COVID-19 Unemployed/Employed Roll Call Poll
- Thread starter ClonesTwenty1
- Start date
I see this as almost all benefit from an urban economics standpoint.
There is a continuum of workers from those who need to be there all the time (e.g., shift workers in emergency rooms, like Dr. Sigma) to those who essentially never need to be there (such as software salesman yours truly). There are plenty of people in the middle where coming into the office for meetings or to touch base a time or two a week or a few times per month would be helpful, but daily would be overkill.
For the former types, this does nothing but help them because the latter types are likely to move further and further out to acquire cheaper and more spacious real estate. Making a 2-3 hour commute daily is not viable, but doing that a few times per month probably would be. The pattern I am seeing around here is not that people are going to completely disconnect from their home base, but rather move out to stay within "striking distance" for those infrequent trips but stay in the regional orbit of a major city.
Here is a 90-minute range for Washington, DC --
Extend that to 120 or 180 minutes, and you pick up most of the northern half of Virginia, most of Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and eastern West Virginia. There is a lot of space out there for people to setup bespoke "work from home" communities.
The same thing for Des Moines --
A three-hour window from Des Moines covers most of the state. There are plenty of small towns in rural Iowa that could see revitalization as "work from home" communities far beyond the traditional range of "bedroom" towns in Polk County.
These people distancing themselves would reduce the squeeze on real estate prices for the stock close into cities and reduce the burden on transportation infrastructure, which makes living close and moving around much cheaper and easier for the people who really do need (or really want) to be there. You are also right the reducing in VMT has environmental and air quality benefits (and less wear on the infrastructure). I see nothing but benefits there to decompress many of the stresses that come with density.
You are completely right this is going to be a sea change (and not much for the better) for the sectors you mentioned. That might balance out (somewhat) by increased demand for modern and suburban-style homes in exurban locations (and with an extra bedroom or two for the parents' home offices, which are pretty nice to have).
We might be building fewer suburban office complexes in Waukee, but we might be building some newer, nicer, and larger homes in (to pick a random place) somewhere like Creston for professionals from Des Moines who can work from home.
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Have been working my office job remotely since March, will not return until 2021 at the earliest. No impact to the job otherwise. It's nice to have the 2 hours I spent commuting back in my day. Otherwise, I'm very grateful to still have this work and be relatively unaffected throughout all this.
Also finished my masters degree in Music Technology remotely, which I was planning on having to do anyways, but under normal circumstance. I lucked out and traveled to New York to do the lab testing I needed in late February and got out before everything shut down. In the end I really needed another trip to do a better thesis, but at least I got something.
The past couple of years I've been sound designing for local theatre, work that I believe is unlikely to return for at least another year. In the meantime I've been doing some "virtual choir" work for my church and a friend at a college in South Carolina. Hoping to do more of that for a local high school whose choirs I regularly record. Am trying to figure out what's next in terms of my audio/arts career (see expensive masters degree above), but this is kind of a tough time for that, and when the entirety of the industry is built on who you know, it's hard to know what to do.
But again, very thankful my day job is stable and intact.
Also finished my masters degree in Music Technology remotely, which I was planning on having to do anyways, but under normal circumstance. I lucked out and traveled to New York to do the lab testing I needed in late February and got out before everything shut down. In the end I really needed another trip to do a better thesis, but at least I got something.
The past couple of years I've been sound designing for local theatre, work that I believe is unlikely to return for at least another year. In the meantime I've been doing some "virtual choir" work for my church and a friend at a college in South Carolina. Hoping to do more of that for a local high school whose choirs I regularly record. Am trying to figure out what's next in terms of my audio/arts career (see expensive masters degree above), but this is kind of a tough time for that, and when the entirety of the industry is built on who you know, it's hard to know what to do.
But again, very thankful my day job is stable and intact.
My wife and I both accepted new job offers out of state right before COVID hit the U.S. and luckily they were not taken away. I went about 3 weeks in-between jobs where I wasn't working, but otherwise I feel very fortunate to be employed. In my new role I am working from home about 50-60% of the week and coming on-site when I need to for meetings or in-person items. I work in manufacturing, so there's definitely a certain portion of the job where I need to be there in person to see what is going on.
I will say I love the flexibility of working remotely, but it's been a little tough starting a new job during this whole thing from a social standpoint. It's been pretty common when I go on-site that I'm the only member of my team there and I still have yet to meet many of my co-workers in person even though I've had several meetings/calls with them. My company also has plenty of social activities outside of work, an on-site gym, etc. but basically all of that is suspended while COVID is happening. First world problems though, I'm just very happy to have a job right now.
I will say I love the flexibility of working remotely, but it's been a little tough starting a new job during this whole thing from a social standpoint. It's been pretty common when I go on-site that I'm the only member of my team there and I still have yet to meet many of my co-workers in person even though I've had several meetings/calls with them. My company also has plenty of social activities outside of work, an on-site gym, etc. but basically all of that is suspended while COVID is happening. First world problems though, I'm just very happy to have a job right now.
i've been part time at home since start of april and they want me to come back in (the company culture is very old-school) but we've have 4 cases last week alone so i think i'll chill at home for another few weeks. i know people probably talk about me critically but my safety is more important - PLUS being with my kids full time is the absolute best time of my life. i don't want to go back to the status quo. i want to be with my kids.
Oh hey, that's me. 1 hour there and 1 hour back, assuming that all the public transportation is running smoothly (maybe half the time). I walk, take a train, take a subway, and then walk again.
Much better than when I was taking a bus the whole way (back when I wasn't getting job benefits with a subsidized train pass). Walk, bus, Walk, 1.5 hours there, 1.5 hours back. For a less than 10 mile trip. Awful.
Work in manufacturing. There is no 'work from home'. 500 people working in close proximity has not been a big part of the discussion, at least on this board. The company and employees take some mitigation measures (masks) but life goes on.
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I was blessed in that my company was already 100% online from home so the only transition was kids being loud and home 24/7.
Had a friend in NYC who's commute consisted of 20 minute subway ride, 10 minute walk, then 15 minutes waiting for the elevator to the 44th floor. Don't think he hated it but still very bizarre. I couldn't image what you were doing!
I've been working from home since middle of March. I've had one vacation day off this year, and probably won't get another until October. I wind up working around 50 hours a week. So yeah, still working, and then some.
Never stopped working. I work in the bridge/highway construction world doing business development. I worked from home from March until early June. Started going back to the office early June. Our office is very small (<15 people max) and I have an office with a door, so I can stay away from people pretty easily.
I'm going back to the office on 7/20/20. Working in an office all day wasn't ideal before, but it's going to be worse with COVID rules and increased risk of getting ill. Considering how often they emphasize safety and risk management, it just seems silly to bring thousands back to a enclosed spaces for 9 hours a day. We had a 20-year guy ask to stay home and they pretty much asked him to get a doctor's note like he was a child.
Never stopped working. I've been working remote from home since mid March. At the moment our company is planning on bringing 30% of our office staff back in early August. I am not part of that 30%. And we haven't been told much else yet. Supposedly the plan is to steadily bring back more employees maybe a month or two at a time, but we've also been told that there is a corporate policy regarding a permanent work from home option forthcoming. I'm home at least through the end of August and my supervisor told me it's nothing I have to worry much about until later this fall at the earliest.
I'd be happy never going back in. Everything still gets done. Working from home is ******* awesome.
I'd be happy never going back in. Everything still gets done. Working from home is ******* awesome.
