Working remotely--a bricklayer's dream.

[panader0]

Listening now to a CNN report on how many, if not most, people have gotten used to working
remotely from home because of the covid crisis, and how they are reluctant to return to the office.
That's fine for office workers, but for construction, farming, trucking, ranching and many more jobs, it's
simply impossible. I'm trying to imagine Kali herding her cattle from the comfort of her couch
instead of being in the saddle. And as a retired bricklayer--it sounds like a dream.

[Johnny2X2X]

1. 16.6% of the workforce is still WFH

It's 1 in 6 now, down from 1 in 3 several months ago. Will probably b a blended work week for most now.

[panader0]

3. My sweetheart Jeannie worked remotely from home for over a year.

We set up an office with all of her computers and printers and gizmos and she required
silence and not to be bothered until about 4 pm. She is a real stickler about covid and people
at the radio station were lax about masking, etc. Corporate stepped in on her side, demanding
that all employees mask until they had proof of full vaccination. so after about 14 months at
home, she went back two weeks ago. It's been good for me.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Employers see the bottom line benefits to vaccinated workers

Outbreaks cause costly shutdowns and possible bad PR. Outbreaks caused missed work and fear. I think when full FDA approval is given you'll see some of the nation's largest employers start to require it.

[panader0]

6. I think employers saw a boost in productivity from home workers too.

I guess the point of my OP is that there are many jobs that can't be done remotely.
One of my daughters works for the Federal Reserve Bank and works from home. My son
is army and obviously can't do that. Other daughter is a professional photographer and
can't work from home either.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. I work from home

It's been great. So beneficial to me in so many ways. We'll be returning to the office 2 days a week in July and that will be the norm going forward.

[genxlib]

10. Some maybe

But I work for a very large consulting firm with over 10,000 people working from home.

We saw productivity drop 15-20% pretty consistently across the board.

It might be a little different when the kids aren't home with them but it was not good for us. We want our people back in the office. But times have changed and we are working towards a hybrid.

[woodsprite]

5. Hubby and I work for a university in IT. We will be working from home at least through September.

Many of us will be WFH even longer than that. Hubby said that he doubts we ever go back to what it used to be. They've polled workers, and found that many only want to be IN the office less than 50% of the time. Many only want to be in the office 1-2 days/wk. and they are going to try to accommodate that since our workload actually increased over the past year but we were able to keep up with it.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Same here

Aerospace engineering. They polled us and found most want WFH 50% or more. So they're being flexible, but the baseline will be Tuesday and Thursdays to try to have everyone in the office flexible the rest of the week. And that's what I think I will do, work from home M, W, F. Making Tuesdays and Thursdays pretty close to mandatory eliminates everyone being on a different schedule so when you went in there would be few people there anyway.

The financial benefits alone are pretty hefty. I've had 15 months of no wear and tear on my vehicle, barely spent $100 on gas for it in that time, have not needed an oil change. Even got a break on my car insurance. Lunches at home are cheaper than the cafeteria. Spent 0$ on work clothes/shoes in 15 months. That stuff seems trivial, but it adds up. I'll now own my car much longer, it will not need major repairs for a couple more years. I'll pay it off and still own it for a few years.

And that's just the financial benefits. I also get 4o minutes of my day back because I no longer commute. I don't have to get up early to get ready for work either. I can take breaks in my back yard and relax. I can sign back in for a late evening meeting with a West Coast customer without having to stay in the office for a 12 hour day. All of that stuff helps with fatigue and getting burned out.

And our employer is sending emails to try to get people to make sure they are taking time off as they've noticed no one is using much of their PTO, they want people who have a work life balance and trust us with permissive time off to take as much time as we need. Well that trust goes both ways, I don't need as much time off working from home so I take less. In fact I've talked to people who were about to retire who might not now because WFH is so much easier for them.

[OAITW r.2.0]

11. Been working from home for the past 22 years.

Never had to get used to the WFH mandate that COVID required. I agree with all of your comments. I work the hours needed. Since my business is engaged with Indian/Chinese suppliers and we have offices in both countries, I keep up with what's happening in real time.

[RegularJam]

2. Everyone I work directly with has returned to the office.

30 + companies.

Companies will decide what is best for them. Some larger companies will probably institute some form of mix. So much of it simply depends on a companies ability to monitor the quality and quantity of work outside of the office.

[SYFROYH]

9. You can herd with drones.

Someday soon you’ll have robots to do the manual work of laying bricks. Maybe prefabbed walls.