several people who have
held similar opinions in the past about remote work - the managers might still
consider the "from home" to be bad, but they might have realized that they can
maintain an effective organization, without constantly talking to people in
person.

The next wave of this "remote work" revolution will probably not be people
working from home, but people choosing to work in an area close enough to
home, but far away enough to avoid the internal pressures of pending chores.

Before Covid, my favourite "remote work" location was the SF public library in
Potrero & the Burlingame one which even has private offices. Wasn't exactly
WFH, but it was remote & great.

~~~
wenc
I've gotten used to WFH but agree that the ideal remote work location is
actually a "third-place" \-- non-home non-office location -- like a library or
a Starbucks or a shared workspace close to home.

The psychological separation between home and work is so important.

~~~
papito
That's a matter of habit. The trigger before was space. "I am in the office -
work mode on".

In WFH the trigger has to be _time_. We have a hard 9AM start policy, with 12
to 1PM lunch. That puts everyone on the same page and gets rid of the
ambiguous "I wonder if anyone else is looking for me right now, and should I
be working". You should absolutely know. If people don't respect it, it's
their problem, but you should not be responding to people at 7AM or 9PM unless
the sky is falling. No different from how it was before. This lack of
boundaries is what really exhausts people.

Also, create a separate account on your computer for work. You should do that
anyway to avoid screen share mishaps (no one wants to see your personal
bookmarks and history).

At end of day, log out, killing slack notifications and email, and log into
your work-free personal account. You are done for the day.

~~~
mjevans
I don't have a home _office_, an actual area dedicated to doing just work
stuff, with hardware dedicated only for work stuff.

Working remotely probably should include that.

~~~
WrtCdEvrydy
I have a personal desk with two monitors and a laptop arm... I set up my desk
with a KVM (just a USB switcher) for the keyboard and mouse and two HDMI
switchers.

Three clicks and all of my IO is routed to the work laptop and that allows me
to separate cleanly from work. Before work-mode is engaged, I put my Windows
workstation to sleep and I bring it out of sleep right after switching all of
my IO back.

------
errantmind
A simple answer is: working from home requires the ability to hold yourself
accountable for your productivity to a much greater extent than if you were in
an office. Yes, working at home is a different setting, with different
distractions, but, based on my experience, there are a lot of extra motivators
present in an office, like peer pressure, justifying the commute, being held
accountable for the perception of working, contribution recognition, easy
socializing, etc.

For better or worse, none of those are as impactful when working from home and
the worker is forced to fuel their productivity themself.

I left my job a year ago to work on my own projects full-time and it took
several months for me to find ways to really motivate myself to be
consistently productive

~~~
chapium
It also requires you to hold others accountable to a much greater extent. Part
of what drove me away from remote work was the additional effort required to
get people to respond to anything. When you were remote, you were invisible.

~~~
ilaksh
I have also found that many people have problems with async/written
communication or even just paying attention to email or tasks. It is related
to their general competence, communication skills and habits, and level of
interest.

It is a big problem.

For me if they can't handle git comments or slack then they can usually manage
to show up for a phone call. And in my projects that is generally not the
best, but it is good enough to be able to keep projects moving forward.

If it was a programmer rather than manager or client who did not reply to
chat/email or handle git properly, in my opinion there is no excuse and that
is a fireable offense. I mean, it should be fireable for managers and clients
too but sometimes keeping the gig seems worth it.

~~~
watwut
You expect people to respond to git comments?

------
marinman
I thought this was a pretty fair article that rightly addressed some of the
major structural issues with remote work as it currently is set up. I've
worked remotely for ~5 years and absolutely love it but think there need to be
much larger corporate culture changes needed, along with technologies, to make
it a sustainable trend for 30%+ of a modern workforce.

I do also wonder if there might be some wrong lessons taken from this time.
This isn't just "working from home" it's "working from home during a global
health crisis." Schools are closed, people we know are dying, lockdowns,
there's fear and uncertainty to a degree I hadn't before seen in my adult life
... so yeah, it's going to have an impact on our workflows.

Like any change, it's always going to be hardest for large orgs who have to
change vs those who have it built-in from the beginning.

------
staysaasy
One of the most interesting aspects of the remote work discussion is just how
emotional a topic it is for many people – on both sides. I've seen die-hards
in both the pro-office and pro-remote camps, seemingly without a clear
pattern.

This is exacerbated by the fact that people often want to convert others to
their side. If you're pro-remote, going all-remote creates an even playing
field. If you're pro-office, having everyone in the office creates the
collaborative environment that you prefer. Managing these opposing viewpoints
in a productive way will be an interesting leadership challenge for many
teams.

