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Comment by Mediterraneo10 | Hacker News Reader

It is interesting to ponder if more remote working in the United States will lead to a rebirth of community institutions, the clubs and volunteer organizations whose decline over past decades Robert Putnam charted in his book Bowling Alone. Americans have increasingly made their interaction with their coworkers the core of their social lives. If people switch to working remotely and there are no coworkers to interact with IRL anymore, then maybe they will more active in their local communities? On the other hand, it could simply lead to spending even more time on social media to fill the gap.

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I work remote and this is kind of happening. I worked locally for five years and most of my relationships were my colleagues. But now my colleagues are just people I work with. I'd consider them acquaintances and I like them. But I'm not seeking a friendship. For that I'm looking elsewhere and it has its own pros and cons.

As a parent with not much me time, coworkers make for very convenient friendships.

As a remote worker I really want this to happen. As a parent of two tiny humans it’s hard to even fathom where the time goes most days.

After my new remote job settles down in a few months, attempting to start a low key coworking group in my small but quickly growing community is going to be my new project.

> attempting to start a low key coworking group in my small but quickly growing community is going to be my new project.

But if you are liberated from an office environment, why try to create a new office environment all over again? Why not seek out special-interest groups or volunteering/philantrophic organizations to provide social interaction?

It’s not a bad point. I personally need some separation between my home and work environments and I’ve found working completely on my own to be somewhat isolating. Right now I have a small portion of a guest bedroom dedicated to office and it’s not great. In my ideal world I would have a small space shared with a few people within a short walk from home.

I'm guessing strangers in a co-working space would feel less entitled to walk up and interrupt you throughout the day. That's largely my issue with the open office where I work.

I don't think Americans have made coworkers increasingly their core, more that the cores outside of work have eroded slowly. Those outside-work social cores are less relevant and ever-present in 21st century than in 20th and earlier.

It's definitely romanticized in American culture though. Ally McBeal, The Office... It's expected that your work culture will be fun and socially interesting.

I'd be worried about selection bias there. Plenty of TV doesn't show people at work, instead showing circles of friends or family. The fact that there exists some popular shows premised on work relationships is not itself evidence of much.

It's not just the existence of the shows. It's a very real culture that exists in the workplace for people < 40.

Why would anyone employ a remote worker who demands a US salary when the same remote work can be done in any country with cheaper cost of living and consequently lower salaries?

If you have to be on-site, you're only competing with locals. If you're remote, you're competing with the world.

A strikingly large amount of remote-work offers require the person to be in a particular time zone. Managers want you to be able to communicate with the team at times that are normal working hours for everyone. Even if there are Eastern Europeans or whatever who are comfortable working nights, they still wouldn’t get hired in spite of the opportunity to pay them less.

Communication.

It's already hard to communicate with others with slack, video,etc. Now throw in various languages and the lag of third world internet and it is pure hell.

Taxation and other regulatory, bureaucratic nuances

"On the other hand, it could simply lead to spending even more time on social media to fill the gap."

Or both?

great point, tech meetups provide some of this

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