Hello and welcome.
My name is Christopher Chandler.
And my name is Kris Schauer.
And we are Generally American.
In our podcast, we discuss events, culture, whatever else we want from a
generally American perspective.
From our differing viewpoints, our goal is that we can offer others and ourselves
nuanced opinions on fascinating topics related to the US.
We invite you to be part of the discussion and we hope that you'll stick around to
see where the conversation takes us.
So let's dive in.
Hello.
And we're live.
We are, welcome back.
That took me off guard, it didn't do the countdown this time.
No, it did, it did on my part.
Oh, I'm glad it did for you.
Yeah, so I guess it's officially fall or winter, I'm not sure.
It's fall.
Yeah, it's fall, it's definitely fall.
In any rate, it's getting pretty dark at around like 5 p.m.
now, so.
Which is kind of depressing.
Uh...
But it is what it is.
Weather-wise, it's been actually really, really rainy.
Unfortunately.
Although I do enjoy the golden leaves, but it's very rainy.
It's very windy.
Nothing interesting has really happened weather-wise.
Although we did have a small storm.
and storms always very interesting for German media.
From my American perspective, it's not really a storm.
But a lot of Germans see it that way.
I always joke with my wife and my friends that as soon as like a trash can gets
blown over by the wind, the Germans consider it to be a storm.
But I digress.
How about you?
Well, it's uh, the it's been
not horrible with the lack of daylight.
I get off work at 3pm now, so when I go out after that, like, I don't know, the
sun is at just like the right level where it just blasts me in the face and it's too
low for like my sun visor in my car to stop it.
So I always hate that of this time of year.
But no, it's after the little cold snap we have, it's just been like 40 to 50s and
windy.
It gets so windy here this time of year and it's gonna stay windy for a few months
and it's awful.
Uh, it's worse than the snow.
Like, I can live with the snow and the ice.
It brings its own challenges.
Mm.
Hate the wind.
I hate it so much.
I don't know if I'm really bothered by the wind.
Although, if you have wind and snow, it makes it feel a lot colder than it really
is.
I'm still kinda- Well, it just rubs you of your heat.
Oh, that's why you need a windbreaker.
Like, I, uh-
We had our final week of kickball this Wednesday, and it was like 45 degrees
outside, 45, 50.
So it's cold but not freezing, especially if you're playing sports, it's fine.
But it was so windy, and I'm just wearing my kickball t-shirt and my athletic pants.
And every time I'd go to the sideline or I'm not kicking, I'd throw on my jacket,
and my arms were getting numb.
Like it was...
It would have been better if it was like 30 degrees colder and no wind.
Yeah, that's true.
I definitely get the feeling.
Although it doesn't get that cold here, truth be told.
Um, but yeah, so that's the bi-weekly weather report.
Uh, before I actually get onto the actual topic for today, today's, I guess, kind of
a special day in a couple of different countries.
Um.
so correct me if i'm wrong subangina a lot of person face book but isn't today
veterans day all i almost forgot it is here so that it's not got on me this year
so uh...
yesterday i was trying we were trying to do some stuff at my new job uh...
them part of it involved the government and we can get ahold of any everyone and
really that they're observing veterans day today
today's veterans day in the last two yet to our people who have served in the u.s.
military which always confuses me because there's veterans day in this memorial day
and from i feel like it's the same thing but it's actually not uh...
but more of the is in is may isn't uh...
yeah should be and i think memorial specifically like those who passed on
uh...
yes
So it's Veteran Day, so I've been seeing a lot of posts on Facebook, you know, people
thanking everyone for their service, because I have a couple of family members
who served in the US military, so I've been seeing a lot of that.
There's that, and today is Singles Day in a couple countries, so especially in
China.
I don't know if you know that.
Have you heard of that?
No.
Yes.
Yeah, so if you take a look at the date, if you take a look at the date, you have a
bunch of ones.
So it's the 11th of November, which is today when we were recording.
And so you have a bunch of ones.
A lot of people feel like those look like a lot of like stick figures.