~~~
Consultant32452
One aspect of this is that introverts have been living in an world designed
maximally for the liking and benefit of extroverts and now the tables have
turned completely. It's one of those situations where you have a privilege you
weren't aware of, and then lost it, so it feels like an assault.

To any extroverts really struggling, I get it. I understand how difficult it
must be. I mean this with no ill intentions at all, but I've felt the way
you're feeling my whole working life, working in an environment not suited to
my personality at all. I hope you too can have empathy for the people on the
other side who have had to live in your world.

~~~
anyfoo
Will you stop it with the "oh no extroverts" stuff? I am definitely an
extrovert, and I greatly prefer working from home. With only a few days here
and there (certainly not necessarily every week) to meet up with people face
to face. I am more productive like this, and much happier.

Being an extrovert does not mean that you need or enjoy the company of any
people any time.

~~~
ghaff
And the binary gradations generally.

I'm not even sure which I am. I like being on stage, going to events, etc. But
I have also written books (which take a lot of private research/writing time)
and I definitely don't naturally gravitate towards engaging in conversation
with people I don't know.

I don't miss an office which I haven't really worked in for a while but I miss
events and so forth a great deal.

~~~
HighPlainsDrftr
For me, I've always liked working in an office, but I've always hated, what
should I call it - drama/politics/whatever?

I've worked in such wierd places over the years. For example, if you had an
office of 100 people, 10 were on your team, I would probably not like 2 of the
people on my team and 20 in the office.

Most of the time, this is not a problem. However, you get around people that
you really like and tell a joke, or you just say something a bit freely - and
all of a sudden, you now have people that don't like you. (The specific office
situation I'm thinking of had an average of salary of $15k at the time - but
our group probably had an average of $150k at the time).

It was tough. I don't think it was a good idea overall either. I've seen other
situations like it as well.

I don't like working from at home. But I hate dealing with that kind of
bullshit.

------
iwfheveryday123
Most of those I know that are hardcore office are:

* in a middle management position

* have a home setting that doesn't work for WFH (kids, space, personality, etc)

* have never worked from home over an extended period of time but are still opinionated

WFH today vs. pre-coronavirus is drastically different. Grocery shopping has
changed, working out options have changed, socializing. I've noticed that it's
been wonderful having my wife here. We can get delivery or curbside pick up
for groceries. We can focus, eat healthy and take meaningful breaks.

Note: lots of anti-WFH articles recently. Commercial real-estate backed
articles? ;)

------
paulryanrogers
Article upholds author of "4 Hour Work Week" as an example of an ultra-remote
worker. Someone who made it rich selling supplements of questionable benefit
and with much self promotion may not be the best anecdote for remote workers.

~~~
eee_honda
> selling supplements of questionable benefit

Any sources? i tried to google but i'm only finding stuff about the
supplements he takes, nothing about history of selling them himself.

~~~
majikandy
Read the book if you haven’t, it’s all in there. You’ll get much more benefit
than finding out about the supplements I suspect. I recall something about him
introducing himself to people as a drug dealer when asked what he did for a
living.

------
codegeek
One thing that a lot of people miss in the whole "Work from Home" discussion
is the fact that not everyone has the ability, talent, skills and experience
to be able to work from home. It is the hard truth and lot of us don't want to
admit that. It is extremely hard to work from home and stay accountable,
productive and not to mention focussed. It is just very hard. Even for
senior/experienced folks. It is not a one size fits all solution. If you are
junior who needs a lot of guidance and help on the job, WFH is even worse.

