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Remote Work May Now Last for Two Years, Worrying Some Bosses
WSJ ^ | 8-22-21 | Chip Cutter

Posted on 08/23/2021 7:57:08 PM PDT by Brookhaven

With the latest wave of return-to-office delays from Covid-19, some companies are considering a new possibility: Offices may be closed for nearly two years.

That is raising concerns among executives that the longer people stay at home, the harder or more disruptive it could be to eventually bring them back.

Many employees developed new routines during the pandemic, swapping commuting for exercise or blocking hours for uninterrupted work. Even staffers who once bristled at doing their jobs outside of an office have come to embrace the flexibility and productivity of at-home life over the past 18 months, many say. Surveys have shown that enthusiasm for remote work has only increased as the pandemic has stretched on.

“If you have a little blip, people go back to the old way. Well, this ain’t a blip,” said Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of Intel Corp. , whose company has benefited from the work-from-home boom. He predicts hybrid and remote work will remain the norm for months and years to come. “There is no going back.”

Return dates have been postponed repeatedly. On Thursday, Apple Inc. told corporate employees that its planned return to U.S. offices would be delayed until at least January.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: covid
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To: dfwgator
Remote work is here to stay, especially since it reduces costs in having office space.

Agree. And commuting in and around big cities is a colossal waste of time and resources.

Going back to commuting with today's gas prices will be like taking a big ol pay cut for millions.

41 posted on 08/23/2021 9:18:29 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: healy61

Not if you are an employee

A self-employed person, yes definitely (Sch C)

With all the work from home now, there is a movement to allow a home office deduction but it isnt there yet.


42 posted on 08/23/2021 9:20:02 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (#LeaveTheGOP. Pass it on Liberty Valance Time. The point of a gun is the only law they understan)
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To: Tallguy

“Rest assured, the employee has no interest in productivity when it comes to remote work. This is another destructive aspect of the COVID response.” Believe me, I have direct experience with this. The least productive are the most motivated to support remote work.


43 posted on 08/23/2021 9:20:25 PM PDT by ocrp1982 ( Bibicly)
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To: dfwgator

More or less...

It won’t be treated that way though.

They want total control. They’ve had a taste and they aren’t
going back if they can possibly beat the populace into
submission.

They have to get our guns. It will be interesting to see how
they go about it.

With this SCOTUS we’re at risk.


44 posted on 08/23/2021 9:22:13 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (On the backs of Joseph Stolen and future Lessident Harris, the Democrat party should evaporate.)
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To: ocrp1982

Bump


45 posted on 08/23/2021 9:25:05 PM PDT by TomServo
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To: Brookhaven

I’ve enjoyed working from home full time since March 2020 but I have three young adult sons who have NEVER worked in an office, and they long to. They want to meet with coworkers in person once in a while.

They work in their beds and shirtless on their laptops in their messy rooms in their apartments and it just isn’t. . .right. They don’t really know how to be professional.

So I’m hoping the world returns to some sort of modified hybrid to a smaller office footprint. Even meeting once a week or once a month would be helpful.


46 posted on 08/23/2021 9:25:42 PM PDT by olivia3boys
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To: DoodleBob

It’s what it is, sadly. All about Marxism. Masked up, 6 or now 3ft apart, separation for race, class, vaccination status, etc. So someone determined that 6ft of socialist distancing was good then downgraded it to 3ft because a virus knows the difference (or 6 ft was too far lines at Disney). LMAO. This virus also doesn’t affect people eating but does affect them prior to sitting down to eat. It’s all so stupid yet half our country doesn’t see that.


47 posted on 08/23/2021 9:26:54 PM PDT by Twink
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To: ocrp1982

According to my husband, who also does DOD contracting, it means less nonsense meetings with people who know nothing about the actual projects.

He escapes all the “wasting time meetings, chatting with no nothings about nothing, and can actually spend his time doing his damn job.”


48 posted on 08/23/2021 9:30:47 PM PDT by Twink
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To: dfwgator

It is very rare to get mugged in a rural area.


49 posted on 08/23/2021 9:34:02 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: Twink

You are forgetting that there is a huge % of students who aren’t learning well remotely. In my “high performing” school district in CA, a record number of Ds and Fs resulted from the 2020-21 school year.

I pulled both my teens from public school last year—one went to private and my senior finished out the year homeschooling (no more CRT and other BS).

I hate masks and “distancing” but in person classes with masks is far superior to “remote learning” for many students.


50 posted on 08/23/2021 9:34:32 PM PDT by olivia3boys
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To: gitmo

I wonder what the average weight gain was? I assume it is up. I guess workers could use the extra time to exercise.


51 posted on 08/23/2021 9:37:07 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: NobleFree

“all of the above can happen without physical proximity.”

But what will the harassers do?


52 posted on 08/23/2021 9:38:10 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: Twink

this virus also knows time- as evidenced by bars having to close at 10 pm. /sarc


53 posted on 08/23/2021 9:39:02 PM PDT by Nailbiter
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To: Twink

The virus also kills in small businesses and churches and other houses of worship and Nana’s retirement home but not Wal-Mart or Antifa riots.


54 posted on 08/23/2021 9:39:57 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: olivia3boys

They don’t need as many baths.


55 posted on 08/23/2021 9:41:10 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: Tallguy

No, the dead wood employee is still the dead wood employee and now can’t bullshit his way through the waste of time meetings and chatting. Work is not social life for the people who actually do the work, according to my husband who gets paid a lot of money for his job. His work life has never been his real life. It’s just work. A few work colleagues made it into our social life. Very few.

Once my husband went mostly remote before the Marxist lockdown, he was thrilled because he got more work done not having to attend useless meetings, chat with coworkers, answer phone calls, or endure the “incompetent coworker stopping at his desk every few minutes for help.” I didn’t understand it until our school went remote in March 2020. I got so much more done in the work day.


56 posted on 08/23/2021 9:42:54 PM PDT by Twink
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To: Brookhaven
Remote workers can be more productive.

Open offices spaces are like zoos and barnyards.

57 posted on 08/23/2021 9:44:30 PM PDT by meadsjn (, )
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To: Twink

“According to my husband, who also does DOD contracting, it means less nonsense meetings with people who know nothing about the actual projects.” Those people are always present. They always will be. Bean Counters and others like them are always present. The fact of Life.
It does not change the fact that when people who have knowledge are gathered together in the same room, all contributing their knowledge and experience, interacting together, that the results are consistently superior to any remote conversation.
Not to disparage your husband at all but, a DoD Contractor person is NOT the same thing as a DoD Program Manager who has ULTIMATE responsibility for the end product that is to be Delivered. Discuss this with him. I’m sure he can explain this to you.


58 posted on 08/23/2021 9:49:11 PM PDT by ocrp1982 ( Bibicly)
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To: ocrp1982

Haha tell that to my multiple 6 figure husband with a degree in EE and a network architect who has always worked 16 hour days for the last 35 years. Maybe you all just work with lazy people. He now has no commute (which would have been awesome when we were raising our kids), doesn’t have to spend hours of his day on the nonsense of useless meetings or coworkers stopping by his office to chat or get help for something they should already know.

Group work. It sucks and only helps those who can’t do it on their own. Welcome to the US education system.


59 posted on 08/23/2021 9:52:21 PM PDT by Twink
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To: olivia3boys

Maybe the parent should have taught them to be professional?

If you have “adult” sons, they should already be adult maybe.

Parenting is hard. I have four. Fortunately, they are adults. We do what we can with parenting them and let them fly as we close our eyes and hope for the best.


60 posted on 08/23/2021 9:57:00 PM PDT by Twink
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