Work is Already Broken
The Old Web — the vast network of independent websites and blogs — is thriving.
Here’s a post from someone who doesn’t like to work from home:
For a corporate employee, working from home often tops the wishlist. But I believe it creates more harm than good.
I disagree. And that’s fine.
But someone else disagrees too and writes and elegant response, not on some horrible platform but on their own longform blog:
the crux of [their] argument is [that] people who worked remotely for two or more years lost their social skills. They became shy, reserved, and confined to their comfort zones and small groups. They forgot the art of striking up conversations with strangers. They forgot how to have fun with people. … To which I say bullshit. … I know how to entertain and amuse myself.
“My whole lifestyle,” they write, “is only viable because I work remotely and have been for more than half a decade. ”
Same here.
The original blogger reckons that working in an office is a social opportunity. Maybe to some people it is, but to me it never was. Work is work: an economic arrangement. You will not meet many cool people, people you have much in common with, people you’ll want to stay in touch with, through a full-time day job.
Part of the problem is that nobody really wants to be there; we’re just economically bullied into full-time work where physical attendance is part of the cost of doing business.
Another part of the problem lies in recruitment and selection: it doesn’t exist to build a community in which people will get along and make friends, it exists to solve market problems. The best you can say really is that you’re all being ripped off equally so you have something to bond over on that front. But that’s no good because cynical conversations about being bored and having no money absolutely suck. Besides, we’re not ripped off equally: people at different levels of corporate hierarchy are being ripped off in different ways and it’s not accidental that a micro form of class struggle takes place between people on different levels of the organisation. Bah.
Thing is, work is already broken and no amount of pretension is going to return everything back to pre-covid era. Heck, pre-cloud era.
About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk
For social stuff, I think commuting to a workplace serves the same function as going to school; both force you into contact with other people, eliminating the barrier of finding motivation to go out and talk to people. I can see how this can be a good thing, however, I don’t believe commuting into a workplace is the best option to achieve this unless you live in a place that favors isolation, like a car-dependent suburb.
I think this is why people love college so much. For years, a student lives on campus or close to it, reducing the barriers of social connection to a short walk or a chance encounter at a local shop or park. Sure, they also don’t have to spend their weekends on home maintenance or take care of their kiddos, but, if anything, those obligations make it even more helpful for people to be within walking distance of each other.
This also leads to the kind of connections that I prefer. When I meet neighbors or friends outside of the workplace, no topic is off-limits. Sure, there may be social rules that prevent me from talking BDSM with the old lady I’m helping to open a difficult window, but the polycule down the street finds joy in more risque conversations. I can commiserate with an anarchist about food stamps being blocked; a week later and we’ve pulled 20 people together to do a pop-up food stand. Now I’m building a resilient community in a location that I chose to live in with no regard for employment, allowing me to find one that fits me best. I don’t lose these connections when I leave my job, my neighborhood, or even my city.
In contrast, the workplace requires us to become milquetoast versions of ourselves. It does not want conflict, because conflict interferes with productivity. It will train employees to avoid harassing each other, but if someone does harass someone else, it will also prefer the victim not rock the boat by seeking justice. It strives for peace at all costs, even when the terms of that peace are morally objectionable.
All that said, I do understand some people’s preference to work in close physical proximity to their coworkers. Maybe the best option is to let employees choose how much remote they prefer, whether that’s full remote, hybrid, or full on-site. At least that way, when you do chat up someone at the water cooler, you know that person isn’t being held hostage by social norms and imagining how long they could survive in the Bob Marshall wilderness in Montana after burning the entire building to the ground with you in it just to avoid hearing about the latest episode of Love Island.
As I’ve said before, I prefer an office, so I was curious to read this one. I drastically disagree even as someone on the other side! I deliberately do not make friends at work, they are a liability and frankly, not that interesting compared to the people I meet outside. If your social life is reliant on the office, you should rethink your social life. Particularly if your primary interactions with the people you prefer to date are via a professional environment as the author posits.
My reasons are simple:
– my commute via walking and the train gives me an automatic on/off switch for my brain
– meetings are still so zoom heavy, I find it extremely difficult to focus on a laptop and prefer having the dedicated room with the dedicated screen
…and that’s basically it. I just focus better in an external space. The rest of the apartment isn’t screaming its todos at me (laundry! you can lay on the couch during this meeting! maybe ride your exercise bike for a bit! what’s for lunch!). It’s definitely not some irreplaceable magical social experience. I’d just be a regular at the coffee shop instead of I had to wfh.
I agree. The original post is confusing work and life. I could work remotely from anywhere, and that could fulfil all those things he says we miss out on. I do feel that working alone might encourage a bit of a retreat into the self, but to say the office is the solution is narrow minded. A companion to the “what do you do?” question, where Work and Life are assumed to be one and the same.