To the Editor:
Re “Is Working From House Actually Working?,” by Steven Rattner (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, March 22):
Mr. Rattner frames full-time workers’ need to work remotely as proof that they’ve “gone comfortable,” is skeptical that the four-day workweek enhances productiveness, and calls the notion of versatile work “a type of white-collar privilege.”
For many middle-aged staff who’re nicely educated but economically insecure, analysis exhibits that reverence for laborious work will not be the issue. These staff are deeply invested in the concept laborious work is an indication of ethical price.
Employees’ earnings have stagnated lately regardless of rising productiveness and file income. The 40-hour workweek is commonly a 50-hour workweek (or extra) as a result of salaried workers are routinely requested to remain late or take work residence.
The will for versatile work preparations is a part of a backlash towards the limitless cycle of demanding extra with out dependable rewards, and the toll that cycle takes on household relationships and private well-being.
As an alternative of shaming workplace staff, employers ought to take a tough take a look at their pay and scheduling practices.
Caroline Hanley
Williamsburg, Va.
The author, an affiliate professor of sociology at William & Mary, is the co-author of “Work in Black and White,” concerning the challenges confronted by Black and white staff pursuing the American dream.
To the Editor:
For me, as an autistic grownup, the flexibility to work at home has completely modified my life for the higher. I’ve labored in lots of workplace settings, each the run-of-the-mill kind and the trendy workplaces that satisfaction themselves on internet hosting a “enjoyable” atmosphere, and for me, each had their distractions in droves.
Social pressures, workplace events, noise, lengthy commutes and screaming bosses are among the many many issues which are daunting for me to work via as an autistic individual.
At present I work at home and have a delegated house to work alone the place I can management the noise degree and any interactions unrelated to work. I’ve solid friendships with my co-workers via chats and video conferences (most of my group works remotely), and I discover I’m rather more centered and able to work than I might be having to navigate the face-to-face social facet of an workplace atmosphere (and the judgments and prejudices of others).
Maybe working from residence could encourage a scarcity of effort from people with an already poor work ethic, however for disabled staff working from residence has evened the skilled enjoying area.
Regan Might
Harper Woods, Mich.
To the Editor:
Steven Rattner is true: Working from residence will not be figuring out.
I’m a small-business proprietor requiring three days within the workplace for my group of 10 individuals and versatile with a limiteless paid day off coverage.
After we are in individual, our group is extra inventive and collaborative. Being in individual has allowed me to study my colleagues, their working fashion and find out how to finest handle every of them. We are able to additionally give suggestions higher after we are in individual. And we will see the kindness and generosity of serving to each other that doesn’t come throughout in a video name.
I hope an increasing number of individuals begin to agree with Mr. Rattner and begin returning to workplaces.
Laura Gross
Washington
To the Editor:
Steven Rattner cites conversations with executives who imagine that working from house is much less productive than being within the workplace, and but he supplies no quantitative research to assist these claims. Furthermore, he doesn’t cite any related conversations with us lowly non-executives who handle our personal time.
Right now within the workplace, I had a single offhand dialog with my supervisor, in addition to made small speak with colleagues. These chats would simply as simply happen over the telephone or immediate messaging, they usually actually don’t justify the two.5 hours of my life misplaced to commuting.
My spouse has labored remotely for many of her 20-year profession, and she or he’s one of many hardest staff I do know. She’s on her laptop computer late into the night, catching up on work as a result of she — because the partner who works from residence — should put together our son and shuttle him to and from day care.
Mr. Rattner claims that lowered productiveness from working from residence will end in a “decrease lifestyle.” However after I evaluate my weekly wasted commute with my spouse’s versatile schedule, it’s clear to me who has the higher life.
Jonathan Carey
Chatham, N.J.
To the Editor:
It’s so clear {that a} man wrote this essay. Ask any working mother, and she is going to inform you that she by no means works an eight-hour day and comes residence to a beer or glass of wine, after which repeats that the following day.
The second shift continues to be ignored, and if Steven Rattner understood the calls for positioned on working mothers, he wouldn’t be so fast to ask, “Has America gone comfortable?”
Kate Richmond
Philadelphia
The author is a professor of psychology and director of ladies and gender research at Muhlenberg Faculty. She is co-author of “Psychology of Ladies and Gender.”
To the Editor:
I labored remotely lengthy earlier than Covid for an organization that selected work at home for a lot of causes, together with saving on workplace prices and utilizing expertise throughout the nation.
Many workers who work at home truly really feel they work extra than they did within the workplace. Most mid- and higher-level jobs in every kind of fields require getting the job completed, not working set hours. Usually which means working extra hours. And for those who occur to place a load of laundry within the wash throughout your “9 to five,” that doesn’t make you much less productive at work.
For many individuals, working at residence means you’re at your desk earlier through the time you’d have been commuting. It additionally means logging in after dinner. Make money working from home workers additionally tackle the price of sustaining an workplace and wanted gear, whether or not by utilizing house of their properties or at a rented workplace or shared house exterior of the house.
Whereas working from residence has its downsides, I don’t assume decrease productiveness is really one among them, regardless of what some managers are saying. An efficient supervisor ought to be capable of handle work with out trying over their workers’ shoulders in a bodily house. That’s to say nothing of the distractions that go on in a bodily workplace: longer conferences, birthdays and different nonsense that workers aren’t all the time comfy saying no to.
I now work for an organization that’s “distant first” and has lowered the variety of workplaces it’s sustaining. All of the “actual work” goes on in every single place that the staff are situated.
Donna Lysak
Vestal, N.Y.
