<story><title>Coronavirus Forces World’s Largest Work-from-Home Experiment</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-02/coronavirus-forces-world-s-largest-work-from-home-experiment</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hkai</author><text>I am currently soft-quarantined by my employer in Hong Kong because I recently visited Mainland China, and will be working from home for 14 days, along with many others.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not going that well: from my subjective point of view, people seem to treat it as an extra vacation. They are often not online and will only complete a few small tasks per day, because there is no threat from the boss who sees that you are browsing facebook instead of working.&lt;p&gt;Even government employees are at home. Many people didn&amp;#x27;t get their tax bill so they don&amp;#x27;t need to pay tax for now. Sweet!&lt;p&gt;That experiment makes me think that perhaps work from home is optimal mostly for a small pool of highly motivated and talented individuals, such as the average person on HN who actually does feel more productive working from home. Outside of HN, work ethic could be different.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>icebraining</author><text>Well, of course you can&amp;#x27;t just switch to remote work overnight without any preparation, and expect everything to work well immediately! But, for example: how do you know those workers are treating it as a small vacation? You&amp;#x27;re not there to see them either! Managers can do the same, they don&amp;#x27;t need to know what the worker is doing instead of working; they can see the work is &lt;i&gt;not getting done&lt;/i&gt;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Coronavirus Forces World’s Largest Work-from-Home Experiment</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-02/coronavirus-forces-world-s-largest-work-from-home-experiment</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hkai</author><text>I am currently soft-quarantined by my employer in Hong Kong because I recently visited Mainland China, and will be working from home for 14 days, along with many others.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not going that well: from my subjective point of view, people seem to treat it as an extra vacation. They are often not online and will only complete a few small tasks per day, because there is no threat from the boss who sees that you are browsing facebook instead of working.&lt;p&gt;Even government employees are at home. Many people didn&amp;#x27;t get their tax bill so they don&amp;#x27;t need to pay tax for now. Sweet!&lt;p&gt;That experiment makes me think that perhaps work from home is optimal mostly for a small pool of highly motivated and talented individuals, such as the average person on HN who actually does feel more productive working from home. Outside of HN, work ethic could be different.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>runawaybottle</author><text>There is one major requirement for remote work, it’s called deadlines. Give people a paycheck, some requirements, and deadlines and I promise you the work will find a way to get done. They can browse Facebook all they want.</text></comment>