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Comment by d_burfoot | Hacker News Reader

I work at a big tech company. One of the big realizations we've made is that WFH is not killing our productivity - it may actually be increasing it. If that is widely true, it has huge implications, and points towards an enormous amount of value that can be unlocked, by allowing professionals to work wherever they want (presumably in lower CoL locales). This article indicates that the housing crisis costs the US economy 1.6 trillion a year, so we should be able to recoup that immense loss (about 2x the military budget) by exploiting remote work tech.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/05/the-urban-housing-cru...

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I don't know. I work in tech and almost everyone I know is finding themselves less productive and can't wait to get back to the office. Maybe because most of us live in an apartments and not magestic houses with woods or lakes behind them, and the feeling of being trapped indoors is neither healthy nor pushes one to work more effectively.

My PC is in my living room and I'm on it, in the same seat, at the same desk, using the same monitor as I use for work, typing to you here on a Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow at 8:30 am I will be here, too. And I was here for hours reading the news and trying to find a couch online.

I can't wait NOT to WFH. I hate it. The option to do so is great, though -- maybe one Friday out of every two I will start to do it.

Indeed, the home office space is important If you had a permanent work from home option, you might rent an apartment with some office space, and renting a 2 bedroom somewhere that is not SF is probably still cheaper than a studio in the city.

That’s where the lower COL comes in. If your Silicon Valley paycheck gets spent in Midwest American living, you’d be able to afford an office to keep your work life separate.

Then move somewhere that has a proper home office. You can live anywhere now.

I've been thinking about this for a while. It makes sense that if people don't need to commute they have more flexibility in choosing where to live. On the other hand, there will still be richer/safer towns with better schools where most people want to live in.

Where I live there's been a booming of new construction for office space and very expensive rents. Some small companies I know moved to work remotely cause they couldn't afford renting an office anymore. It's been puzzling why this is happening given the rise of remote work (pre COVID-19). Part of it is FANNG companies which all expanded like crazy in recent years, including many new multibillion dollar offices.

Interesting you say you work in a big company. I find remote work to be more challenging in big companies. Productivity is not the issue. The main issue is visibility to other parts of the org. Working remotely you don't get to bump into people from different teams. There are ways to make it happen remotely too, just more challenging when there are so many people.

Congrats on your realization, the world begs to differ.

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