My latest on how the WFH revolution will change
- the psychology of work
- the relative power of introverts and extroverts in the office
- the aesthetic of the suburbs
- and the most important trend is US politics today: education polarization
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Some survey data to back up the claims:
nber.org/system/files/w…
WFH isn't going away. The percentage of paid full days worked from home peaked at 60% last spring but is projected to remain above 20%—about 4x higher than before the pandemic.
Why is WFH projected to remain so high?
Because—despite some research claiming that per-hour productivity declined—most white-collar workers said it flat-out worked.
86% of surveyed Americans said WFH met or surpassed their expectations (during a pandemic!)
Like any technology, remote/hybrid work will be unevenly distributed.
High-income workers (black circles) are slightly more likely to say they liked WFH.
But high-earning companies (red triangles) are WAY more likely to say they plan to quickly adopt a hybrid model.
We're so, so early in the WFH tech boom.
The avg remote worker invested “15 hours of time and $561 in home equipment to facilitate WFH” last year—about 0.6% of GDP.
You, emailing from your living room, are holding the iPhone 1 of WFH technology right now.
Finally:
Education polarization is the most important new dividing line in politics today. It's eerie/interesting that it's also the most important dividing line in the future of work.
Share WFH
<High school: 9.7%
4yr college: 45%
A WFH-politics nexus to watch out for:
White-collar workers migrating to remote, in perpetual contact with virtual networks of similar ppl, creating a set of online norms, language and attitudes that pulls them further away from the rest of the country.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
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