So a lot of single people.
So in some countries, especially in Asia, it's considered Singles Day.
So you get like a lot of deals people who are single, which I thought was very
interesting.
And the last thing I wanted to mention was it's also a holiday today in Germany.
So it's St.
Martin's Day.
And it's the beginning of the carnival season for a lot of cities in Germany.
So you can go to the bakery this morning and you can get themed pastries.
I wouldn't say it's a super important holiday in Germany, but it's important for
people who enjoy festivities or carnival stuff.
I'm not necessarily one of those people.
But yeah, I just thought it was interesting that it's
that the 11th of November is a holiday or like an important day in so many different
places.
Just like a small side note I wanted to mention.
That's cool to know though, I had no idea.
Yeah, so I guess you could, we should have that in the US.
We just have...
black friday but that'll be in a couple weeks yeah well hey i'll be shopping for a
new tv for my new place so i get some use out of it this year so what is our actual
topic are actual topic is kinda continuing on the seeming of last week of talking
about what's current my life
We're going to be talking about working from home specifically, the boom that
happened due to COVID over the last three years.
Yeah, I think that's when it really started.
I guess technically speaking, the pandemic isn't over, although for me and for
everyone else I think we've all collectively moved on.
But I feel like that was really the turning point for like working from home.
Because before that, obviously I knew what that was, but it was nothing I could
really imagine, because up until that point I've always just gone somewhere to
work, and now all my work is remote.
Which has its ups and downsides, but we'll get into that later in the episode.
It definitely does.
So I just finished my second week at my new job, and they're based like...
two thousand plus miles away from me they wanted me to move down there and uh...
i respectfully declined uh...
but i'm all set up promotes i have all my work software here i dial in with a vp and
into their systems every day uh...
my have a phone that i can use with the same microphone amusing right now uh...
it's
I will admit it's been slower than I'd like.
I'm a person that likes to keep busy, but that'll come.
It is nice.
The thing you always see people talking about, and I'm finding true, is it's nice
just being able to do little things around the house in your downtime, like putting a
load of laundry in or things like that.
Yeah, that's definitely true.
I don't want to say I'm guilty of that, but I try not to sit in front of the
computer for too long.
I'm definitely a homebody, which is one of my favorite words.
I'm someone who loves to stay at home.
And everyone knows it's not the healthiest thing in the world to just sit in front of
a computer screen the whole day.
And so when you work from home, that's pretty much what you're doing, more or
less.
and so once or twice an hour i'll get up and walk around the house and eat
something or you know do a load of laundry you know get the blood flowing yes
definitely the smart way to do it uh...
i am uh...
definitely learning that you know i you i i'm on my computer a lot and i did working
from home makes me want to be on my computer much less
I'm finding out.
Yeah, that's definitely true, which makes me really sad.
Because I really enjoy doing a lot of stuff on my computer.
I like, you know, writing, I like playing games, I like coding, and then I have to
do my work on my computer.
So I spend way too much time glued to a screen.
I'm hoping it'll help, because I think I mentioned this, I'm moving near the end of
December somewhere in there.
Right now, my computer is in my bedroom.
So it's like, I wake up five minutes before work, I walk ten feet, I sit down
at my computer, you know, and I work for the day.
And then I...
you know.
It's just weird spending 85% of your time in the same room.
Yeah, I had that problem too, because I had my...
my whole setup and my bed in the same room, but now I've kind of rearranged my
apartment for personal reasons.
And so it definitely helps that my bed isn't in the same room.
So now it's in the other room and I'll go to my office.
Granted, it's only 10 feet.
It's only 10 feet removed from my computer.
But still, I feel like it helps.
And when I want to like shut down, you know, for the day and just relax, I have
to physically go to a different room.
lot, as opposed to having everything just in one place.
Exactly.
And that's kind of what I'm hoping to do.
At my new place, there's only one place in the I have a massive like L shaped 90
degree angle desk, there's only one place in my new place, it'll fit.
And it's gonna be like right by a window.
And should be all these things that make me not, you know, miserable.
