I started my whole programming career as a freelancer and worked fully remotely for 6 years before ever going to an office. But that's a bit different, because I advertised as a freelancer/consultant, and in that period I rarely worked in a team. And even when I worked in a team, my areas of responsibility were completely mine.
On one hand I vividly recall my last BigCo full time employment. I enrolled to a newly opened office, which at that point in time wasn't even an office but a few rented cubicles in WeWork-like space. My daily routine for first couple of months was to come to the office, get into my cubicle and login to the Skype call with the rest of the people I was working - in different offices.
And for the rest of the day I sat there alone, occasionally hoping on other impromptu Skype calls.
I specifically asked couple of times if it would be possible for me to work from home, because I have zero personal interactions in the office, but over and over again I was told that WFH is strictly forbidden by the company policy.
That was pre-covid.
On the other hand, as someone who wore hats of leader/manager/director I have to admit - to this day - I find building teams, from ground up, in remote environment, almost impossible.
My very first office job had a very clever trick up their sleeve - we had a free lunch each day. Nobody skips a free lunch. Took me some time to realize how clever it was. To this day I have a draft of article in my desk titled "eat your scrum master".
Oh, and 20 years ago everyone was smoking. Between smoking, lunch, and bumping into each other at coffee desk - everyone knew everything. It's so simple - people like to talk, but eventually you'll run of small talk topics and start talking about the job.
Almost anyone who works from home is legitimately on the way to replacement because almost all of it can now be done by bots. They excluded themselves from the "human" part of it, and now it became critical.
The human part of it doesn't always mean physical presence. It means bringing creativity, judgement, ethics, collaboration, etc etc.
All this can be done remotely of course.
Then we're cooked, I guess, my entire department is remote, as is most of the rest of our 5000 employees. Even before covid it was relatively common to have remote employees, but now it's more common than employees in offices.
Remote work, at an employer that embraces their employees, has resulted in excellent results instead of meandering around the office trying to bs your way through office politics.
Remote work highlights merit and office work highlights time and social integration. Both can get promotions, and I've of gotten promotions from both, but I think the former is healthier
I think this sums up the management-owner fantasy/middle-management fear:
Once they can tell the computer/slave what to do, what'll they need us for?
My advice is to relax: If there's no work, whatever companies remain better paying so much taxes that everybody can live like their council/town mayor/president, or the humans will be literally eating the rich.
Just try to love where you live and be good friends with your neighbours when it happens, and don't be one of the last people working/defending work.
In any event, I suspect AI could be still a long way off of that, despite the fact quite suddenly a lot more human beings can tell a computer what to do. You might feel differently, but I promise your job isn't representative of "most" people who work from home: You have no idea what the demographics of at-home workers are.
The fact that my job happens on a computer, and thus can be done in the office or from home with a VPN connection back to the office, says absolutely nothing about the capability of automating my role out of existence. Unless of course you're unskilled middle management and your whole position is just talking to people, in which case yeah I could see you being on the chopping block.
Shrug. Maybe. Not everyone requires constant social validation. Likewise, not everyone needs to be incessantly bothered by others. I get that bosses feel threatened, but that is no reason to panic.
I started my whole programming career as a freelancer and worked fully remotely for 6 years before ever going to an office. But that's a bit different, because I advertised as a freelancer/consultant, and in that period I rarely worked in a team. And even when I worked in a team, my areas of responsibility were completely mine.
On one hand I vividly recall my last BigCo full time employment. I enrolled to a newly opened office, which at that point in time wasn't even an office but a few rented cubicles in WeWork-like space. My daily routine for first couple of months was to come to the office, get into my cubicle and login to the Skype call with the rest of the people I was working - in different offices. And for the rest of the day I sat there alone, occasionally hoping on other impromptu Skype calls.
I specifically asked couple of times if it would be possible for me to work from home, because I have zero personal interactions in the office, but over and over again I was told that WFH is strictly forbidden by the company policy.
That was pre-covid.
On the other hand, as someone who wore hats of leader/manager/director I have to admit - to this day - I find building teams, from ground up, in remote environment, almost impossible.
My very first office job had a very clever trick up their sleeve - we had a free lunch each day. Nobody skips a free lunch. Took me some time to realize how clever it was. To this day I have a draft of article in my desk titled "eat your scrum master".
Oh, and 20 years ago everyone was smoking. Between smoking, lunch, and bumping into each other at coffee desk - everyone knew everything. It's so simple - people like to talk, but eventually you'll run of small talk topics and start talking about the job.
Remote work, at an employer that embraces their employees, has resulted in excellent results instead of meandering around the office trying to bs your way through office politics.
Remote work highlights merit and office work highlights time and social integration. Both can get promotions, and I've of gotten promotions from both, but I think the former is healthier
Once they can tell the computer/slave what to do, what'll they need us for?
My advice is to relax: If there's no work, whatever companies remain better paying so much taxes that everybody can live like their council/town mayor/president, or the humans will be literally eating the rich.
Just try to love where you live and be good friends with your neighbours when it happens, and don't be one of the last people working/defending work.
In any event, I suspect AI could be still a long way off of that, despite the fact quite suddenly a lot more human beings can tell a computer what to do. You might feel differently, but I promise your job isn't representative of "most" people who work from home: You have no idea what the demographics of at-home workers are.