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Comment by daveFNbuck | Hacker News Reader

This says that people work 48 more minutes per day on average. I looked up the mean commute time in the US, and it's 26.6 minutes each way. So this would still be a small net win for people who are working from home. The win is bigger if you factor in being home for lunch and other breaks.

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Sure, on the surface, that's ~6 minutes "won back" during lockdown... but time commuting and time working are not equatable. Speaking for myself, my commute is a time to focus on something simple, reflect, and listen to the radio or podcasts. Work, while more interesting, is infinitely more mentally and emotionally taxing.

Also, lunch at the office can be a nice time to take a break and socialiaze, whereas lunch at home can turn into eating in front of one's laptop.

There are winners and losers here for sure. Long commutes are gone but many people relied on their commute keeping their work hours more strictly bounded. You’re right that the the office camaraderie is mostly gone—-assuming your office ever had any! I do miss lunchtime chats with coworkers—-and morning chit chat as we settle into the day. Unfortunately as more people shift their hours to better fit their different lives the possibility of a lunchtime connect goes away entirely.

But, this has given me an idea to try and start a lunchtime video chat at work. It might be harder with teammates in different timezones, and God forbid should it ever become mandatory. But it sounds nice in theory...

We’ve done the social lunch thing on video chat and while it has been nice it can also add to overall fatigue of being in camera and in front of a computer all day. It also doesn’t scale that well in terms of number of people. Still though, having it there as an optional way to socialize has been a net positive

Your job will demand an always-online webcam at your desk, to ensure you're sufficiently miserable.

Commuting by train, I agree! But when I commuted by car in the past, it was a time to languish in my vehicle, parked on the highway, wondering why a drive normally taking 15 minutes on weekends instead takes 60 minutes on a work day. Definitely not a de-stresser for me!

I hate commuting and even though mine is as best 30 minutes door to door on a train I still think I’m benefitting less.

The brain solves its creative problems when you can just sit back and space out, I’m not longer forced to do that and it’s going to take extra discipline to wake up earlier than I have to then add a new routine in to get that.

Just to add, about half of my 25-minute commute is walking. So that’s some exercise I still need to make up.

>Work, while more interesting, is infinitely more mentally and emotionally taxing.

Wow, your commute must be really nice :)

It was certainly the most stressful part of my day.

On my home commute I take short detours to buy groceries, go to the bank, get my hair cut, go to the gym, etc. When I do a whole week of home office I actually don't gain that much extra free time because I need to go to these places anyways.

Also, I would pay someone to do my lunch and breakfast cooking and dishes. Now I do that myself which I enjoy but the 15 minute lunch is no more for me. Plus that was a small walk. Now I cook, tidy up and go for a walk before sitting back down. A net win and better productivity for my life, but I don't have that much more time in my day. Also kids, so that may make this an irrelevant data point. But I'm cooking 4/5 meals a day and doing 3 loads of dishes a day, up from one of each.

From the underlying study, I wouldn't even assume that all of those 48 minutes are actual "work" either- they just use the difference between the first and last email sent in a day. The flexibility of being at home in many circumstances is a pretty big deal- I can spend 20 minutes getting dinner for the family prepped and cooking and easily make it up later, which I can't do at an office.

Agreed.

In fact small chores which were a hassle when coming home after a 10-hour long (or longer) day of commuting+work+break+work+commuting can become a welcomed break, for they are actually a break from work, a tiny bit of manual work inside the stream of intellectual work.

> I can spend 20 minutes getting dinner for the family prepped and cooking and easily make it up later

Furthermore, for some parts, you needn't even make it up, because after a bit of preparation, you can go back to work while some stuff will gently cook alone for 1 or 2 hours in the kitchen.

I wonder if that 26.6 minutes factors in swiping your card, walking though turnstiles, elevator rides, crowded lobbies, etc.... or if it's just literally time inside the car. I also don't do as much to "get ready for work" now compared with when I had to go to an office.

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