So looking forward to that.
Um, maybe you can help me out on this because like remote work in general is for
me relatively new and the term itself.
So remote work has been around for...
a while more or less, but it's nothing that's been super popular.
So in English, we say something like remote work or like working from home.
Whereas in Germany we have, and I think in like other countries in Europe too, in
non-English speaking countries, granted it's just England or like the UK, but we
say like home office.
Which to me is always really weird because when people try to speak English, or like
they'll practice English with me, instead of referring to it as like working from
home or like remote work, they'll say something like, I'm doing home office.
Have you ever heard anyone use that term in English?
I mean, when I think home office, I think of someone like in a more traditional work
from home, like a pre pandemic work from home job that actually they have set up a
office at in their home.
like in a separate room, but not as like a...
not like that.
No, no, that's not really the meaning.
So the meaning is really so like home office is just like, I'm just going to
work from home.
And it is so kind of tripped me up for a while because it's like, I don't know if
I've ever used that term in that sense in English.
But yeah, it's something that you hear a lot, especially in Germany.
It's very weird because you have a lot of terms that you use in German that you
wouldn't use in English.
Uh, I don't want to call it like pseudo English, but it's basically using English
words and just giving them their own meaning within the context of like your
own language.
So that's like one of them.
Yeah.
And I think that's a pretty common language phenomena.
mmm No, it definitely is but I always have to think like hmm do like we really say
that and I don't know.
I always love hearing it because it's like taking the words you use every day and
Doing something new with them.
It's I don't know.
I think it's kind of fun Yeah, it's definitely very interesting But yeah, that
was just like a side note, but so I've been working from home now for
the better part of like four or five years.
And even my university was from home.
So like during the height of the pandemic, if you will, all of our classes were
online.
And that was extremely convenient because the university is almost 50 minutes away.
And now they don't care anymore.
So now I have to, like, if you want to go to university, you have to physically go
there.
I don't think they offer anything online anymore.
In all of Germany, there's only one...
Online university only one remote university you can actually go to
Everything else is just physical.
Oh, wow, that's actually Shocking because that's I mean online Colleges have always
been a huge thing here or even just most colleges are hybrid.
I mean it's you They have like a lot of schools and they have like a lot of
colleges in Germany, but a lot of them are for-profit So like you can go to one
online
But it's for profit, but I'm talking about like the state schools that are just super
cheap and don't really cost anything No, it's not sure yeah, so have you noticed
like any like positives or like negatives spending Like your work time at home.
Well the biggest positive like I said It's nice to be able to do some chores here and
there which I definitely do
You know, you can eat at home, plan out your meals.
You can have more control over that.
Obviously, I'm not spending money on gas, because I would...
My old job, I live about 10 minutes away from, so...
I would drive there for the morning, drive back for lunch, drive there after lunch,
and drive back.
So that's like 40 minutes of driving a day worth of fuel I'm not spending anymore.
Yeah, that's the biggest thing is I save a lot of fuel too.
Technically, I could just take a train.
I could take the train, but then I'd be on the road, quote unquote, for like two
hours.
So I'm not doing that.
Yeah, that's the biggest point.
And so before were you, you were like physically working at the location,
weren't you?
Yeah.
And what's funny is right before my last company went under.
like the day before I chatted with the new HR lady to get on the work from home
hybrid rotation because they had like a three day in office, two day hybrid thing.
And I'd done hybrid a couple of times.
In my old role it was perfect.
I was busy all the time, but I didn't really need to be on the phones that much.
I did most things through email.
I loved it.
It was great working, because I was sick a day.
So I was just like, I'm just going to work from home today.
And...
I was like, oh, I just want to do this regularly.
And then the day after, we got told the company was going under.
That sucks.
So it was kind of funny because the lady was like, well, I guess I won't need to
tell you about the work from home thing.
Yeah, for me, it was a lot of my work just can be done remotely.
Like I can go to the office.
I can do it like physically.
but anything I can do physically, I can just do remotely.
So there's no real benefit going to the office.
