If there's one thing I've learned from years of managing remote, distributed, WFH teams, it's to never underestimate the efficiency of in-person collaboration.
WFH is almost unanimously popular among the HN comment section demographic. These thought pieces declaring an early victory for WFH tend to get upvoted because they tell everyone what they want to hear: WFH good, offices bad.
WFH is challenging. People who are new to WFH tend to assume that their workload will go down, that their efficiency will go up, and that they'll be happier if they leave their homes less. For some people, this is true. However, for most people it takes a lot of time and deliberate effort to reach the same levels of in-office productivity while working from home.
Coronavirus quarantine isn't even a good representation of WFH for many people. People with young children at home are struggling to balance childcare with their dayjob. People are struggling to resist the urge to binge Twitter for Coronavirus news and opinions all day. We're all going stir-crazy from the isolation. Many people's workloads have decreased as business has slowed down.
The author is exactly right that Coronavirus will force companies to refine their WFH workflows and tools, but I think it's not accurate to declare this an early victory for WFH. Ideally, we emerge from this with more options for those who prefer to WFH, but I don't see Coronavirus quarantine convincing the majority of companies or people that WFH is inherently superior.
WFH is almost unanimously popular among the HN comment section demographic. These thought pieces declaring an early victory for WFH tend to get upvoted because they tell everyone what they want to hear: WFH good, offices bad.
WFH is challenging. People who are new to WFH tend to assume that their workload will go down, that their efficiency will go up, and that they'll be happier if they leave their homes less. For some people, this is true. However, for most people it takes a lot of time and deliberate effort to reach the same levels of in-office productivity while working from home.
Coronavirus quarantine isn't even a good representation of WFH for many people. People with young children at home are struggling to balance childcare with their dayjob. People are struggling to resist the urge to binge Twitter for Coronavirus news and opinions all day. We're all going stir-crazy from the isolation. Many people's workloads have decreased as business has slowed down.
The author is exactly right that Coronavirus will force companies to refine their WFH workflows and tools, but I think it's not accurate to declare this an early victory for WFH. Ideally, we emerge from this with more options for those who prefer to WFH, but I don't see Coronavirus quarantine convincing the majority of companies or people that WFH is inherently superior.