[bloomingkales]

American society doesn't want to accept that a lot of our problems happen because the parents aren't home. Michael Moore had an interesting scene in Bowling for Columbine where he showed a 6 year old shooter's mother had to work hours away daily and wasn't home. Mine and most of my friends parents always had to be outside of the house during our formative years. We had very robust economy in the 90s/2000s that pretty much sacrificed family time to get it done.

This is truly a past way of being. A real past, we cannot go back.

We have a way of solving this for many workers and any company not in tune with this beautiful thing is unacceptable to my heart (and hopefully many others).

[dowager_dan99]

Wait - how can you say remote is comparable with in-office, then tell me a work from home mother is going to look after her 6-yr-old while doing her job and not split her attention & efforts?

[riskable]

Oh give it up. Very few jobs require 100% attention. At my job I'm on the phone at least half of every day and on 70% of those calls I only need at most 10% of my attention.

The rest of the time I'm going through emails, filling out endless bureaucratic forms/documents, doing mandatory training, and every now and again I get to actually write some code (more likely: reviewing PRs), LOL! My performance reviews are always spectacular and I'm the only one in our (much) larger team that's actually 100% in compliance/up-to-date with everything and completing all my work on time.

The one thing all those tasks have in common? They can wait five minutes while I take care of something and if I'm on the phone I can do something else entirely while I'm listening. Just the other day I did--the horror!--laundry while I was on a call discussing how we should move forward to solve a problem. And I was the one speaking most of the time while I folded my laundry and put it away!

I could easily watch a 6yo and do my job at the same time. Based on how much real "work" comes out of your average corporate office employee I'm certain they could do the same.

Employers should give zero fucks about what their employees are doing while they're at work as long as they get all their work done on time and don't cause the company any problems (and no conflicts of interest). We hire people to get things done not to dress a certain way or keep a chair warm in a very specific place all day!

[iugtmkbdfil834]

Hah, just yesterday I had a conversation where an individual told me that I have no pride in my work if I don't devote 100% attention to it and I guess today's generation has no shame. I politely pointed out that I work based on results requested. If someone wants different results, they should adjust accordingly.

But no.. you want 110% and everyone looking busy, because.. manamagement does not know how to manage..

No offense, but to me it shows severe lack of skill in management class.

[senordevnyc]

I could easily watch a 6yo and do my job at the same time.

I have a pretty chill WFH tech job at the staff level, and a pretty easygoing child, and this sounds like the kind of thing no one who has been a parent would say. My daughter was six during the pandemic when she and her mother and I were all stuck at home, the two of us trying to split our time between watching her and working our jobs, and it was hell.

[intended]

Remote jobs are essentially saving people about 1 hour of travel time, per day.

Assuming a 5 day week, and an 8 hour day, thats a 10% salary bump. In practice it’s much more, since thats time you get back to spend on a variety of things, that just getting more money wont provide. Being at home, means breaks or down time help you get stuff done, and save even more time.

WFH allows for many virtuous cycles to be set up, IT moves wealth away from down town areas, and into lower cost of living regions, letting people save more money, and invigorating local commerce.

MY guess is that WFH is what society needs as a whole, wherever it can get it. Cities and municipalities should plan and compete to get the largest number of people working from home within their boundaries. Get reliable and safe mass transit up and running, and you can even cut down on short hop fuel consumption.

Money concentration is great when it helps generate more wealth for humanity at large. If it’s only going to a small group, then distributing it amongst the broader populace will (should) drive up demand, resulting in more economic activity, and therefore a stronger economy.

Heck, extend that logic to a global scale, and you’ve basically created a reflection of outsourcing. Do WFH instead.

[tombert]

Even if she put in the exact same effort for the company, if she worked from home she might not have a multi-hour commute every day, which could still translate to more attention being paid to the six-year-old.

[bloomingkales]

Being near the child is important. Our economy was so insane that a new mother/father was not be able to spend the first few years with that child even though we had every means of allowing them to do so (for many workers, not all).

Being there to pickup the kid from school is important.

Getting lunch with your SO is important.

Being in your neighborhood is important.

Those two hours of sleep is important.

What nonsense perks can a company can offer me compared to things like that. I don't even know if you can pay me enough to go without that (If I have the means to get that, that's what I'll do).

[soco]

Another data point: behind the iron curtain quite often both parents were working. Yet the situation got very different form the States, so I'm not sure that's the big cause of shit.

[rpcope1]

I agree but would take it further: a very aggressive income tax on any non-primary earner in a household that has a total income above 2 or 3 times the median wage. I know there's a lot of "line must go up" types that salivate at the idea of maximizing worker participation rate and GDP, but I think life is probably better when the thumb is put on the scale such that only one breadwinner is encouraged (no matter their gender).

[dowager_dan99]

If you think that wouldn't be the man you've got a rude awakening headed your way. Thanks for setting back women & equality 50+ years...