Although I do go to the office every now and then to see everyone, say hello, this
and that, like, hey, it's me, I'm still here.
And that's what I miss.
Like, you know, you have little work friend groups and you can socialize and...
You know, it's a whole human experience.
Like, and I know that's what a lot of people who hate work from home always say.
I don't think they're usually arguing in bad faith, but it's a real thing.
I mean, we're social creatures.
We need other people.
And you know, I have, at my new company, I'm working with a team of three people
that I've worked with before.
So there is that familiarity, and we do, you know, goof off in our work chat a
little bit.
So that helps, but.
I think it's one of the most underrated things in terms of like working from home,
which is that you don't really have a social connection.
I mean that was one of the reasons why I wanted to actually do this podcast.
so because I started three years ago on my own and then you came after, is like the
social connection.
Granted, I mean just speaking alone in front of a microphone is very
one-dimensional, so there isn't really much of a social component, but it was,
you know, like you really want to, I really want to engage with people and now
that we're doing this together it's even better.
And it was the same thing, or it still is the same thing, like when I work from
home, which is
you're kind of on your own.
I mean, I can call them, we can like voice chat, we can video chat, but it's really
not the same thing.
And because everyone's so scattered, because everyone lives like in a different
city, it's not really viable for them to just like come to the office every day.
So some people live like two hours away.
So you can't realistically, I mean, I guess you could, but you can't go to like
drive two hours a day, go to work, and then drive two
and uh...
Yeah, well, and that was always, I can't remember what it was, but you'd always see
like these weird news clips and stuff, especially pre-pandemic, like, worst
commutes in America.
Oh, this single mother of eight, uh, takes six buses and two trains every day to get
to work.
She has to wake up at 3 a.m.
to get that done.
Like, stupid stuff like that.
Is that a real one?
Because I feel like I saw that.
There was a woman who had a crazy commute like that.
And you know, there are people who are like, yeah, I sit on the interstate two
hours a day to work, and two hours a day back from work.
That's a 12 hour work day with your commute.
That's insane.
It's a nightmare.
And that's a really good term I think a lot of people listening should definitely
remember is commuting.
because in a lot of other countries, so a lot of our listeners are from, are outside
of the US, so they're from different countries where they have better, or I
would presume, better public transportation.
So commuting isn't as big of a deal, I would say, if you're not from the US.
But if you don't have, I feel like if you don't have a car, then you don't have a
prayer.
and you're gonna have a really hard time getting a decent job in the US if you
don't know how to drive or if you don't have a car.
And...
In Germany, it's not that big of a deal.
Although, in my personal opinion, anything longer than half an hour is a pretty long
trip.
I don't know how you feel about that, but that's kind of like my...
the way I measure things.
If it's beyond half an hour, I think like, oh, that's pretty far.
Yeah, like 20-30 minutes.
I mean, I make a 20-minute drive to the other side of town, like once a week, for
some stuff I have to do over there.
You know, it's not horrible, but it's a bit of a drive, and I try to...
I try to put on some...
make sure I have something to listen to while I'm doing that.
What's interesting...
that's about to get worse, because once the ice hits...
There's like a steep curving road that gets to the top of the rock formation
called the rims here in town.
And that leads you up to the airport road which just like fast tracks you to the
other side of town.
They close that a good portion of the year and even if they don't, when there's ice
it's like a death sentence.
So I'll take the longer way and not risk my life when it's bad.
Yeah, I mean I've had that happen to me too where they don't salt the roads and
then
I've had like a couple accidents.
It's not fun.
It's not fun at all.
No, and then people here, I still can't believe it.
I mean, tangent, but whenever, whenever it freezes for the first time, you always get
someone in like a massive, way too big four wheel drive vehicle, and they decide
to tailgate you the whole way.
Hmm.
And then they're usually the ones I find flipped over in the ditch first, but.
Yeah, we don't really have those kind of cars here.
A lot of the cars are rather on the small side.
I mean, the cars in Europe are just tiny compared to the cars in the US.
