Submitted by prehistoric_knight t3_ycarli in technology
Comments
cesium-sandwich t1_itl4p4f wrote
It's amazing how much better rested I feel after not having a 4 hour commute each day!
typing t1_itlhurz wrote
4 hours? 2 hours each way? Man, did you move and not find a new job or happen to live in some really remote location? I would not take a 2 hour commute each way.
UltravioletClearance t1_itlorez wrote
That's what happens to cities that add tens of thousands of new jobs then blocks the construction of housing for said new workers. You can't afford a home within 30 miles of Boston on the median household income of the city. So everyone lives 30 miles away and clogs highways, causing that 30 mile commute to turn into a 2 hour drive. Except upper management who can afford a $600k condo next to the office building, and are completely bewildered at why their employees hate their commutes.
Valiantheart t1_itm87q2 wrote
600k condo's the company pays for them as an employee perk.
ahshitidontwannadoit t1_itnfpbi wrote
Youre gonna want to report that as imputed income.
paceminterris t1_itnj28t wrote
Bro, upper management isn't living in 600k condos, try 800k-1million. Either that or they're living in a single family home very close-by that goes for like 3mil.
_catkin_ t1_itoxxy5 wrote
Commuter railways into Boston would help, surely. Americans are mental.
kor_the_fiend t1_itnelwa wrote
Boston has good public transit though so that helps
greatkat1 t1_itnnktu wrote
As someone who lives in Boston that’s more true in theory and less in practice - the transit here is literally and figuratively a dumpster fire
ShakotanUrchin t1_ito8gsq wrote
Where is this good public transit of which you speak? Living in Boston suburbs vs NJ/CT commuting to NYC is like night and day
cesium-sandwich t1_itlv3q8 wrote
Pretty standard in the bay area if you don't want to live near an office park. It was also a reaally good job. But working from home making the same money is waaaay better.
wild_bill70 t1_itmgdjo wrote
It sneaks up on you. I left a job that was only about 35 to 45 min total each way. Mostly by bus and was near bus station. New job paid $40k more a year in base and bonus and I eventually cashed out about $125k in stock over 3 1/2 years. Started with about same commute time but all driving. Was not hard driving. Then management pulled the trigger on getting everyone to the same place. Took a while but eventually we were in new building. Was spending 1 1/2 hours each way driving/bus/train/walk. Did that until covid. Drove both ways when we got called back. Finally matched my pay with a full remote job. But I couldn’t for a long time just walk away from the unvested stock and base pay/bonus. They do t call them golden handcuffs for nothing.
treletraj t1_itmuzzk wrote
Pretty common here, to be honest. my wife only goes in once per week now but it’s been a 2 hr commute fro the last 15 years she’s worked there. we both have colleagues that have similar commutes. Northern California. some people actually enjoy sitting in the car for a long time and listening to music and news and not being bothered by family, work, dogs, or children. I am not one of those people, I’ve like to get where I’m going quickly and get the hell out of the car.
Tex-Rob t1_itmnj37 wrote
When I was in the Air Force, stationed at the Pentagon, there was a TSGT that drove from Phily to the Pentagon each day and back. He did that all in a turbo diesel Ram.
Jjayguy23 t1_itn9woj wrote
I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
MarylandHusker t1_itnpayd wrote
I lived 14 miles from my office and my commute would often be about 45 minutes in the morning if I planned to get in just a bit after 9, commute home was easily 90 minutes most days. Sometimes I’d stay till 7:30-8 and be lucky to get home in an hour. And that’s all in DC suburbs. Don’t ask me how bad the commute was when I was saving up money living at home 45 miles away.
FlashbackUniverse t1_itl7qst wrote
> companies insist on putting their HQs in the most expensive neighborhoods
Westinghouse in Pittsburgh did this. The HQ had been in one spot for decades, but because of "Real Estate Advantages," the company decided to build a new mega complex in a "prime business" location.
Overnight, people who once had 30 minute commutes suddenly found themselves driving 90 minutes twice a day.
It was the start of a huge employee exodus.
djkianoosh t1_itlcmml wrote
Maybe the exodus was part of the decision making.
UltravioletClearance t1_itlfesi wrote
Definitely. In the Boston area the decision to move a suburban office to downtown seems guided by a desire to attract a "younger" and thus cheaper workforce.
FlashbackUniverse t1_itlfghb wrote
There was some speculation on that theory at the time.
CoolHandSnoop t1_itm0be2 wrote
Yeah - sounds like something GE would have done in the Jack Welch era…
Edit to add: when UPS moved HQ from Greenwich, CT to Atlanta, GA, one of the deciding factors in the decision was the known fact that many long term (expensive) employees would never move to GA from CT.
netsurfer3141 t1_itmd401 wrote
Pittsburgh has very interesting commuting challenges. Fort Pitt and Liberty tubes on one side (and bridges) Squirrel Hill tunnels on the other (and bridges) , with major rivers (with bridges) , smaller tunnels, and did I mention bridges? And with construction and one-way streets you can make 4 right turns and not be back where you started downtown. I’ve been WFH since 2012 and don’t miss any of that.