~~~
jeffrallen
I'm terrible at it! For years, I've organised a day a week to work outside the
office and outside the home. I know I need a planned task saved for that day,
and I need physical separation. Covid is a giant pain in the ass and I hate it
because it makes that "not in office" time no longer special and
focused/effective. It's just one huge slog of Slack, Zoom and mail hell.

~~~
jefflombardjr
You know you can disable notifications right? That gives you the same peace of
mind. If it's someone important you just tell them hey, I'm in the middle of
x, I'll get back to you at y time. Most bosses respect healthy boundaries, and
if they don't that's usually a red flag.

Not everything needs to be responded to right away, my mind was blown when I
first saw an eisenhower matrix. I encourage you to check out this!
[https://www.google.com/search?q=eisenhower+matrix](https://www.google.com/search?q=eisenhower+matrix)

~~~
ghaff
Way too many people enable way too many notifications on all sorts of
platforms, which is admittedly the default. (And way too many people expect
people to always be instantly available when they send a
message/chat/email/phone call.) I'm actually pretty reachable during the
workday. But maybe because I worked for the first part of my career in a world
where I _wasn 't_ reachable if I wasn't sitting at my desk, I'm not terribly
sympathetic to those who feel they need to reach me instantly.

------
rb808
The guys on our team who have been working together in the office for a while
are continuing to work together online. No Problem. The two new guys we hired
get little help and they're drowning I suspect. Its just too difficult to help
them. If anyone has success with onboarding new people remotely I'm interested
in hearing tips.

~~~
jcheng
My current thinking is to schedule daily 1:1s at first. As they get their feet
under them, scale it back to a few times a week, then once a week.

If the onus is on the new team member to ask for help when they need it,
they'll have to figure out what difficulty and quantity of questions are
considered appropriate. That's pretty stressful to try to figure out remotely.
Much easier for them to have a senior person looking them in the face and
asking "How'd it go yesterday? What questions can I answer for you this
morning?"

~~~
ljp_206
Wow, you've hit the nail on the head about what I need as I continue
onboarding on to a new team at work. I was shuffled around right when our
state shut down. Indeed, figuring out how and when to ask what questions has
been exceedingly difficult. It's super hard to ask for time with people I
haven't even met properly.

~~~
meristem
Ugh, I feel for you. New teams are complex in the best of times... what has
worked for you in finding out those questions/limits?

When in office, there is a lot of unstructured conversations. I have found
that having 2 hour blocks of video conf 'coworking' do help a lot there in
terms of surfacing questions in an unprompted and organic way.

------
buboard
I 'm surveying people from zoom calls to figure out the trend. So far, here in
europe, it seems that people who live in small apartments (e.g. Berlin) prefer
to go back to the office. People who have larger houses, or access to outdoors
have stayed home even if they could go to the office.

If enough people stay back home after covid, remote work will be a self-
accelerating trend: if enough people are not at the office , the office is
boring and empty, and home becomes more fun.

~~~
ghaff
>remote work will be a self-accelerating trend

I've been (unofficially) mostly remote--to greater or lesser degrees depending
on what I'm working on--for quite a few years now. And you make a good point.

I have a relatively convenient local office. But most of the people I work
with regularly aren't in that office, mostly work from home themselves, are on
calls all day, or are traveling. I can go into the office and there's a good
chance I basically won't see anyone I know. (The company has also grown a
lot.)

If I could go in a day or two a week and bump into a lot of people I
know/maybe have lunch with them/etc. I'd be perfectly happy to go in a day or
two a week. But the reality is that I'd go in, grab a random desk, work and
head back home. I can do that in my home office without a 1 hour roundtrip
commute.

