[paxys]

Why is this even a question? WFH doesn't mean "work from home while simultaneously doing household tasks, meal prep, laundry, and childcare". If you aren't able to do your job for 8 hours a day without distractions – whether from home or the office – then you should be taking a leave of absence or coming up with an alternate arrangement with your employer.

Articles like these are exactly why companies are reconsidering their remote work stance.

[tptacek]

In 29 years of working with software development teams of varying sizes I'm not sure I have ever worked with a team in which a reliable, contiguous, distraction-free 8 hours of work was a norm across every team member. In fact, if there's one through-line I've seen in every working environment I've been in, it's that there are always a couple high-performing team members who get their real work done after dinner.

If you're older than I am, maybe you're familiar with cubicle culture norms I just didn't get exposed to in the late 90s, but from my perspective flexible schedules and evaluation by completed work has always been one of the perks of this field.

I can't speak to other fields where people commonly work from home, but ours is marked by a particular reverence for focus and flow, so I'm not inclined to expect the situations are much more difficult.

[paxys]

In your 29 years did you ever work in an environment where it was the norm to bring your toddler to work and take care of them all day while attending meetings and committing code?

[tptacek]

Bringing toddlers into work? Not on the regular (it happened). Working from home with toddlers? Absolutely. Once again: we are commenting on a story about WFH jobs.