Shannon
Kevin LydaWorking from home is a massive climate benefit and a massive benefit for cities with poor public transit systems. It takes loads of cars off the road which reduces emissions and traffic. It blows my mind that we want to throw that away.
Karl Stanley@lyda Pretty sure that "we" don't want to throw it away, instead we're being pushed in that direction by vested interests who are exposed to the value of commercial real estate.
Barry Schwartz 🫖@karlstanley @lyda Yes, there is a lot of steel frame that will now have to be imploded.
The Manchurian Idiot@lyda the Commercial Landlords are sad, though
2xfo
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC
Konstantin Weddige
zxm@lyda doesn't just benefit those working from home, reduces traffic for those still on the roads shortening journey times. it's win win for everyone.
Isaac@lyda Indeed, such a slam dunk. Google, after saying 3 years ago that they imagined a future in which 20% of the workforce is remote, did now a 180 degree and it's trying to push every remote worker into the office (or into quitting).
KatLS@lyda real estate 😖
Oborosaur@lyda I was surprised when I started (re)attending the office a few days a week what a difference the social interaction made. It would be interesting to learn about how climate conscious work-social patterns could be combined with largely working from home to tend to both commuter savings and social benefits.
kaspa@lyda Corporations don't want us getting complacent.
S★m V★rm★@lyda @neverbeaten If I might add a small twist—"we" don't; "they" want us to for their own benefit
Tom Streeter@lyda Doesn’t make the right people money.
K@lyda My company closed its Leeds office saving me a 50 mile round trip. They paid expenses, the money I spent, I now give to local charities, it costs me money, but it helps society and the local community, so it doesn't feel like a cost.
climate voter/degrowthist@lyda I used to be a boss and used mostly metrics to gauge productivity. Being in the office or not was irrelevant.
Paul Tichonczuk@lyda it's a combination of companies wanting to force employees to leave voluntarily and sunk cost in real estate.
BOE@lyda working from home is beneficial only if you have space to do it. Also companies pay less electricity and building bills by making employees works from home and they usually do not participate in paying your own bills.
@boe I drive an EV so commuting to work costs around 14kWh. My computer setup and kettle usage doesn't get to 2kWh. And I gain two hours of my day.
@lyda oh so heater is not counted ? Light too ?
Internet ?
Phone ?
The food ?
Here in France your employer has to participate in your food expenses.
Pretty convenient for companies to ask you to stay at home. I am not saying it is not good. I am saying that what companies paid before the remotely working area is now paid by every employee by themselves.
Internet ?
Phone ?
The food ?
Here in France your employer has to participate in your food expenses.
Pretty convenient for companies to ask you to stay at home. I am not saying it is not good. I am saying that what companies paid before the remotely working area is now paid by every employee by themselves.
@boe In Ireland employers can give you money or you can deduct taxes against expenses. LED lights are like 5¢ a day? I already had internet. House is heated all day - I use a heat pump. Food is cheaper since I eat out less.
@lyda well you have some luck. In France it's not, you pay everything.
Also you say that since you already pay internet it's ok but really not. Some work relies heavily on your internet (law stuff for example) and then you, as an individual, become responsible rather your company !
Also you say that since you already pay internet it's ok but really not. Some work relies heavily on your internet (law stuff for example) and then you, as an individual, become responsible rather your company !
ggdupont@boe @lyda also in France, companies are supposed to compensate for home office costs including utilities and office appliances (desk, screen...).
I agree on the "space available" though since not everyone can afford a separate room to work from home (but also if remote work was more common, one could choose a cheaper locatio to afford bigger home).
All-in-all, the benefits from full remote work largely overcomes the drawbacks on short/mmid and especially long terms.
Shadow06@lyda A lot of people are lonely. I think we fix that first, then we can all work from home.
Probertd8@lyda It also may increase emissions - everybody in their own home using energy instead of in a single office?
https://hbr.org/2022/03/is-remote-work-actually-better-for-the-environment
https://hbr.org/2022/03/is-remote-work-actually-better-for-the-environment
Is Remote Work Actually Better for the Environment?
Common sense says that without a commute, employees who can work from home (WFH) have a lower environmental impact than their in-office peers, but this isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, when multiple environmental net impacts are taken into consideration, including factors like energy and technology usage, WFH is not a clear win for the environment. Companies that are taking action on environmental sustainability — and all should be — need to be conscious of this as they develop remote work policies. The authors of this piece — three behavioral scientists working on sustainability, well-being, and the future of work — think that making WFH sustainable is possible. But doing so requires doing more than simply calculating a simple commute trade-off.
@Probertd8 Except my home was already using that energy. And again, I use 14 kWh to drive to work, I use well under 2 kWh working at home.
@lyda Not getting at you, obviously - but the equation isn't as simple as it first seems - And that could be important.
