Hacker News Reader

Comment by jhp123 | Hacker News Reader

I'm 37 and a factor that I haven't seen much discussed is that in-office is a vastly higher burden for my generation. Commutes are longer, more families have two working parents (and need to, to pay the bills).

In-office doesn't mean heading out the door at 8:30 and coming home at 5:30 but something more like leaving at 7:00am, dropping off kids at before-school daycare ($$$), driving back to the train station to make it in by 9 and then coming home at 6 after your 1-hour commute to the closest affordable suburb. An 11-hour day, and you are paying out the nose for childcare if you can even get it, and you'll spend all your PTO on kids doctor appointments and parent-teacher conferences and the like.

View on HN

Totally agree. I was that age "a few years" ago, and I'm not playing working-hours-one-up-manship, but I was leaving the house at 4.45am, and getting home 7.30-8pm (London).

That was probably the low point in my, and others, working life that coincides with the age for raising a young family. It sucks.

This almost exactly described my life as well (also 37, lived in a major metro). Not to mention the (surreptitiously unpaid) evening calls we'd have with other TZs after spending that 11-hour day, because take-home laptops.

I think we really screwed up. We're using WFH to hide child care while saying it's more efficient. We should have just demanded better work hours but here we are.

In my case, no. WFH because I prefer it. I manage a team of 7. In our team there are people all across UK. Childcare would be easy for me but commute, oh no!

There's talk about less than 40 and more years old. I'm over 40 and prefer remote. In our space it's younger folks that prefer hanging out in the office.

WFH for me gives me more flexibility in the childcare options. It doesn't eliminate my need to have my family needs met. I can't just watch my toddler and not work.

However, I can be more flexible and drop my toddler off at daycare after my daily stand-up since he mostly is fine watching shows during that. Then I pick him up right before his nap time. This scenario is awesome, but albeit just temporary until my family resumes our previous arrangements that was interrupted by a surgery.

My responsibility hasn't changed and I'll fill in randomly throughout the week as needed but, now I just have extra flexibility that I would never have in an office. Even comparing it to a small city, living in the suburbs easily meant a 15-30 minute commute and wouldn't allow me to have the opportunities I have now.

No, I won't return to the office and I'm not sure anyone will actually convince me to do so. I'm mentoring interns and juniors developers without any concerns remotely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com