I've grown pretty tired of these kinds of missives that are so one-sided that they don't even attempt to do an honest "pros/cons" look at widespread remote work. For me, I certainly agree with all of his noted pros: less time wasted in traffic, more flexibility especially for working parents, and even some things he didn't mention, like fewer distractions when you need "heads down" time. Even before the pandemic I always preferred working from home when I knew I just needed a long stretch of coding time, and things like huge open-plan offices terrified me. I also agree that RTO plans are largely useless; you often just get the "people come in and then just spend half their time on Zoom because some colleagues are still remote" dynamic.
But I do worry about the long-term effects of so much remote work, primarily:
1. When I was new in my career, I learned a ton just "through osmosis" by being around more experienced colleagues. I also built good relationship and friendships early in my work career (to be honest, I always felt kind of sad for people who took the "colleagues aren't your friends" mindset. Perhaps not all of them, but why not make friends with people you spend a lot of time with?) I certainly understand married people with kids and with well-developed friend groups being much more happier with remote work, but I think it's much harder to develop those relationships in the first place if you start out remote from the get go.
2. I really worry about overall isolation, and also an increase in polarization. We used to talk about the loss of "third spaces" when countries became much less religious, and now we're seeing the loss of that "second space" (the office) as well. I go into the office multiple times a week just because I get stir crazy staying in my house all the time. The average number of people I have contact with in any week is way, way down, and that doesn't help my tendency toward depression.
In other words, yes, I agree that remote work has won, but given that, I think it's a good time to focus on ameliorating the negatives.
But I do worry about the long-term effects of so much remote work, primarily:
1. When I was new in my career, I learned a ton just "through osmosis" by being around more experienced colleagues. I also built good relationship and friendships early in my work career (to be honest, I always felt kind of sad for people who took the "colleagues aren't your friends" mindset. Perhaps not all of them, but why not make friends with people you spend a lot of time with?) I certainly understand married people with kids and with well-developed friend groups being much more happier with remote work, but I think it's much harder to develop those relationships in the first place if you start out remote from the get go.
2. I really worry about overall isolation, and also an increase in polarization. We used to talk about the loss of "third spaces" when countries became much less religious, and now we're seeing the loss of that "second space" (the office) as well. I go into the office multiple times a week just because I get stir crazy staying in my house all the time. The average number of people I have contact with in any week is way, way down, and that doesn't help my tendency toward depression.
In other words, yes, I agree that remote work has won, but given that, I think it's a good time to focus on ameliorating the negatives.