You're clearly more towards the extrovert part of the spectrum. Please try to have empathy for people on the introverted part of the spectrum who cannot fathom being forced into an office with tons of people distracting them all day every day. Heretofore they (save for a lucky few like me) have been forced to not just fathom it, but live it.
The "half" of Americans mentioned in the article probably has heavy overlap with those introverts.
Honestly, your post reads pretty heavily to me of "status quo privilege bias". You fit the current status quo very well, and are expressing worry that a change to that status quo would hurt you, with out extending empathy to those the current status quo hurts badly.
The world is not going to flip to fully remote work. It's likely going to inch towards remote work being more prevalent or available. What you are expressing is a case of "When you're accustomed to privilege (your way of working being privileged in this case), then equality (remote work being equally available) feels like oppression."
Not saying that makes you evil or any thing, just pointing out that this is a pretty standard human bias that gets expressed and winds up working to defend harmful status quos all the time. Worth being self aware of.
I'm a well established introvert, and I feel the same as OP. It doesn't have anything to do with extroversion/introversion. It has everything to do with simply feeling bad because we recognize that we're not nearly as productive at home. Some people just aren't, and likely never will be, and that's okay. I consider myself lucky to be able to (a) recognize it, (b) care about it, and (c) have the option to go back to work.
> Extrovert / introvert. You're clearly more towards the extrovert part of the spectrum.
That's the thing: I don't consider myself very extroverted! Probably on the extrovert side of the scale, but very moderately so!
> Please try to have empathy for people on the introverted part of the spectrum who cannot fathom being forced into an office with tons of people distracting them all day every day. Heretofore they (save for a lucky few like me) have been forced to not just fathom it, but live it.
Oh I do, I really do. I guess I'm just a bit (selfishly) scared of what awaits people like me in the future.
If we allow ourselves a lot of optimism, workplaces will see the need to accommodate both kinds of people to a great extent :-)
> Honestly, your post reads pretty heavily to me of "status quo privilege bias". You fit the current status quo very well, and are expressing worry that a change to that status quo would hurt you, with out extending empathy to those the current status quo hurts badly.
You may be right, but to defend myself on this point I think it is in part fueled by the overwhelmingly positive press WFH seems to be getting in this crisis. Nobody is writing articles exhalting the virtues of regular offices (rightly so), and I guess I have all this praising of WFH a bit stuck in my throat at this point - it leaves me thinking "is it me there's something wrong with?"
> The world is not going to flip to fully remote work. It's likely going to inch towards remote work being more prevalent or available.
I guess I'm just afraid it'll be a reinforcing cycle driven by potential real-estate savings on the part of both employers and employees, and infrastructure savings on the part of society.
Well, here are two things to think about that may salve your fears:
1) There are just as many extroverts as introverts. You are very much not alone in your desires.
2) Management is overwhelmingly extroverts, because of the people managing required in the management profession. The C-Suite is almost entirely extroverts.
> because of the people managing required in the management profession
While I agree with the rest of your statements, I disagree with this.
Management is overwhelmingly extraverts because extraversion lends itself very strongly to the kind of elbow-rubbing that our culture sees as more important than performance for determining suitability for raises, promotions, and such.
I know some introverted people who are absolutely brilliant people managers. They understand leadership and what people need so much better than any extraverted manager I've ever personally met.
For all too many people, management isn't even about "people managing". It's about being on a power trip. And this applies triple to the C suite.
For the record, I'm an introverted manager (and seemingly a decent one judging by my record and the feedback I receive). I do find the people managing aspects to be pretty exhausting (though also fulfilling and totally worthwhile).
I have a similar reaction to the WFH hype. I prefer to be in the office but can WFH fine as long as I can interact with others remotely but I’m chafing a little at the “See I told you WFH works, companies will change their mind on WFH policies and the future will be glorious!”
I think it comes from discussions as if there is a right to WFH and they’re owed it which can come off a little self righteous and off putting.
The status quo bias is an interesting point, thanks for bringing that up.
For whatever reason, I need a physical change of scene to click my brain over into "work-mode". In college I couldn't comprehend how people could ever get any work done at home, but I had no problem studying in a library, or a coffee shop, or a classroom, and it's been the same after I entered the workforce.
As much as I enjoy derping at my home in comfy clothes on the weekends and evenings, I'm one of the people who actually appreciates the ritual of putting on nicer clothes, moving to a separate physical location, doing work there, and leaving my work there once I walk out of the building. Once I'm home and I kick off my shoes, I've entered a pure, work-free place where I can fully relax.
I suspect most people are in the same boat, and I'm curious: do you think you'd have the same frustrations if you had an office at work with a door you could close? To me, your post reads more like a criticism of modern cubicle-hell (or open-floorplan-hell), which everyone hates, extroverts included.
People can, and have been, calling the ability to work from home a privilege.
I think what you are calling "privilege" is an advantage, but it seems to me that because there is a consensus that "privilege" is bad, that's what everything is called whether it really is or not.
Have you seen the cartoon (there are many variations) comparing equality with equity? Where there are three people of different heights, and equality is where they each have the same height crate to stand on to see over a fence, whereas equity is where the shorter ones have more of a boost.
The thing that I noticed about that, is that it seems implicitly to be saying that advantage, if uncompensated for, is bad and shameful, while appropriate privilege is the remedy.
Isn't it reasonable to call it privilege when people are held to different standards, and advantage when people have different difficulty with the same standards?
All of this. I've been trying to maintain empathy for those suffering from lack of social contact when I feel like they are demanding sympathy while continuing to demonstrate that they never appreciated the routine suffering they expected me to accept.
A gross generalization, but definitely a common interaction I'm seeing/feeling.
You're clearly more towards the extrovert part of the spectrum. Please try to have empathy for people on the introverted part of the spectrum who cannot fathom being forced into an office with tons of people distracting them all day every day. Heretofore they (save for a lucky few like me) have been forced to not just fathom it, but live it.
The "half" of Americans mentioned in the article probably has heavy overlap with those introverts.
Honestly, your post reads pretty heavily to me of "status quo privilege bias". You fit the current status quo very well, and are expressing worry that a change to that status quo would hurt you, with out extending empathy to those the current status quo hurts badly.
The world is not going to flip to fully remote work. It's likely going to inch towards remote work being more prevalent or available. What you are expressing is a case of "When you're accustomed to privilege (your way of working being privileged in this case), then equality (remote work being equally available) feels like oppression."
Not saying that makes you evil or any thing, just pointing out that this is a pretty standard human bias that gets expressed and winds up working to defend harmful status quos all the time. Worth being self aware of.