The future of work (from home)

[pdxtex]

While snooping around our corporate directory, I found 124 of 7068 employees have chosen to take a paycut to work remote permanently. Not very popular apparently.

[JManc]

WFH sucks if you live in a suburban area like I do but wouldn't mind it at all if I lived in an urban area. At least if you're within walking distance of city life, you can still immerse yourself in society when you want and not feel isolated.

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Yeah transit agencies (particularly commuter rail) will need to adapt to be less rush-hour focused and have a better all-day product. It sort of cuts both ways to some extent because people who WFH people may have less use for a car (or as many cars) if not needed for commuting, though this probably only matters in a handful of cities where not owning a car is practical.

I don't know if a handful of people ditching their cars because they no longer need them to commute will offset the drop on commuters relying on transit 2x a day, 5x a week.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by pip

I said I enjoyed working from home and gave the reasons why. You went on about me wanting trains running frequently. I never mentioned one thing about trains running frequently, the only I said was I don't miss the over crowded trains for my commute. My life my choice and what I prefer is up to me not you.

Also you are "Do as I say but not as I do"

Damn dude, did you forget your hemorrhoid cream this morning?

Point is, this is a thread in city discussions. Most of us prefer cities to have well functioning, well financed transit systems to continue to promote density and walkability.

I could care less how you live your life, but the greater point is how much WFH threatens the viability of transit. It's an existential question and nothing to get so defensive about.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by JManc

WFH sucks if you live in a suburban area like I do but wouldn't mind it at all if I lived in an urban area. At least if you're within walking distance of city life, you can still immerse yourself in society when you want and not feel isolated.



I don't know if a handful of people ditching their cars because they no longer need them to commute will offset the drop on commuters relying on transit 2x a day, 5x a week.

Yeah, but peak service is also the most expensive to provide (see eg. https://humantransit.org/2017/08/bas...y-transit.html), so increased all-day travel could end up being better in terms of cost efficiency. Of course that means not as many bus drivers etc. are necessary, but attrition is not a problem right now...

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by JManc

WFH sucks if you live in a suburban area like I do but wouldn't mind it at all if I lived in an urban area. At least if you're within walking distance of city life, you can still immerse yourself in society when you want and not feel isolated.

I feel the exact opposite. A lot of times I'll never set foot outside on days when I work from home, so I might as well be in a big house with extra rooms and outdoor space.

[llamaorama]

I think people are forgetting there's a large proportion of the population working in occupations that can't be done from home. Not a lot of those people use public transit, but that says a lot about sprawl and also how a lot of transit planning is based around traditional commuters and limited peak hour service. Downtowns used to not be so dominated by offices. There used to be retail and light industry, warehousing, etc. I would love it if urbanists and real estate developers and leaders started to come up some new ideas that weren't so dependent on concentrating white collar jobs and mall retail into urban cores.

Healthcare is an industry that favors urban locations and still employs tons of people across a diverse range of wages/salaries and who fall into the category of being potential transit users or wanting to live close to work. Downtowns are still usually where the city and county courthouses, police stations, and jails are. People who work in jails aren't paid well and could use transit to save money. Senior living is another idea, there will be more old people in the future than there are now, and they need people to care for them. Caregivers and cleaners aren't paid that much so transit might be useful to them. Higher education for sure, community colleges and universities are often situated near the urban core.

What would be a game changer is if cities could clean up their regulatory and permitting rules to become friendly to small and medium "shop" type businesses in areas where land values have declined. Like auto glass, paint and body, carpet showrooms, equipment repair, welding and fabrication, the home base of plumbers, electricians, hvac people, etc. This would help bring in jobs for people without college degrees and also build up a class of business owners who are locals. Historically there used to be so much of this in big cities, but it's all been pushed out to the edge of suburbia in intentionally hidden away nooks of metal buildings on badly paved side streets. But these workers then have to get in their trucks to drive back into the city where their customers are so it's inefficient.

Some cities have modern design districts, like in Dallas for instance. Furniture stores, light industry, pop up shops, food places, breweries, etc. Its very interesting and could be expanded upon. What seems to make it work is that it's all no-frills light industrial warehouse buildings that aren't as costly as a ground floor retail space in a mall-like shopping district, but close enough together to be sort of urban-lite.

Once cities have brought back in these heterogeneous business activities then more people who aren't working in offices might be able to use transit. But for now, since downtowns became mostly exclusive to offices and some upscale retail and residential, all the other stuff got pushed to the suburbs and the kind of people who would make use of transit find it's simply not viable for them.

