I was teleworking full time before I retired this summer and as you said, missed the daily interactions with other humans. I also found that working from home meant LONGER hours, since I had no reason to log out and there was always a new email to open, which often kept me well beyond 8 hours.
On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 12:03 PM Dan Penoff via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > I would agree with this. I have a team that I work with, two of which are > younger people about 20 years my junior, and one who is a few years older > than me. We all get along well and have a lot of common interests, so the > social interaction was definitely a part of the work day. I definitely miss > that aspect of work. > > The other aspect that hasn’t been mentioned here is what I would describe > as a “separation of duties”, although that’s not the ideal description. > > I’m talking about the distinct delineation of “work” versus “home”. That > is, when I leave work, I’m done for the day both mentally and physically. > That’s not the case when you’re working from home. This is probably the big > negative for me when it comes to working from home. I like the physical > separation between the two environments. > > -D > > > On Dec 4, 2020, at 11:51 AM, Floyd Thursby via Mercedes < > mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > > > I realized when I was at Lotus that I was working mostly with people who > were not in my office so it really didn't matter much where I was. Instead > of fighting traffic at 830 I would drop the kids at school, go home and > work for a coupla hours, make phone calls, emails, work on computer stuff, > whatever. Then I would head into the office for the afternoon and if I > needed to meet with anyone I could do that. I got more done at home > without the distractions, and dealing with colleagues in England or Europe > was fine from home. It was a really nice sorta hybrid scheme. Working > always from home got to be old, even though I got more done and it was > relaxing and flexible, I missed the social interactions, random drop-in > discussions, and serendipitous ideas that popped up being around other > people and seeing them in the cafeteria or hallways. It was just easier in > a lot of ways to get a job done being around others, at least for some > things. > > > > IBM went to a remote work environment back in the late 90s, got rid of a > lot of office space but still had some for meetings/conf rooms and hot > desking if you needed to be somewhere with those resources. Most of the > people were always traveling somewhere anyway so it did not make a lot of > difference. I spent a lot of time in hotels, airports, airplanes, and > off-site partners and our other offices so it was fine with me though I did > (until I moved away) have an office at our main building in Cambridge with > a killer view of Boston and the river. Plus I really liked a lot of the > people I worked with so that was nice to be around friends. > > > > But yeah, the social interaction is a key factor not just in work but in > lots of other things, I find that people are getting cranky and ill-behaved > not having that. > > > > --FT > > > > On 12/4/20 9:26 AM, Dan Penoff via Mercedes wrote: > >> And in a nutshell that’s what this company found. While the initial > approach was to let roughly 50% of the employees work remotely, about a > third of those ended up wanting to return t the office if I recall > correctly. Many of them were younger people whose social lives involved > relationships with their (work) peers. > >> > >> It was pretty interesting, I thought. > >> > >> -D > >> > >>> On Dec 4, 2020, at 9:17 AM, M. Mitchell Marmel via Mercedes < > mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > >>> > >>> A wise company will do an intelligent mix. Those who do better > working > >>> from home, work from home. Those who do better in an office > environment, > >>> work in an office. > >>> _______________________________________ > >>> http://www.okiebenz.com > >>> > >>> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > >>> > >>> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > >>> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > >>> > >> > >> _______________________________________ > >> http://www.okiebenz.com > >> > >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > >> > >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > >> > > -- > > --FT > > > > > > _______________________________________ > > http://www.okiebenz.com > > > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