TotallyNotMeDudes t1_itl9psu wrote
Used to work near the common and live in Lowell.
It was fucking awesome having a sweet office in Downtown. Going for walks in the Common on lunch, being near all that awesome food and Chinatown. Quite often I’d hit a C’s or B’s game at the Fleet Center on the way home. Fridays I’d get out of work and already be where the fun was. It was sooo fucking awesome.
But that commute made it the worst 4 years of my life.
bigrareform t1_itlqway wrote
The Fleet Center… really showing your age on that one 🤣
TotallyNotMeDudes t1_ito8poo wrote
I was gonna say “The Gahden” but didn’t want to sound too old 😂
[deleted] t1_itlfpqe wrote
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muxman t1_itlaiwh wrote
Not having to spend that time commuting gives you back so much of your day. For me I feel like I have so much more free time, that even though my work hours are still the same I feel like I work less having that time freed up.
Not to mention the money being saved by not paying it out of my pocket just for gas alone.
DeafHeretic t1_itmh1ug wrote
I am retired, but I have worked from home for months several times during my career. Besides avoiding an hour long commute each way, I could also take a break and do some minor chores at home, fix my lunch from my own fridge, not be so tired after work, more or less set my own hours not dictated by trying to avoid rush hour traffic, and be able to do things before and after work because I was already home not spending that time driving.
That and as a s/w dev, it was a lot more productive to be able to concentrate in a quiet more comfortable environment.
Hyper_Villainy t1_itldu3q wrote
I live in LA, and it’s exactly the same over here - businesses rent floors to swanky buildings downtown or renovate buildings in up and coming neighborhoods where the rent is skyrocketing. Meanwhile, everyone lives about 2 hours away from where they work.
If you want to know why LA traffic is so bad, this is the reason.
GeekdomCentral t1_itlt9sl wrote
Yep that’s 100% my reason. And the funny thing? Overall my commute wouldn’t even be that bad, at my last job is was 20-30 minutes each way. But it’s just such a pain in the ass to have to deal with, especially with random traffic spikes. But at home? I can roll out of bed and start work, and then exercise/shower on my own time throughout the day. It’s fantastic
DeafHeretic t1_itmiz3p wrote
>I can roll out of bed and start work, and then exercise/shower on my own time throughout the day. It’s fantastic
That is what I would do; eat my breakfast and work, get something done and push it to the repo, attend the online standups, then take a shower/break, get dressed, then go back to work until noon, take a lunch break, repeat and rinse.
I always put in my 8 hours (contract employee paid by the hour, no overtime allowed), but sometimes started at 5-6 AM (I am a morning person) and would have a task done early in the morning so those who started at 8-9 AM would have the code they needed from me that morning and I could talk about it at the standup,
If I needed to run an errand or get something personal done that day, it was a lot easier to do it from home.
Also, I live on 16 acres, half forested, on a mountain, so taking a 5 minute break was a lot better than being in a stinky noisy sometimes dangerous downtown.
swistak84 t1_itlo18m wrote
This reminds me when I was working in London. I was working for a small boutique agency, 5 people including boss. Of course it was a small agency so they didn't even have a proper office, just a converted apartment.
The thing is, the agency was in very middle of London - W1 postcode. But 3 of them lived in the North London. With a long commute.
But instead of renting a nice proper office in north London, for half the price, every single day three of them - including the owner! - would spend an hour commuting to the centre, to work in cramped converted office. They often rode on the same metro train!
I asked them why not move office closer to their homes ... Been told that y'know, all the serious companies are in W1 right?
DeafHeretic t1_itmhfpm wrote
>I asked them why not move office closer to their homes ... Been told that y'know, all the serious companies are in W1 right?
Seattle, Portland, LA, San Fran, etc. - it seems the execs all had the same idea; that they had to be in downtown to appear "serious", even though it was cramped and expensive and inconvenient.
Now we are seeing an exodus of not just employees, but companies too.
WayEducational2241 t1_itlcnfv wrote
A latte on the coffee shop of my office is $6, bro is not even good coffee I need to be back in remote.
Override9636 t1_itly5l8 wrote
> Workers don't want to stay at home because they can't be bothered to commute.
