We are social creatures. I don’t understand the complete lack of addressing the issue: 8 hours a day I’m cut off from people except virtually. Prisons that force virtual visitation are criticized for this exact issue.
1. If you have any family members that will be home throughout the day you can see them
2. You can step outside and talk to your neighbors
3. You can take a 10 minute break to walk to a local store/park
4. You can go out to lunch at restaurant
5. You can invite anyone to come over at any time
6. Before and after work, you can go anywhere you want, do anything you want, and see anyone you want as well as on weekends
So it seems it's not quite like a prison... not to mention you can also call, text, video chat, IM, or communicate virtually at any time rather than only during certain periods of time with certain people as told by the prison.
Also, if you're working in an office, how much time are you actually spending socializing and interacting with coworkers vs getting your work done?
I understand that some people have a need to interact with people daily, but many of us prefer the quiet/isolation while we work, and comparing remote work to prison is ridiculous
Been to a park during the day? It's nanny's and mom's. How many are going to be like, "yeah, random dude approaching me and trying to chat me up. Great!" Most are sketched out unless you got a kid with you. I've been in this situation and they look at you very weirdly. (How desperate must you be to go to a park to chat with moms?)
Lunch requires friends who also can do such a thing. I go out to lunch with coworkers very often.
You can invite anyone who isn't working or can work remotely with you. Sure, I did do this for a bit. I'd drive 30 minutes away to see my friend and we'd work remotely together about once a week. But then I was actually going further than my commute to work! Hah!
And so can anyone with a non remote job.
You can have the quiet and isolation while not working remotely. It's just that it's not valued in many workplaces anymore.
BTW, I don't get how people think that working remotely means isolation and quiet?? When I worked remotely, there were plenty of days where I had to take tons of long Skype calls, had to chat endlessly with people over IM, and then send more emails on top of it. I barely got any "work" done and didn't get to focus because everything required my attention.
Isolation and quiet is more than an environment. It includes details around a culture around workplace communication styles and how much you prioritize immediate responses.
I also absolutely hate working with people who think that work is a place to get all of their social engagement. I don't need any more friends and I definitely don't need any out of work socialization with my co-workers or during work time that looks like socialization (parties, events...).
We are cramped up like industry workers in 1880.. Yes we are social creatures and we need DIFFERENT levels of interaction with others. BUT we are not cattle to cramp us up desk to desk.
Well, yeah, there is a difference between forcing everyone to do something and letting people choose to do something.
More like, complaining that the whole design of modern city life is around work. As more and more people work remotely, cities will change, habits will change. People who work at home have been largely neglected for decades; we feel out of sync with cities and other people, almost marginalized. This has to change.