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Comment by veidr | Hacker News Reader

A lot of people are pointing out drawbacks to working at home. Noisy, cramped, no separation of home work life, etc etc etc.

None of those are valid criticisms of the idea being discussed. We say 'work from home' as shorthand. It doesn't literally mean YOU MUST WORK AT YOUR DOMICILE AND NOWHERE ELSE.

It means you can work anywhere you can make arrangements to work.

That is a huge difference.

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Yeah, this is exactly what I do, I work remotely but have a bright, relaxed office 10 minutes walk from my house. I can see this being a more popular arrangement in the future. Perhaps instead of companies spending money on giant cubicle offices they give their employees an 'office allowance'. Taking London as an example, you have many people commuting into the city from areas with cheaper housing to expensive offices that are located in the heart of the city. The money spent on deskspace for that worker in the city would go a lot further if they had office space where they'd just come from. Not to mention the transport savings, both for the individual and the system as a whole (which is already making some cattle carts look roomy during rush hour). Walk round London for a day and you'll find windows filled with rows of people staring at their computers. The majority of the time they're just stuck there looking at that computer. Making them travel 2,3,4 hours each day seems unnecessarily cruel, a relic of a time before email and skype. Let's not discount the value of face to face, but the fact is that this makes up a small part of the average worker's work. Most companies implicitly acknowledge this by reserving only the dayless rooms of their basement for meetings.

There's a startup idea or two waiting in this space, there are many fundamental inefficiencies in the way business is currently conducted. There's potential for both improving quality of life and reducing costs.

I am in exactly the same position - 20 min walk and an office to work with people 4000 miles away.

I don't think however there are startup solutions here (well there are a growing number of office space providers) but its really a massive public policy issue - in London Crossrail, new tube investments, road building, road pricing, almost all transport infrastructure is based around assumptions about masses of people commuting daily - and if that is wrong we are building a lot of white elephants

>It means you can work anywhere you can make arrangements to work.

Like in an office surrounded by my co-workers. This works for me.

Yeah. Always thought I'd love to work at home; now I'm doing it and I'm not a big fan. I desire to have a separate place to go just for work. I think what people (myself included) really want is the ability to leave the office whenever they want/need without being judged. Commute times are also a problem, especially in the US with its poor city planning, but a lot of times it's due to their election to live in distant suburbs. If people adjust the amount of space they think they need, we can make strides to reducing commute times and building up urban infrastructure, with the bonus that people can easily step in and out of the office as they please.

And does it work for your co-workers?

I still think its problematic. I like to have a place where i work and nothing else. When in the coffe shop or a nice place i just enjoy it for what it is without trying to squeeze some productive time in. To me its the same seperation issue, its not so much about the place home but the mindset of spending work time in a private life enviroment. Just my view of course.

There are coworking spaces for that exact purpose. All of this discussion is about not forcing people to commute and chaining people to the desks at a central office, and giving them freedom to choose their own workplace where it is convenient for them.

so, I work in your office. you, in mine. office swap.

I hope this leads to some sort of weekend project. Would love to see that in action.

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