Remote work is morally wrong
In a recent CNBC interview, Elon Musk once again threw a controversial point about working from home:
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Not commuting by car is morally wrong, says owner of giant car company.
Musk's statements are pretty lopsided, as you might expect.
The idea that you shouldn't have a comfortable work environment because someone else doesn't in their job is just weird. Like, if you work in an office with a canteen, is that immoral because the next office over doesn't have one? Your coworker commutes from five minutes down the road, but you live an hour and a half away, is it morally wrong to want to stay home?
Some people genuinely like working in an office, at least some of the time. But most of these articles read like they were written by Big Office, and they're not in the interest of people at all. It's all about trying to not lose money on the infrastructure, the buildings, car parks, etc., that we simply don't need any more.
"trying to not lose money on the infrastructure" is what mostly this drive towards full on-site work is mostly about.
I like to meet my colleagues face to face, maybe once every 2 or 3 months for a couple of days. At all other times I'm more productive working singly or in teams over remote comms.
When COVID first hit I really love WFH, we had access to it but it was a 1-in-a-fortnight type thing. Then suddenly we had it permanently, I really enjoyed it, hard at first to get disciplined but I found it was such a breath of fresh air.
My company has been almost exclusively WFH for 3 years now and I'll be honest the shine is starting to wear off. We have the usual laptops and hotdesks and I've been making an effort to get into the office 2 days week without fail, just to see some other human beings. I love my wife to bits but when that is the only person you're with 24/7 even the best partnerships get put under strain.
I found 2 days IO is perfect for me, I get to chat with whomever is in that day, often it's people I don't know from the rest of the biz. I get the commute which after a hard day it forces me to just switch off for 90 mins home, just do nothing but stare out the window of the train and day dream or think about tech ideas I'd like to try. Going to work means you have to make an effort to shave, find some half decent clothes and plan the day ahead, gets me focused.
My company is starting to float the current hybrid trend of 3-in-2-out during the week and one reason I'm "practising" now in case the make it mandatory. Most of my team hate the office, they WFH all the time but it started sending me stir-crazy!
Don't get me wrong, I love WFH, those glorious sunny days when you can leave the windows and doors open for a nice breeze over air-con, the cat wanders in to see me sometimes but I'm left alone to get on. I can wear my favourite Slayer or Decapitated t-shirts and just keep the camera off on big teams calls. I get decent coffee I like, not the cheap crap in the office kitchen, I get a decent and very cheap lunch at home over £6 for a dried up sandwich in the shop next to the office! Obviously you finish and quit and then just wander off around the house to be home.
Swings and roundabouts I guess, I like hybrid thing and hopefully going forward employers will be more open to that, we suffer a small hit on productivity sometimes but mostly we're still churning out the code!
Thanks for sharing your own expeirence. I feel we are the same kind of people😄
For most people it's not the office it's the commute.
If I love my work I would rather spend the extra hours actually working, not commuting to work.
It's simple, "you" ask me to spend 2-3hr a day extra getting to the office, spend extra money for car or public transport etc.
You want me full time on site, better be prepared to pay 30% extra than full-remote job.
From employee PoV it's irrelevant if they are more effective in the office, if the cost of that (in commute time and costs is larger). And frankly in IT, you will be far more effective using the wasted commute time actually learning new skills than driving to an office.
This "productivity boost" at the office (which is actually questionable looking at many people), comes at a cost of extra time in commute employers somehow think does not exist. Also time wasted not learning new skills and becoming more productive.
Wasting 10hr a week in dumb meetings explaining basic stuff to incompetent management which spend most of their time politicking - productivity my ass.
It's business, not an "entitlement". Free labour market yo.
Work from anywhere. Just the work needs to be done. Even at office you are inside 4 walls. Why travel to a place to get the same work done when you can do it from where you are. It's good to network. Make a day in the week to do that.
To me, Musk's speech says only about how he cares about consumerism to keep selling more cars e more things. It is more often a person who needs to commute to work have to buy a car then another person who wouldn't. I agree that office can be productive, in fact I think that for some people it is the best. But as you said, the option should not be taken from us.
Before c0vid I loved going to the office especially because some offices where I worked were super-duper cool (one space even got an interior design award).
And then with the lockdowns I started to appreciate more the time been at home with my parents and not having commutes.
But then, it went on longer than I expected and I grew increasingly restless.
And I thought to myself "is this the type of work that I want to keep doing 2 more years?"
My answer became a resounding "no". I was wasting myself away being a mere frontend developer. Feeling like a monkey in a very fancy cage.
For me the optimal solution is indeed discretion to go on-site or not to be given to each person. They can exercise this discretion as needed and output can be evaluated to assess performance. Exclusive on-site work is often not an optimal solution depending on a number of factors.
Well Musk point of "Morally Wrong" because others around you will have to go to work is quite "lame". It is the productivity that matter. If I more productive that means my office will produce more jobs which will in return give more opps to people around me. My office will pay me well, which means I will pay more to those people around. So the bottom line is "Productivity"
I like WFH,but not always,I think 2 or 3 days is better at home for WFH,because you know sometimes terrible traffic is shit 💩,i dun want waste my time on that,but i think meet colleagues meet people is important,we are in a social,we need connections
Morally wrong is when the guy preach to keep people in the office when he spend most of his time traveling around!
twitter.com/elonjetnextday?lang=en
If he keeps his jet for a whole month in his office I go back as well!
Use the phone Elon!
A combination of both is the ideal for me.