I mean, that statement is 100% accurate. Commuting bothers me to the point where I can't do it anymore. Life is far better without it.
annieisawesome t1_itlbpd8 wrote
Same; I don't live in Boston and my office is kinda the opposite; I live in a working class neighborhood in the city, and the office is in a suburb on the other side of town. I actually enjoy the office enough to want to go in once or twice a week, but the commute is brutal. I'm in a smaller city so it's not as bad as it could be, but 30-45 minutes each way depending on traffic. I would so much rather be in bed in the morning, or walking the dog right at 5. Driving is the thing I hate doing more than any other activity.
mnewberg t1_itlfj59 wrote
Upper Management also is able to downsize to Condos since their ids are grown up and moved out, while those of us with kids are stuck commuting unrealistic distances.
Captain-Neck-Beard t1_itmfhs5 wrote
Pandemic exposed the reality that we have the infrastructure to not need to commute in a lot of situations. Working class figured it out and is now leveraging it. It’s cheaper and safer for us to stay home, and they need our labor.
timallen445 t1_itllv1q wrote
Where they put HQs in Boston these days is wild. Never really in Boston always in some extremely pricey suburb.
I had coworkers having to hop multiple busses to get to the office.
jmlbhs t1_itlqu47 wrote
Precisely this. My old office was in downtown manhattan by the WTC, and of course the CEO was a 15 min walk away. I was a 45 minutes in Brooklyn on a good day. I don’t miss that time commuting.
[deleted] t1_itm6hyc wrote
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UltravioletClearance t1_itmb3ab wrote
$95K. A mortgage payment on a $450K condo is like $2600 a month on today's interest rates, or over half my take home pay - and that assumes 20% down. That's not even counting taxes and condo fees. Single family homes in suburbs within 30 miles of Boston is the same deal too.
My salary is good money but what kills me is being single. You need dual $100K incomes to even come close to qualifying for a mortgage on a property in the neighborhoods you mentioned.
Security-check t1_itmdhso wrote
This right here is almost my exact situation. You start making basically 6 figures just to find out that in 2022 100k is somehow a wagie salary.
SchmeckleHoarder t1_itm8iec wrote
Yeah even 45 mins there and back a dat gets tiring. That's an hour and a half a day of me just driving to work.
kayakguy429 t1_itmve0z wrote
Don't forget to mention that most of these HQ's in Boston have no access to parking and Boston public transportation is unreliable at best.
Affectionate_Ear_778 t1_itnaj3i wrote
That is miserable. Going to Boston now for a work trip. Been there before and the roads are monstrous.
cesium-sandwich t1_itl4rud wrote
How do I know my boss isn't moonlighting as someone elses boss ?
saysjuan t1_itlb366 wrote
Does he/she wear Hugo Boss? That would be the first sign.
cesium-sandwich t1_itlbhwa wrote
I think that just means he's a nazi. I already knew that...
swistak84 t1_itlorx0 wrote
They do. Just look at the boards of directors. Same faces everywhere.
icedoutclockwatch t1_itmm7a9 wrote
If you work for a Fortune 500, you can be sure that your boss is in fact doing that in the form of being on the board of directors of other companies. Most CEOs are on at least a few different boards, generally getting paid 6 figures to attend a biannual meeting
abelabelabel t1_itlctmg wrote
That was a lot of paragraphs to say nothing.
SgtBadManners t1_itlpufw wrote
Wonder if they got paid to throw the metaverse line in there. People acting like it is playing some roll... lol
lordatomosk t1_itn419j wrote
Seriously. The only people who would consider the Metaverse as a part of their new company workflow are Mark Zuckerberg and tech company owners that are about to lose a lot of employees over requiring using Meta for their new company workflow.
Bismalz t1_itnlrfq wrote
zdnet is a very poor quality tech media outlet, often filled with misinforming titles and articles.
freiherrchulainn t1_itlgvwc wrote
To summarize the “it’s still getting weirder”, the author throws out the meta verse at the end. What a chucklefuck, paid by the zuck to suck.
bored123abc t1_itlf5h0 wrote
Not a very insightful article.
Leftblankthistime t1_itlu99g wrote
I’ve asked before- Can we be done with the “working from home” rhetoric and opinion please? The world has changed. It’s not going to go back to the way it was. Business have to evolve, local supporting economies have to evolve- how about instead of another pulp junk piece on the culture of remote work or spy tactics or managers being butt hurt because of employee engagement we start to put out examples of how businesses are changing to be able to recruit talent from more diverse locations, or hiring enough staff to be able to have a 4 day work week (at full salary and benefits), or maybe even a piece on how the local pizza joint that used to be packed on a Tuesday afternoon has started a goldbelly trend to open up new marketing channels they didn’t used to… remote work is getting weirder - BORING
[deleted] t1_itm470l wrote
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AceKing74 t1_itm61xe wrote
Email the author!
Leftblankthistime t1_itmj1xs wrote
If we stop posting links to it and it gets less readership, they will stop writing about it. Less popular topics get less coverage.
AceKing74 t1_itmkblb wrote
I agree with you by the way. All we can do is downvote the links posted to this sub and move on (hard I know). Our replies are telling the Reddit algorithm that we have some interest in discussing it. I think the sub is probably too popular to be interesting now though really.
