"New Normal" Work Schedules

[MrCrowesGarden]

There’s no reason any of us actually NEEDS to work 40 hours a week. It should be about 40-50% of that. I don’t see that happening in my life unless there’s some more CEO intimidation, but I hope at least 4 days and 32 hour weeks becomes the norm before I retire

[thrill]

I am fully remote. Company I work for recently moved to the 3/2 model but I got an exception due to living more than 2 hours from an office.

I also struggle with the monotony/sameness, especially during winter. Effective ways to combat that have been going to gym 5 times a week and being more proactive about scheduling coffee hangs with friends near my house during the week. In anticipation of winter, I switched gyms to one with a sauna and pool so I can go be around people and relax on my lifting rest days.

After a year of remote work, my ideal situation would be to work for a company like the one I currently work for, but close enough to an office to go in 2-3 times a week. Similar to GK it really helps with my focus/productivity, and feeling like a real part of the larger team and building relationships with coworkers helps my motivation (I’m way more motivated to deliver for specific people, rather than a corporation). My favorite part of this company’s hybrid policy is that you can decide which days you come in. You don’t have to stick to a pre-set routine. If you want to do m-t-w this week and w-t-f the next to get your office days in, it’s totally up to you. If you have a week where you’re actively collaborating on a project and come in all 5 days, they don’t care if you go fully remote the next week after the project is done. Lots of reasonable and fair flexibility within the policy.

[Arthur Dent]

How much of the preference for WFH, for those who have it, is just about not having to commute?

Definitely agree that commuting, especially long commuting, sucks. Aside from that aspect, I'm with those who think WFH is kind of miserable. I guess the other thing would be having a job you hate and don't care about where you're just kind of anxiously spinning your wheels not doing that much in an office all day, so you'd rather just be home. Get that too, but I think that's more a case that there's plenty of room to be working less as a society and/or we should be creating opportunities for more fulfilling work than for WFH.

[CardsofSTL]

I work remotely when I travel to see family and such; so it is a nice option. But I never just work from home. I think employers giving the flexibility of it is a benefit they should do if possible; and as long as goals, productivity, etc are met; then who cares where the work is done.

[IMADreamer]

I'm pretty sure I'm ten years away from telling a tractor what field to go through and it just doing the work for me. So I'm hoping my work load gets really light in the future. It's already improved significantly with the technology that's come along in the last 20 years. We are so much more productive now than we used to.

[MrCrowesGarden]

How much of the preference for WFH, for those who have it, is just about not having to commute?

Definitely agree that commuting, especially long commuting, sucks. Aside from that aspect, I'm with those who think WFH is kind of miserable. I guess the other thing would be having a job you hate and don't care about where you're just kind of anxiously spinning your wheels not doing that much in an office all day, so you'd rather just be home. Get that too, but I think that's more a case that there's plenty of room to be working less as a society and/or we should be creating opportunities for more fulfilling work than for WFH.

The commute is part of it, but the in-building aspect generally feels like it’s only there for control. Like having to stay for 8 hours even if I finished my work in 3. If I was at home, I felt like I could at least get some of that time back. Agreed it’s a bigger issue that we just work too much for no reason

[Popeye_Card]

I think everyone's situation is different. In my line of work, there never really is a finish line for being "done" with work. You can finish a task, or react to whatever popped up that day, but there is always a mountain of next things to work on.

I don't think I work for no reason. I work to contribute to society, and bring home some money for my family and my free time. Sure, I'd love more vacation and a shorter work week. But I've always been a firm believer that if you dread working every day and are just counting down the seconds until you can leave or log off, then you should probably find something else to do with your life. I'm certainly not doing the job I thought I would, but the only real feeling of dread I have each day is the nagging feeling that I have more work to do than time to get it done.

[MrCrowesGarden]

You are very lucky then, because a sizable portion of Americans feel their job contributes nothing and may actively make the world worse (when you factor in emissions this is almost assuredly true of all work.)

I am a mammal, I am meant to be lazy until I’m not.

[Popeye_Card]

I may not be a mammal. While I often have a desire to not be at work, it is so that I can be getting [expletive] done at home on whatever project(s) I have going on at the time. I have zero desire to not be at work so I can be relaxing on the couch or something instead.

[MrCrowesGarden]

You may in fact be an insect