And layer on top of that, going into the office is going to be a weird and
awkward situation for an extended period of time. I certainly don't expect to
be in an office even for a meeting for the rest of this year and very possibly
an extended period of time beyond that.

------
TrackerFF
I love to have the ability to work from home, but I'm gonna be honest with
myself - I love the social aspect of work. Maybe it's easier when you have
great colleagues, but it's been a very nice breath of fresh air to come back
to the office, for that reason alone.

(And unfortunately, for many people, work is pretty much the only place where
they get to socialize. I've seen this with older workers. After they retire,
they still pop by on a regular basis, just to talk and see how things are
going)

------
jefflombardjr
There's a lot of discussion in this thread, but I think it all comes down to
the fact that we are all individuals with individual preferences. What is
comfortable for you, may not be for your coworker. Great companies try to
reconcile those differences with proper communications channels in place, bad
companies try to exert control over something they don't understand.

~~~
Maxion
Many also try to assert control over things they fear.

------
ravijain
Remote work is changing the world with its impact and especially due to
Covid-19 people are forced to work from home. Some say they have got higher
productivity and some say they have got the lowest!

What are your thoughts? Will you prefer working from home or let your team
work from home?

~~~
julian_t
This depends on so many factors: home environment, office environment,
commuting, personal preferences...

My personal preference is to work from home, even though I have a really nice
office environment. It's quieter, and I don't have to commute, but that's just
me. I have colleagues who can't wait to get back into the office.

What I hope is that managers get more flexible, now that they've seen that
remote working is a realistic option.

------
golover721
So there is no doubt that the current WFH situation has decreased productivity
in general at the large tech giant I work at. It is definitely not across the
board, some teams have adapted to it better than others. Some teams are having
issues holding team members accountable in this remote based environment. On
these teams it is easy for some team members to not pull their weight and
severely impact productivity.

I am sure a lot of it is just dealing with covid in general. This is not your
average WFH situation. Also it will take time to adjust and I do believe that
how projects and teams are managed has to change significantly based on all
remote workers.

------
tristor
I've been working remotely and from home for over five years now. I think the
hardest thing for me about working remotely is dealing with differences in the
timezones of my colleagues and the demands that puts on me and balancing that
with non-work life. I think if you can get your work / life balance figured
out and enforce decent hours, working remotely can be a massively positive
thing for your life.

------
paulcole
Why is it hard?

Because it's a huge life transition for most people and it's happening during
one of the most stressful times in history.

------
cosmotic
I love the cozy warm fuzzies that 'face-to-face bonding' bring up. I'm sure
those same managers pushing for that bonding would be just as sensitive and
show just as much concern for the team when they 'reorganize' and layoff part
of the team.

------
thrownaway954
this must be the 3rd fear mongering "remote work" article that has hit the
front page today... employers must really be missing us :)

~~~
menckenjr
Or someone has a bunch of money invested in commercial REITs and is looking at
losing it...

~~~
Polylactic_acid
I imagine it must be terrifying to be a commercial property owner while people
are on the verge of working out they don't need your service.

------
Ericson2314
The article reminded me how little I understand (non-secreterial) white collar
work.

------
buboard
Reads like something Krugman could have written

~~~
war1025
Is that good or bad?

~~~
chrischattin
"By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy
has been no greater than the fax machine's." -Paul Krugman

~~~
war1025
The circles I follow like to rag on him as someone whose opinion keeps being
given weight despite being wrong on basically every prediction he's ever made.

Was just curious if that's what the commentor was implying or not.

~~~
jhpriestley
> basically every prediction

[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/opinion/things-to-
come.ht...](https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/18/opinion/things-to-come.html)
[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/opinion/running-out-of-
bu...](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/opinion/running-out-of-bubbles.html)
[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/opinion/29krugman.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/opinion/29krugman.html)
[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/opinion/30krugman.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/opinion/30krugman.html)

~~~
castort
Wow, that 2005 column is prescient. I’d never read it before, and I’m a fan of
Krugman.