Although, there are a couple of American trucks in my city, and I say that
specifically because they stick out like a sore thumb.
Because when you compare them to like my car, it's built like three times as big.
And so it's pretty obvious.
Um, a lot of them are pickup trucks that they imported from the U S and.
They take up most of the road and they're really loud and they're really obnoxious
and they just don't really fit into like the, the fabric of the city, if you will,
but that's, that's my tangent.
Yeah.
Unless, unless you're moving and hauling something, you don't need that.
Nobody needs that unless you're doing that.
Yeah.
I think Americans are really obsessed with big cars.
I think that's like one of the biggest understatements of the year.
I'll never forget, I think it was like 2008, 2007, I believe like the Obama
administration had implemented like this buyback system where you could like trade
in your old car for a car that was more like, that was greener basically, that was
better for the environment.
and you get like a credit of I don't know how much.
And a lot of people were doing that and they traded in their cars and just got
like Hummers and stuff.
Which are like some of the most inefficient cars you can possibly buy.
I mean you don't buy them.
Good job America.
Yeah.
I mean you don't buy them because they're efficient.
I guess you buy them because they're, I guess big and maybe pretty.
I have no idea.
I'm not a car person if you can't tell.
uh...
so back from the back to the work from home before we uh...
tangent forever uh...
do you have to deal with any temptations working from home like man i could
disappear from an hour and they probably would know i'm gonna go take a nap like
something like that uh...
i mean my work is pretty lacks so i'm
I guess we're more or less project oriented as long as the project gets done
on time and in a timely manner.
I'm not necessarily certain that the bosses are sitting around checking
everyone's clocks.
Although you never know.
I mean, I don't know what they do all day.
But no, that's something I definitely try not to abuse.
So if I take a break, then it is for like an hour.
and not just leave my stuff on for like three or four hours.
I wouldn't do that.
But I do know, at least at my work I have heard from previous employees that they
possibly abused that.
And I guess that's why they're no longer there.
But I guess it's kind of gossip.
I'm not one to gossip.
What about you?
there's not been a ton going on so there definitely been days where I sit in this
chair and I'm like okay I'm sitting here ready to go what are we doing and I just
sit and scroll on my phone for like four hours I'm like nothing's happening and
yeah there'd be a small thing here or there and uh because I try and make sure
I'm always like available you know even if I'm I could hear the phone ring
from the other room, I can, you know, even if I'm sitting on my bed on the other side
of this room, I can hear the Microsoft Teams ping notification.
I try to always make sure that like, if I'm on the clock, that I'm available and,
you know, working on things to a certain extent.
I don't think that's any different than actually being physically at a location.
I think the only difference is that your superiors can't necessarily see what
you're doing because you're at home.
But I mean, there are plenty of people who've perfected the art of looking busy
while actually doing nothing.
And I've definitely known a lot of people like that.
I think as, you know, there are obviously times where it's a bit slow.
And if there's nothing to do, then there's nothing to do.
And I guess people try to look busy by cleaning things or sorting things.
But if there's nothing to do, there's nothing to do.
And I think you have to kind of balance that with maybe there'll be times where
you're just slammed with work.
And in the end, I believe it'll even out as long as you're, as long as you're
taking care of your work and you're actually doing it on time.
I don't think there's any harm in taking it easy when it's slow.
Unless you can manufacture work, which honestly I don't like doing.
Well, I mean, it depends on the role you're in.
I think we all know the, the two of us know the classic time to lean, time to
clean.
And there are jobs like that.
Like if you ever worked in a kitchen, there's always something you could clean.
I have.
Yeah.
Like, there's always something disgusting somewhere.
You can pull out this thing.
Oh, nobody's been back here in like two months, and it's just coated in grease and
soot and ash from all the machines.
Let's clean that out.
Like there's always something.
That was like one of the first things that my mom told me when I got my very first
job.
And like I went, when I got my very first job and there was really nothing to do, I
got in trouble from the manager, like why are you just standing around?
Why aren't you doing anything?
