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Comment by nck4222 | Hacker News Reader

Children probably. Don't get me wrong, I love being home and spending time with the family more, it's really the best part of this experience for me.

But there's no way I'd be able to be as productive as expected under normal circumstances. I'm lucky if I get 4 hours in.

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Presumably if you continue to work from home after the crisis, then your children return to school...?

Not in my case, no. They're not school aged, and are at home during the day. Elementary schools where I am run roughly 9-3 as well, except on Thursdays when they run 9-2.

Maybe I could make it work, but I would still prefer to have an office to go to most days.

The current situation isn't ideal. Everyone at my employer has working from home since the beginning (20 years ago, I'm at year 4 here) and it's been great, but my coworkers who all-of-a-sudden have kids at home during their workday who would normally be at school have seen a drop in their productivity.

2 kids at home. I am dying to get into my office and work. The interruptions are just insane. I don't think I'll be a lot more productive in the office but I sure as hell will be a lot less stressed. Also my office is very quiet with almost zero interruptions.

But surely actually working from home wouldn't involve taking care of your children all day. When you actually go to work, your children are presumably not sitting at home unattended all day, correct? You either have a spouse who can take care of them, they are in school, or they are in daycare. So working from home shouldn't be any different, and the only reason it is now is because all of those things are closed due to the pandemic.

I don't mean this to be rude, but it doesn't sound like you have much experience working at home with children around. I don't think you should be so quick to assume you know the solution to a problem/situation you have no insight in to.

Maybe what you're describing would work for some people. But to so confidently say it's a blanket solution for everyone and is not actually a problem, is frankly laughable.

I have been working from home with 2 children under 5 for 6 weeks now. So you are the one being quick to assume something that you have no insight to.

> Maybe what you're describing would work for some people. But to so confidently say it's a blanket solution for everyone and is not actually a problem, is frankly laughable.

Please explain to me in what situation what I described wouldn't apply? When people work in an office, they have to have some form of childcare. Daycare, school, or a caretaker/spouse at home. Obviously those are not available right now in the pandemic, but if we are assessing the viability of WFH typically, then why wouldn't they work just as well as they do when traveling to an office? What is laughable about that line of thinking?

I have to say that I'm lucky if I get 4 productive hours in on any day, and most colleagues and peers I have talked to say something similar. That makes me want to ask here as a sort of informal poll, how many hours of the working day would you all say you normally spend working?

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