More work gets done when you're tired from being up early for your commute, then the commute itself, and surrounded by distracting coworkers? Not for me, not ever again if I can help it.
All coffee and smoke breaks actually are aimed at taking a step back and gain some small extra energy to keep going.
I agree. And its value and time commitment needed does not change if you work from office or home.
In a modern tech company with all the wfh and productivity bells and whistles I now watch as my productive days vanish into 6 hours of meetings.
I worked from home before the pandemic hit and been doing it on and off for 15 years, but I took the habit of going out for a walk before starting to work, it actually wakes me up for real and sharpens my thoughts.
It also forces me to dress and take care of my hygiene.
A thing that many home workers I know, adults like me, don't do everyday. Which is, IMO, a set back.
Now that due to the pandemic I am confined at home, I feel tired all day and my productivity has gone down, to the point that I have to work 7 or 8 hours a day, while 5 were enough before.
Suffering for waking up early for a commute is only a symptom of not being a morning person, I negotiate comfortable starting work hours in all my contracts and never had to wake up early in the past 10 years.
And you know the main reason the employer accepted it as a reasonable argument?
because out of the rush hour commuting is easier (which is actually true)
they never heard from me "I am late because the bus/subway/train/whatever was full"
In my experience distracting coworkers are a lot worse when you are online all day remotely: you can close the door, but can't block them on teams.
Finally: consider that the majority of people all over the World have much better work spaces than home offices.
Usually home offices for regular people suck and/or people live in small homes.
Especially in Japan or Europe.
one last bit: WFH workers that are less experienced have harder times getting a promotion than in presence.
It's sad thinking about a state of affairs where I would be biased towards the person in my team I see most often - either through better guidance/collaboration (affecting promotability over time) or mere water-cooler familiarity.
IMO working from home can even further destroy your work-life balance -- but only if you let it, which is sadly easy in these conditions. So I agree with you there, we have to get out of our way -- literally and figuratively -- to compensate for some negative WFH traits.
And, it's true that commuting and working in badly designed open office spaces are extremely bad for productivity.
On the other hand working in a group can be a lot more productive than alone in the home office even connected electronically because we are humans and need social stimulation, but this is not true for everybody.
We should not forget these points when commenting.
(If you are one of those poor souls with a 90 minute commute, I understand your pain, but you shouldn't try to generalize your experience)
10 minutes in a car is far less pleasant (to me) than a 25 minute walk.
Also 25 minute commute means 50 minutes out of the day, every workday. That adds up.
Yes, that sums up to over 4 hours per week, i.e. half a working day.
I can also now take a quick shower in the middle of the day when I need to get away from the screen to think.
Or I can make a granola bowl while I'm in a meeting. Or walk the dog, or do any number of low cognitive load things (especially for meetings that I'm expected to attend even when they are only tangential to my work).
Even if the commute was 30 minutes (a good day), I'd usually need to buffer time to plan for being late due to traffic accidents and construction (frequent).
Switching to remote work gave me back at least an hour every morning, and at least 1.5 hours in the evening. Anecdotally this has led to massive performance and quality of life increases.
But how many of the people making up this average leave home an hour earlier than most of us just to beat traffic?
How much buffer time is then also factored in, and wasted?
No even taking into account the cognitive and emotional cost of the commute.
i.e. the subway in Paris is full of stressed out people, stinks, is more or less reliable and makes an awful lot of stressful loud noises.
I’ve switched to cycling 2 years ago, and even when I get home drenched by the rain and frozen by the wind do I still not miss the "métro". At all.
And I’d bet driving can be quite stressful too.
Also, the less time you spend commuting by automobile, the less likely you are to be involved in an expensive, injurious or deadly accident, especially if you're commuting while while you or others are tired in the morning, or are tired after working all day.
Also consider overuse of cars is a big issue environmentally, while use of public transport tends to increase one's commute (bad schedules, detours).
[1]: https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter8/urban-trans...
Now I have a 60-75 minute commute over underground, and I'm not looking forward to the return to the office. There's definitely aspects of working where I long for the office, but others where I'm glad for the solitude.
If we have to return 5 days a week I'll probably have to move and pay much more or have a tiny living space.
I value my time more than my comfort so am accepting of this, but it still frustrates me after living the afore mentioned dream.
I'd also note that I regularly start work an hour or two early since working from home - with >2hrs of commuting slashed from my day, if I get a good thought at breakfast why not bash it out?
When you're facing 12hrs as a baseline for your working day it's much less appealing to contribute outside that time.