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Comment by dillonmckay | Hacker News Reader

I never realized how many people relied on work and school to reduce contact with their family until this pandemic started.

I don’t know where we go from here, though.

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I suppose I've seen the two extremes of this. People who are really annoyed with their family, and others (mostly women) who probably won't go back to work when this is over because they actually get to see their kids. Not sure which cohort is larger but I do see some benefits with people, who want to I guess, having an avenue for spending more time with their family.

That said I personally hate working from home. Never ever thought I'd say it but I long for my office cubicle as my work has totally monopolized what's usually my own personal space for side projects and zoning out.

> my work has totally monopolized what's usually my own personal space for side projects and zoning out

I would like to see an increase in flexibility. Many people will choose to work from their own homes, and some may choose to use a flex working space near their homes, and some may commute to the office. Maybe you'll do all 3 depending on what's going on in your life or at work.

The increased flexibility is the key.

I wouldn't expect anyone to enjoy wfh in a tiny apartment or anything like that.

I'm watching mountain houses that have sat vacant for months get rented and I'm quite tempted myself. It's not like I can walk to anywhere that's open and I'm paying all this money to live in a hip area with bars and stuff.

You're one of the lucky few with a cubicle. Do you think you would feel differently if you worked in an open office?

I sort of have a "half" cubical, with a ~5' high wall divider to my right and in front of me (and my back is to the wall). If I worked in a true open office you're right I'd probably be more reluctant to return.

>I never realized how many people relied on work and school to reduce contact with their family until this pandemic started.

Perhaps its less malicious than you make it sound. Isn't it pretty unprecedented in human history for families to be restricted in such close quarters, cut off from community, for such an extended period of time? People need personal space

In recent history in developed countries? Yea seems so. In human history? Most other cultures place way more importance on family than we do in the west, in many even today, kids continue living with their parents until marriage.

>Most other cultures place way more importance on family than we do in the west, in many even today, kids continue living with their parents until marriage.

Hunter gatherer and agricultural societies often have labor segregated by gender roles, with men, women and children spending more time apart from each other than a family in lockdown.

I suspect as with anything relating to human cultures, there's plenty of examples and counterexamples to go either way. For instance in many places people live in a single room, parents and kids [1]. In others I'm sure people live very segregated lives.

https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/sleep/bed-sharing-co...

That's maybe a bit uncharitable. I like my kids, but some tension will arise when they are shrieking & running circles around me while I try to suss out a bug or pay attention to a meeting.

There are no eggs to collect or cows to milk in tech work.

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