In our recently published conceptual study, we argue that commutes are a source of “liminal space”—a time free of both home and work roles that provides an opportunity to recover from work and mentally switch gears to home.
During the shift to remote work, many people lost this built-in support for these important daily processes. Without the ability to mentally shift gears, people experience role blurring, which can lead to stress. Without mentally disengaging from work, people can experience burnout.
Remote work actually bad, come back to the office.
psych studies have revealed that the optimal commute length is closer to 0 minutes than 2 hours, also conceptual studies are not real, it’s eggheadspeak for “we did some googling, lmao”
FUCK OFF!
I feel like I could leave it at that but SERIOUSLY FUCK OFF and quit fucking gaslighting me. My commute WAS part of my fucking work day whether they were willing to pay me for it or not. My gear switching to be off work is when I do my fucking dog walk or pick my kiddo up from school. You’ll get me back to the office when you and every one of your competitors literally removes the fucking option.
Do you guys have any fucking clue how amazing it is after the years of hustling and organizing childcare and pickups and whatnot to be able to clock in at my desk two feet from my bed in my pjs to start grinding away and still be able to take a minute to go make my 7 year old pancakes and enjoy cartoons with him before I get back to it (especially now that virtual kinder is over)??? The world going to shit keeps me up at night, sure, but I haven’t felt this happy or satisfied in my personal life in fucking decades!!!
If management could get their heads out of their own asses for like five god damned minutes they would quickly see that WFH is much better from a productivity standpoint.
Here are some of my most vivid memories from the office:
-
The self-appointed “Office Mom” holding me hostage for the entire duration of my lunch break, talking at me. She sucked literally countless hours from my life and I don’t remember a single thing she said. She would do this to everyone. If you would walk into the break room when she had someone else hostage they’d just give you a pathetic “Please help me” look, and you’d just shrug and think "Sorry, pal, it’s your turn today. Nothing I can do."
-
Buddy asking to go for a smoke break with me every two hours
-
The guy who wouldn’t stop blasting his fucking reggaeton music when I was trying to focus
-
Overhearing everyone else’s never-ending phone calls with clients
-
The mandatory “lunch and learn” huddles (which the company actually just did because they got tax breaks somehow)
In-office work only exists to make middle managers feel important lol.
I jest, but I unironically think that if a bunch of socialists started a small business like a pub, it would be more well-run than many large scale corporations.
Who wants to join me in building the Brewshevik Party Pub?
I’m sorry for you if you think this is entirely wrong because if you have a good public transport, cycling or walking option that doesn’t eat up too much of your day (say 15 mins each way or so) this is absolutely true. It’s just that doing it by car always sucks major fucking ass, because driving a car sucks major fucking ass
There’s also the option of just going for a walk. After I finish my WFH job I just go for a walk. Does exactly what this article wants without me having to commute; granted you have to be able to walk so goes back to your point.
Same, but my comment is supposed to be much more in the line of “If you have to or want to go to $job, that should be pleasant”. WFH isn’t an option for everybody, either due to what the job is or due to personal preference, especially among older people. If you’re going to go there anyway, it seems like a good idea that it’d fulfill some public good, like letting people relax or do mild exercise.
Fully agreed, yeah. A 5 minute walk to your job as a cashier where you can sit sounds pleasant enough. A two hour drive to do the same thing where you can’t even sit is the sign of a demonic society.
You know you can just go for a walk, right? There’s no need to involve an office in this.
Also, my city has decent public transit, but living under an hour commute would have rent costs of approximately half my aftertax income. And my income is a bit higher than the median HH income for the city. It goes beyond just public transit infrastructure. Living 15 minutes from the office isn’t feasible for most people.
I think the average commuting time here was an hour each way pre-covid.
At one point back in the day my car broke down and I didn’t have the savings to fix/replace it. Had to replace my 20 minute drive with a 2 hour bus trip until I saved up enough (love my underfunded public transit). It sucked, but I will say I enjoyed being able to read on the bus.
management scholars
:gulag:
subtext: there’s money out there for anyone willing to write an article that might resuscitate commercial real estate
