we really need to stop centering the WFH discussion around ‘productivity’; MBA sickos will always come up with a way to continue dragging out and romanticizing the 9-5 grind.
the goal of remote work is not increased productivity, it is a dramatically improved quality of life for workers who enjoy it. it’s about not having to commute, not having to wake up early to get ready, not having to spend the bulk of your time and most alert hours in a shitty building that no one wants to be in. why would i not want to be with my cats and listening to my records while working?
at the end of the day, i don’t care about ‘deeper work’, i care about not feeling deep, unrelenting dread every evening when i know i have to wake up and be at work the next morning.
Moreover, “deep work” is a bullshit claim. Working solo long sessions without communicating is not an indication of… anything, really. The moment “deep work” becomes a trend, some idiot will start measuring it, making it yet another counterproductive way to torture people.
Measure business outcomes and implement changes that don’t fall victims to Goodhart’s law. If a director can think of a way to game a measure, workers will think of ten.
Working long solo sessions of people leaving me the fuck alone tends to be correlated with me getting projects done.
Cool. Here’s to no one starting measuring your solo work time in place of your project completion count 🍺
This probably isn’t the case for you but for some people being forced to leave the house and socialise is essential for their wellbeing. They may hate it, and may not even realize it, but going somewhere they dread is often better for them than wasting away at home.
I found out that this is me
This is really sad but true. My friend was called back to office. He is a copy writer for an ad agency and he has literally zero reasons to go back, except they put it to vote and most copy writers wanted to go back to office, because they had no other ways to socialize.
You can’t convince the MBAs to allow remote work without talking about productivity. It’s definitely relevant.
How much in office work is complete time wasting bullshit that doesn’t actually have to be done?
The more you’re required to be there, the higher the percentage of bullshit work, in my experience. If you have actual work, they won’t care, as long as it gets done. If it’s all bullshit, they need you to be there, because it’s not about the work, at all.
meetings too even when wfm.
I reckon I put in 5hrs / week of absolutely completely pointless meetings when I don’t speak, there are no outcomes for me, any outcomes don’t affect me, but I’m worried if I ask not to go people will think I’m slacking off.
I just don’t go and don’t say anything. If they want me there, they’ll ask for me specifically otherwise I’m busy doing real work. Requires management that isn’t fucking stupid though.
In office: We will decide which meetings you attend. Pay attention to me, I’m important!
WFH: You will decide whether or not the meeting is even visible.
I never really ‘clicked’ with working until I worked from home. Like, this entire huge part of me, my connection to my labor, was just not present. When I started working from home I got it. Like yeah, I’m still doing mindless corpo shit tasks and I’m completely alienated from the results of my labor, but I at least know how it feels to sit down, work hard, and feel satisfied after.
In the office, I was just coping with too much anxiety, dread, and frustration.