[SIGSEGV]

Yeah that's a good point. The building across the street from me is full of jeweler workshops and those people are obviously not working from home (though I see a guy playing solitaire a lot on his computer...).

[pip]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Damn dude, did you forget your hemorrhoid cream this morning?

Point is, this is a thread in city discussions. Most of us prefer cities to have well functioning, well financed transit systems to continue to promote density and walkability.

I could care less how you live your life, but the greater point is how much WFH threatens the viability of transit. It's an existential question and nothing to get so defensive about.

You jumped down my throat because I prefer work from home. Accept I prefer that and move on with your life.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by pip

You jumped down my throat because I prefer work from home. Accept I prefer that and move on with your life.

Youll find a lot of people have a big hang up with people living differently from them. Usually the stereotype is some southern country bumpkin but I find that most of the people employing that stereotype are the worst offenders themselves.

[Stan31]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

We're two years in and people know whether they love it or hate it. What was your lifestyle/workstyle before the pandemic and what do you envision it to be after the pandemic?

ETA: I tried to add a poll but didn't create it in enough time. But other questions... If you worked in an office at least 1 day/week before pandemic:

Did you live in a city before pandemic and take public transit to work?
Did you live in a suburb before the pandemic and take public transit to work?
Did you mostly drive to work before the pandemic?

Throughout my entire life before the pandemic, I've been taking the subway to my offices, like most people. My lifestyle included endless happy hours and drinking.

Got a new job in the middle of the pandemic and have been working from home since. Still live in the same neighborhood in the city, but only occasionally drive to my new office, which is all the way out in the suburbs. My contract is completely remote, so it's a really rare drive. I also haven't met any clients in person in over two years, which is nice.

Overall, I'm very happy with work from home, it took some time to get into the groove of things, but it is definitely a much more relaxed lifestyle. The lack of happy hours... it's bittersweet. On one hand I'm not poisoning myself whilst spending a ton of money, on the other -- dating opportunities have diminished and overall the dynamic of social activities have changed tremendously. Regardless, not having to spend at least an hour on the subway on daily basis is amazing.

I don't think I can go back to public transportation after being used to WFH. I've found myself driving a lot more and enjoying the comfort and the freedom that comes with it. I've always been a public transportation enthusiast, but the pandemic has shown me the dark side and I'm enjoying it, despite the horrendous parking situation in the city.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by pip

You jumped down my throat because I prefer work from home. Accept I prefer that and move on with your life.

I will if you accept this

[mrnyc]

i am back in person since july. we wear masks, but otherwise all is about the same, except i don't travel the whole city so much and cover sites remotely from my office.

its better than full remote was, but that was ok too.

my spouse is in the more interesting case. most of her co-workers are suburban and she lives closest of anyone to the office, so she works from home or walks to work and goes in sometimes during the week. when she does she is often literally the only employee in the entire large block sized office building in hudson square. outside of building staff that is. sometimes employees show up occassionally. even more oddly, back during the height of covid it was often just her and the head of the company in from france and a couple of his lackeys in there.

she said currently there is no movement on mandating a return or anything like that.

[galleyfox]

I’m pretty young, and started a new remote job a few months ago. I didn’t seek out a remote position, but this particular company had switched to give more office room to the parent company. Most of the work is solitary computer work.

Remote training is absolute Hell. Jump out a window levels of boredom and communication failures. At one point, I spent a month on the phone getting talked through how to navigate a new program.

But now that I’m settled, remote is OK. Definitely has its perks when I can do chores and nap during breaks, but I’m increasingly prone to going stir-crazy at home and spending evenings and all day Fri-Sun downtown.

I would have preferred in-person training, and hybrid work, but it is what it is.

[the urban politician]

How do single 20 somethings hook up with the ladies if they WFH?

I mean, one of my favorite things about being in my 20s was flirting with women (or more) at work.

You are missing out on THE ESSENCE OF IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!

[JManc]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

How do single 20 somethings hook up with the ladies if they WFH?

I mean, one of my favorite things about being in my 20s was flirting with women (or more) at work.

You are missing out on THE ESSENCE OF IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!

You don't shit where you eat; i.e., don't date co-workers.

[Stan31]

Flirting with women on my floor at work is what I miss the most about pre-covid days. The drinking, the cliques, the gossip about who was getting boned, happy hours, water cooler convos, the flirting, etc. is what the American office has traditionally been all about since the Revolution and now that's gone.

Thank Gods for Tinder though. Doesn't completely make up for the lack of office flirting, but it's true what they say, that Tinder is the best invention since horseless carriages.