The Pros and Cons of Working from Home

[This is ostensibly a short post week, so I was going to do a quick discussion on a random topic, but it came out a good deal longer than I expected.  So, lucky you: you get two long posts in a row.]

I was speaking to a friend of mine earlier today; he has a job in the government, and I guess our government (or at least some parts of it) are not really into the whole remote working thing any more.  I’ve also been hearing some stories lately about big companies like Google who are apparently now telling employees that they have to return to the office.

But here’s what I don’t get:  I also heard a bunch of stories about how companies are having trouble retaining employee.  This is not one of those things where maybe a few news outlets are trying to sensationalize something: this is something that people are doing studies on, and it even has a name (and corresponding Wikipedia article): the Great Resignation.

Now, even Wikipedia will tell you that part of the reason for this—and not that you needed anyone to tell you, because: duh, of course it is—is that many people enjoyed working from home.  They enjoyed not having the vicious commute (some people are saving 2 – 4 hours a day, five days a week ... that’s 10 – 20 hours per week of their life they’re getting back), they enjoyed being able to work in whatever environment and clothes and furniture they find most comfortable, they enjoyed the freedom of not having to spend all that extra time in the bathroom making themselves “presentable” (assuming no Zoom meetings that day, of course).  Sure, many folks ended up feeling isolated and disconnected from their companies and their coworkers, but I personally believe there were just as many people who were appreciative of the chance to spend time with their families during times when they normally couldn’t.  Being quarantined with your family with no job surely must have been a trying experience; being quarantined doing remote work with no family must have been even worse.  But for those of us fortunate enough to have both a job and a family, there have been perks.  When I got tired of my job, I could go see what my kids were doing, and maybe spend a few minutes just chatting with them, or, hell: go out in the yard and do things with them for a bit.  When I got tired of my family, I could just say “gee, guys: I gotta get some work done now” and go in my room and shut the door.  It was, in many ways, the best of both worlds.

And so many companies had to figure out how to make an all remote workforce work.  And they did.  And I bet that my company was not entirely alone in discovering that an all remote workforce has its advantages: you don’t have to pay for office space, and suddenly your candidate pool expands exponentially.  No longer are you limited to candidates who live in your area, or candidates willing to relocate ... you can hire anyone. Anyone in the country, at least, and maybe even anyone in the world.  There are a few challenges dealing with a bunch of different tax jurisdictions, but I would guess that, at this point, my smallish company (around 200 employees, more or less) has workers in at least a dozen different states, and that number keeps growing.

So, given all that, what crazy people are going to demand that people come into the office if they don’t want to?  They’ve already been forced to prove that they don’t have any good reason to do so—they’re basically just being dicks about it at this point, which was really always true, but now it’s obvious to everyone.  And the Great Resignation means that job opportunities abound, so it’s not like the employees are stuck with you whether they like it or not.  So, if you’re a corporate entity in 2022 telling employees that they “have to” come back to the office, I think you’d best be prepared for a healthy chunk of responses that are something like “oh, yeah? you sure about that?” And also a lot fewer employees.  For instance, I wouldn’t want to say that my friend is definitely looking for another job right about now ... but I’m guessing he’s not not looking either.

Another interesting topic we broached in our discussion that I hadn’t even considered: workplace drama went way down during the pandemic.  Office politics and scheming and backstabbing and so forth: turns out there’s a lot fewer opportunities for that sort of thing when your primary interface with your coworkers is, you know: the work.  I personally work in a place that never had very much of that anyhow, but that’s obviously the exception.  Most places I’ve worked are full of people who believe they live in a soap opera.  Some of them are just on power trips, but a lot of them are using their social manipulations skills to cover for not being very good at their jobs.  I bet a lot of those people struggled during the pandemic.  Of course they’re probably very happy to return to the office.  And, hey: if corporate America is going to get divided into those companies that embrace all-remote working and those that reject it, I’ll be super-happy to see all the assholes on the same side of that line where the only people they can fuck with is each other.  I’ll be over here on my side, living my best life.