DeafHeretic t1_itmjedt wrote
Don't like it?
Don't read it.
Leftblankthistime t1_itn1gy6 wrote
Good way to include people and grow your subreddit 😂
meelawsh t1_itlol6s wrote
This article said nothing in a lot of words
Security-check t1_itmcsvd wrote
LMAO the second you see Metaverse in literally anything you know it's just a shill article. Check Meta's stock for the past year, down something like 50% YTD. The fact that they still have so much influence to churn out trash like this is hilarious.
Sweepsify t1_itlciby wrote
Bosses: THIS ONE "Weird" Trick
Gets Employees Back
in the Office!
tacknosaddle t1_itmcbp5 wrote
I used to work a 4 day work week and would go back to it in a heartbeat. You always have one weekday off to get shit done without competing with the weekend crowds, then you have a day to have fun and a day to relax.
We were getting crushed with work but you always came back recharged and ready to go, plus it was easier to "see" the weekend right from the beginning of the week so it didn't feel nearly as heavy.
DeafHeretic t1_itmknjv wrote
I am retired, but if offered the right situation, I would go back to work at a part time gig working from home. I could fix some bugs that the team doesn't have the time to tackle because they are working on something more "important". I could tackle some short term tasks for a week or two if they needed me and then go away for a while until they needed me again.
Also, the employer wouldn't feel bad about telling me they don't need me for a few weeks or months, or only need me for a few hours this week or month. Less paperwork dealing with that than dealing with a layoff/hiring, I would think (maybe not).
Meanwhile I could relax or do my personal chores in between working and not get so burned out waiting for the weekend. And I wouldn't feel bad about telling them I quit because I am burned out or I want to go spend some time on a beach in Tahiti.
With Starlink, a lot of people are working part time in remote locations now, traveling around or snow birding, or just being remote permanently.
tacknosaddle t1_itmpfqx wrote
That sounds pretty good. They'd probably have to bring you on in a contract type position to avoid having to deal with benefits, especially since you could cross in and out of full time / part time over the course of a year. With a lot of companies the budget isn't really set up for fluctuating labor costs like that so it would take the company setting it up right to work, but I think it would benefit both sides if they did.
Ghosted_Gurl t1_itmu6z3 wrote
Good. Remote work has changed my life for the better. I will never accept an in office position again- it’s just obsolete for my field.
SpotifyIsBroken t1_itmo2i0 wrote
The title tells me this is more corporate propaganda. Gross.
Testicular_Wonder t1_itmx2oh wrote
What a crap article.
lordatomosk t1_itn4bi1 wrote
“Overemployed” is a funny way to say “has to work two jobs to make ends meet” in a way that makes it sound like the employee is selfish for splitting their attention
Anonra23 t1_itodjcd wrote
That's not usually what it means. It's usually like IT people with like 3, very high paying jobs that they barely work at and try to siphon as much money as possible from companies.
[deleted] t1_itlw6y3 wrote
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jesus_chen t1_itmwome wrote
If weirder = better and doesn’t include the Zuckerverse, totally.
[deleted] t1_itnapc1 wrote
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[deleted] t1_itnjpsq wrote
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Anonra23 t1_itodacb wrote
I like being in an office and I'm more productive in an office. I also hate being at home 24/7.
When we did only WFH I felt more isolated and more alone than I ever felt in my life.
I get it that's not everyone.
ryan2stix t1_itp1q15 wrote
I don't work from home, but my drive is 5 minutes..I start at 2pm, the other employee and boss leave at 4:30pm.. I'm then alone to do my thing till 10pm.. I enjoy that fact that I'm alone
TheManFrom071 t1_itmx20l wrote
I love hybrid working. Although i’m only a 15 min bike ride from work it is sometimes more convenient to work from home, it also helps me plan my daily routine the way i want.. for example: i start work early and sent out and answer my emails before my kid wakes up. Then i can spend some time with him in the morning before i bring him to school, then jump in the sauna and shower for 30 minutes to get my mind in an optimal state before i get some deep focus (flow) work in. In that state of mind i do a full office day of work in 3 hours. I also like to workout during the day or go on a short hike during lunch time sometimes. And do some work in the evening while watching tv, usually my side projects... I only work 4 days and 34 hours which is the max in our company. I truly believe taking care of you employees has a great ROI.
UltravioletClearance t1_itl2o0w wrote
>Workers don't want to stay at home because they can't be bothered to commute.
Nah, commute is my biggest reason for remote work. In Boston, companies insist on putting their HQs in the most expensive neighborhoods in the city, then refuse to pay enough to actually live anywhere near the office. Upper management lives in swanky condos next door, but the rest of us spend 2-4 hours driving in from 60 miles away because housing prices in Boston and immediate suburbs are completely out of control.