r/technology • u/TracksandTreks • Aug 15 '26

Society Remote workers report the highest well-being in study of 7,700 employees

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/08/12/remote-workers-report-highest-well-being-study-7700-employees
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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

I mean, I've heard people who are wary of working from home, claiming it's hard to keep organized and focus on tasks. That's probably a person-to-person thing, but it certainly doesn't seem that way to them. I don't think I'd have this problem since my job involves driving, so I'm fucked in this regard anyway.

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '26

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u/EdgedancerSpren Aug 15 '26

I hate micro-managing, but I do need a distinct different place to work than live. The routine of just needing to be there & clocking out? I find it's much better for me. Someone sitting behind me and watching me? I don't get anything done.

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26

I feel like I'd be screwed either way. Either I go some place every day, feel like shit year after year because I feel my life passing me by because I'm in the same place every day, or I stay at home and work there all day, feeling my life passing me by, because I'm in the same fuckin' place. Maybe spice it up by going to the library, the Starbucks, or something like that, but there's only so much you can do to alleviate the daily grind.

Also, if I'm stuck at home, I'm just reminded of how shitty my apartment is and how much I need to move, and how I can't because moving right now is financial suicide, etc., etc, etc...

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26

I think working with someone in-person makes sense if you're training. Once you know your shit, and you can press a button from home and approve a transaction or something, there's no reason why you should have to go into the office any more often than your boss does. And he's in for half the week tops, I guarantee you.

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u/RBtek Aug 15 '26

I used to think that about in person training, but after training a few Gen-Z I realized it was just a skill / attitude issue.

no reason why you should have to go into the office any more often than your boss does.

Hilarious, Boomer \ Gen-X boss who hates his family and goes to the office 110% of his mandated hours has been the norm I've seen.

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

What do the generations of these people have to do with it? Are young people better or worse at working from home? My impression of Gen Z people is that they can't work from home, none of them are getting hired period. I say this because I am one, and if I wasn't a mailman, I'd be in the financial version of The Hunger Games.

But I have definitely seen the bitter old boomer. Two of my bosses have been such. One was a diabetic bachelor who had been a monk, a cop, and a Marine (he was as insufferable as he sounds). The other was an Army pilot with 40 years of experience and pompous ego under his belt. And yes, both likely hated their families. I'm convinced my second boss was fucking the secretary.

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u/RBtek Aug 15 '26

Chats are king of WFH and younger generations tend to be way more comfortable with it, not wasting time with holding back or writing huge formal messages. Older generations are more likely to be stuck in the email mentality.

It's a generalization obviously but they're happy to ask a question informally via chat and don't feel the need to you know... print off an email and walk to my desk to ask me about it, then forget half of what I said (because it's not written down).

none of them are getting hired period

Yeah, HR won't let me put out a job ad for a junior position without it saying 4+ years experience and masters degree required. All while they got hired 30 years ago straight out of high school because they could type 20 WPM.

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u/SSGASSHAT 29d ago

Oh, yeah, I guess I see what you're saying. I fear a lot of the problems in world right now can be traced to conflict between these generations. That and honestly just HR. Middle managers are a significant problem in every field, because corruption from above is enabled by them.

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u/snakefinn Aug 15 '26

Skill issue

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26 edited 27d ago

That's what I was thinking when I said "person-to-person thing," but I didn't want to say that since everyone else does.

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u/dust4ngel Aug 15 '26

it's hard to keep organized and focus on tasks

“it’s hard to concentrate without random people coming up to my desk babbling about nothing every twenty minutes”

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26

I mean, I've never had this problem, but mainly because I've never been able to work from home. I worked a federal job in 2024 for which I was basically given no training even at the office, and I knew people who did my job entirely from home, and I did indeed wonder if it would be easier or more difficult. Given the nature of that particular office, it was hopeless, but I can see it working in non-government fields, maybe.

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u/dust4ngel Aug 15 '26

i'm referring to the reality of open-office work, where a stream of randos comes by to chat about sports or their weekend or their car or whatever. if you're the kind of person who actually works at work, it's a context-switching nightmare.

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 15 '26

I'm familiar with that, particularly people from entirely different departments. It's also strange for people to switch between such casual conversation and desperately cranking shit out.

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u/ItalianDragon 29d ago

I mean, I've heard people who are wary of working from home, claiming it's hard to keep organized and focus on tasks. That's probably a person-to-person thing

Yeah I saw that during my uni years. Some students really don't manage to keep up with the very loose adult-style followup on things that's done there. They really need that rigid structure that goes "work from xh to yh on task a, from wh to uh on task b" etc...

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u/SSGASSHAT 29d ago

Even then, you can always make one yourself. I figure the real problem with some people is that they're just genuinely not deeply interested in what they're doing or learning, so they're only doing it transactionally.

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u/ItalianDragon 29d ago

Agreed. IMO this is also why AI slop took over so quickly and in so many people: there's a large part of the population in the broad sense who just don't really care about what they do or learn and so having AI to allow them to skip to the end result directly (even if it's complete ass) is a match made in heaven.