Work from home - pro & con

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Work From Home is a solution for a middle aged manager who is commuting long and gets huge distraction at office with the politics. The solution is paraded as a silver bullet across all worker segments now. It is a double edge sword.

I have done work from home in various forms for 14 years, managed remote teams a lot of times.

The advantages include helping cities become green by reducing commute and reducing the population [you don't need to live in cities]. It enables many women and caretakers to get back into work without having to give up on their family. And allows people in rural areas to access the job markets.

In my personal experience, when the WFH is 1–2 days a week, it can be quite productive. I have been trying this for years and allows me a couple of calm days to get deeper work done. However, when we make Work From Home into Remote Work all days a week, it can produce various undesirable consequences.

1. It turns workers into a commodity. Many companies are waking up to the concept not to give more rights to the workers, but to take advantage of cheap labour pool around the world. Labour arbitrage that started from the 1990s will happen in a much bigger form and unless you are living in the cheapest possible place, your work could always move to the next cheapest guy.
2. When you can hire from anywhere in the world your salaries for most urban employees will go down. Workers are going to compete with everyone in the world. That said businesses also would compete worldwide for talent and that would mean more salaries to a few [those who are in cheap locations]
3. It cuts off the emotional bonds of an office and reduces one to a report. In a large company there can be politics and anonymity that has long taken off any bonding. However, in smaller, closely knit companies and teams this can be deadly. You know how people are spending their birthday parties on Zoom [so sad] that becomes your work life. It cuts one of the few avenues for you to make friends after you leave college.
4. It makes it much easier to fire people. It is much harder to fire a person when he/she is out there in the office and gels well with the team. You have to think about all team dynamics. With remote workers, there is no emotional bond. Once the performance starts slipping [in your opinion] or the economy is bad or team demands have changed they get the cut. There will be a lot less room for error in those situations. Job security that has been going down since 1990s will go down even more.
5. Work invades life. Many workers think work from home as a positive thing initially. Eventually they realise that the company has other plans — there is no distinction between you at home and you at work. That means you at work all the time.
6. It is a pay cut for many. You need a bigger home now because you need a dedicated place to work to be productive. You now pay for everything — from computers to bandwidth to coffee to stationery. For those whose commuting expenses are more than this, it is not a problem. For many others it is.
7. Your career depends completely on your communication skills. When you are at office there is a greater degree of visibility due to physical presence and more people can understand what you are working. When you are remote, your career becomes entirely dependent on your monthly reports and responses during the standup calls. Those who have excellent skills, but cannot communicate that well will be at a great disadvantage. The guy who writes great reports will win.
8. For those without structure and self-discipline the career becomes a non-starter. Many workers start their career without much structure. Office moulds them into who they are. However, if people start their career remote, there is no easy venue for structure building and you are like the rookie swimmer dropped in the deepest part of the pool expecting to get alone. Without mentoring and the benefits of an office careers of many young people will be stunted.

Effects on cities and real estate:

1. Commercial real estate will lose value as companies move out. This is a good thing in many places. Many low-end offices will be torn down, replaced by apartments as people will be able to afford the now fallen price of land. However, many governments that are dependent on property taxes will cut their services leading to urban misery. Like what happened to Detroit and Pittsburgh.
2. Cities will become less crowded as less people need to be in the cities and even less people need to be at the office. If you can move to your village or the suburb it is a great thing. You will be competitive. But, if your spouse, children or parents are tied to the location, you are in for a misfortune.
3. All the businesses depend on people coming to an office — commercial security, cleaning, coffee shops, interior decorators will go for a toss. Cities would be blighted.

While the effect of a commute can be bad, there are other solutions. In our company we instituted policies to give additional allowance to those living close to work [for some it can be 10% additional salary]. This way we walk to work — without worrying about commutes — and get the best of both worlds — work and home. This might not be a solution to all [many might have bought homes in which they are quite emotional or have kids settled in schools], but could be thought of the third way for some.