How We Contextualize The Benefits Of WFH
I got this from Andrew Spence’s newsletter. It’s not bad. I’d say the order is generally right if you ask average employees about the benefits of working from home, or whatever WFH days they get, etc. No commute is a big one, because commutes can be painful and tedious. Gas/lunch savings is big too — one of my neighbors lives in Fort Worth, i.e. he’s my neighbor and that’s where I live, but he works in Coppell, which is like 45 minutes away, and I’d say a quarter of each paycheck is going to lunch and gas. I am suprised that “spending time with family and friends” was lower, but it’s possible people didn’t want to admit they do that during the workday, even though virtually everyone does. The “busyness” culture in American work is very much currency.
I’m glad only a few people said “fewer meetings,” because that lines up with the narrative we’ve been getting that more meetings are being called when people are remote — so that managers have an incorrect proxy for productivity that they can lean upon.