MaybeMyMonkeys@lyda Mayors have been leaning on businesses to help keep city cores from imploding.
@MaybeMyMonkeys Change zoning to allow for office->residential conversion. Get people *living* in city cores. Added bonus is that they'll be safer and more liveable outside of office hours.
@lyda People living downtown don’t keep the coffee and lunch outfits in business. Besides, commercial buildings need major refits to become residential and no one isn’t interested in paying for it.
AccordionBruce@lyda @BlackAzizAnansi
The obvious theoretical alternative is for all the real estate profiteers downtown to convert half of their commercial space to residential, so everybody there could live and work downtown without having to commute
But that would require retrofitting of buildings
Some of these buildings aren’t primarily intended to house people or businesses necessarily
They are investment markers built to be bought and traded speculatively
They’re worth more full
Auntie Mame@lyda I love working from home where I can patronize local businesses if I go out for a morning cocoa a day croissant, or lunch, and run errands at local shops. I’m supporting my local small businesses while at home during the day.
Sandrew 
@lyda In addition to owners of commercial real estate and the cafés & restaurants who get a little less business, there's unfortunately a bunch of bosses who don't know how to see actual productivity and instead want to see bums on seats in the office
Matthew Cave ⚾@lyda @TSindelar We don’t want to throw that away.
Companies with significant investment real estate investments want to throw that away so they don’t have to take write-downs.
Source: I own my own consulting company, and we have been 100% virtual since long before the pandemic.
Rai Aren 🖖✨📚🇺🇦
David NetoHere's a thought. Carbon tax, and make corporations liable for the carbon costs of their employee commutes.
vascorsd@lyda they can't just fire or layoff middle managers that have nothing else to do besides micromanage.
Can you imagine if all companies were mass laying off their workforce like that? How would the job market implode? Those are the jobs that are needed, really important work done by them.
😮💨😶🌫️
So many benefits that wfh has brought us, and at the start the companies screamed how shocked they were that productivity had increased. Like nothing was learned.
Listerine Lavender Mint@lyda think of the poor commercial real estate developers /s
Dave in 🏴@lyda Not to mention it enables people to live further away from cities, so that they can live in and contribute to communities that have suffered a lot of departures during the past century's urbanization.
Chris Wu 🪐@lyda had to drive into the office today knowing full well that no one would be here because of the holiday weekend. Make it make sense.
Ralph (AF4EZ)@lyda Biden needs to issue an EO that any organization receiving government funding (including the government) needs to demonstrate a physical need for office presence. Intangibles should not count because all of those have been disproven.
Most of the office buildings can be converted to residential, as they have been with factories. Lofts are attractive real estate.
Most of the office buildings can be converted to residential, as they have been with factories. Lofts are attractive real estate.
@lyda I wonder how many of the "Can't work from home" jobs would become "work from home" if wage laws were set for time away from home.
My last employer exploited hybrid by going 2 office-3 home. They had planned on doubling their office space the first year back but were able to do it in place by going to a "pick your desk for the day" environment.
Many "can't work from home" jobs mean about 1/2 the staff can't, anyway.
My last employer exploited hybrid by going 2 office-3 home. They had planned on doubling their office space the first year back but were able to do it in place by going to a "pick your desk for the day" environment.
Many "can't work from home" jobs mean about 1/2 the staff can't, anyway.
SLS@lyda it's also a huge benefit to #Disabled people and full-time #Caretakers - I fit both of those categories
oldguycrustyI am never going back to a cube to which I need to commute, only to do the very same telework with global peers that I do from home.
Kenneth Geisshirt@lyda but in cities with bike lanes, working at an office might benefit public health
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐@lyda While I don't doubt that there are some instances in which WFH is a benefit, that is obviously not true in all cases. What is true in most cases is the WFH represents a shift in cost burden away from corporations and onto their employess. It's the ultimate in #neoliberalism #neofeudalism, and should be rightly subject to extreme skepticism in any claims.
@gcvsa I drive an EV so I know my commute costs me 14kWh a day in winter - more in winter. And that's not including replacing tyres. It costs less than 2kWh a day to work at home. Plus I get two hours of my day back.
Dunc@lyda @ccferrie early career, you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know who to ask, or at least not those outside your immediate circle, and the loudest voices aren’t those you should be asking. It’s much harder for your supervisors to observe your progress, struggles and successes, and provide direction. It’s harder to build the camaraderie and sense of team.
Maxilo OveritIf anyone is being pressured, we should all walk out in solidarity. Shut companies down. Shut industries down. Let them figure out how they're going to survive when they can't get any services delivered to their customers (also sometimes us).
@aka_quant_noir I think what's more interesting is the companies that will come out of those layoffs.
Greg Brooks@lyda who is “we”?