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by melonkidney 2309 days ago
From a business perspective, be prepared for an extended period working from home, and be prepared for productivity to drop. Prioritize and set expectations accordingly.

I have colleagues in China who are facing down their fifth week working from home. At the beginning, they tried to maintain their normal (and excellent) level of output. But the stress of quarantine is starting to show.

Disruptions to normal routines, such as kids stuck at home and reduced/no access to childcare, are the non-newsworthy but most challenging issues for a large number of folks.
2 comments
stareatgoats 2309 days ago
... until they realized that working from home and closeness to kids and family was really a wonderful thing?
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namelosw 2309 days ago
Can confirm. I'm in Beijing and it's wonderful indeed, I'm not with my family though.

I already worked from home for a month as a developer, and we have confirmed we'll WFH for the next 2 weeks at least.

There's no sign of productivity dropping for now according to our regular analytics. We have similar velocity as in previous months, where the estimation was done before the Chinese new year (just to clarify).

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melonkidney 2309 days ago
Right, and I must admit that was my initial reaction. I honestly hope that one positive from all of this will be that working from home (and remote work generally) becomes more widely acceptable.

Unfortunately, in this instance, what I'm hearing from people on the ground is that the balance has swung a bit too far into "cabin fever" territory at this point.

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gdubs 2308 days ago
... and come to realize how undervalued the work of full-time stay-at-home parents is :)
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logicchains 2309 days ago
Note that in China it's common for people with kids to live with their extended family/in-laws (who look after their kids while they're working). Like anywhere else in the world, for many people spending time with their in-laws is not a pleasant experience.
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odiroot 2309 days ago
> From a business perspective, be prepared for an extended period working from home

That's wishful thinking. I can guarantee you many (if not most) managers are too paranoid to ever allow it.

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