A world where the office is obsolete is more positive, more communal and more productive
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By Brianne Kimmel | The Guardian
(Editor’s note: Opinions are published only as a means for discussion.)
Before Covid-19, a recent US census estimated that 5.2% of US workers (8 million people) worked from home. I’d personally say that number likely increased by a factor of 10, based on Zoom’s daily active user growth (10 million in December 2019 to over 300 million in April 2020), the world forced by disaster into an almost fully remote workforce for many sectors, including the entertainment industry and services like yoga and personal training. As companies like Salesforce and Twitter make working from home permanent, many are already dreading our remote future.
Kevin Roose of The New York Times recently warned that remote work leads to isolation, and removed the serendipity of the office. Nick Martin of the New Republic warned against the push of people to be “more productive” working from home – that we should not be expected to use the hours of commute time that we’re saving to do more work, but live healthier lives, a sentiment echoed by Roose’s colleague Taylor Lorenz.
And they’re right.