I was like, well there's nothing to do.
and I'm almost like, well, if there's nothing to do, then you have to find
something, then clean a table or I don't know, like clean the restrooms or
something or go to the parking lot and find something there.
As long as you appear to be busy, as long as you have the appearance of being busy,
then I think it's more important than actually being busy.
Yeah, in a lot of roles, that's unfortunate.
Towards the end of my time at my last company, I didn't really care that much
about keeping up appearances.
because if there was work to do, I was gonna do it.
And I was gonna do it well.
And sometimes there would be three, four hours of work that need to be done in one
hour.
And if that happens, I'll do it.
It'll be stressful and I'll get through it.
And I'll be satisfied by the end of it, but I'm not gonna, like you said, I'm not
gonna manufacture work necessarily.
Now it's different depending on your role.
So there are some...
Like if your job is to make cool calls outbound all day and you're not doing
that, then that's different.
Well, I mean, yes, obviously, but I think for a lot of people there is this
temptation to just sit around and do nothing the whole time.
What I really hate, and thankfully I've never actually been in this situation, but
I have heard it from a lot of people where they really do use this monitoring
software, where they'll constantly monitor your activity, they'll take screenshots of
your computer, they'll record your phone calls.
I mean some bosses are pretty extreme to where they'll like physically record you
while you're at your desk.
They'll have like a camera on the computer monitor.
And if you have like a microphone, they'll record your voice.
And we don't have any of that.
So a lot of our work is really based on trust, more or less.
And I think at the end of the day, that's all you really have is if people are going
to work, then they're going to work.
And if they're not going to work, they're not going to work.
And by monitoring them the whole time, I think that just.
It's kind of like the ad blockers.
That just makes them want to find a way to get around it.
You know, they have these, what do they call them?
Like these mouse jigglers, I think, that you can buy on Amazon.
Yeah.
Where like the people would monitor your mouse movement to see like if they're
actually doing something.
And so some people were, I want to say like less smart, and they installed
software on the computers, which is a big no-no.
You should never do that.
Because the IT department can detect that, you know, if you've installed software
into your computer.
But what they can't detect are these like physical, you know, mouse jigglers, these
mouse movers that you can put at your desk and it'll just move your mouse back and
forth.
And you know, control like that just makes you want to try and defeat the system.
in my yeah definitely so and my old job they got rid of this after about a year I
was there they had I think it was called
I can't remember the name of it, but it was basically and they had this on all the
in-office computers too Or it basically takes a screenshot of your computer every
30 minutes Just to like make sure it's changing and they made me install that
like I had a sick day early on they made me install That at home to work from home
and all this other stuff I did not like their work from home setup just because it
was so invasive mmm, and
My new role, I mean...
I dial into their system with a VPN, but other than that...
I don't have any monitoring things.
I've actually talked to people before about those mouse jigglers and things like
that.
But...
Yeah, I just hate the...
I'm a very like, leave me alone and I'll do my job kind of person, you know?
Like I'm not going to sit in a corner all silent, like if I need help or something,
I'll go get it.
But I don't like being bothered or told how to do things I know how to do, you
know what I mean?
Yeah, that's, I definitely feel like, feel that way too.
And plus when you're in office the whole time, you're
more or less kind of forced to socialize, which is nice.
I mean, I do enjoy socializing, but it takes away from the real reason why you're
at work, which is to work.
And you know, there's a time to chat, there's a time to work.
And when you're at home, at, I go, when you're working from home, you're really on
your own and I feel like you're more productive.
At least I know I am.
Because if I'm around people I want to talk the whole time, as opposed to
working.
Well, it kind of depends.
In my last job, it was a sales job.
Before I moved roles, being in office was a big advantage, because you can overhear
things in an office that give you an edge.
Like, oh, I overheard this person's, you know, building this load.
I know about it now.
I'm going to have a head start when they build it, and maybe I'll make myself some
commission money.
Oh, hey, I don't know how to do this.
Just walk up to someone like, hey, I haven't been able to figure this out.
Can you show me how you do this?
And you just watch over their shoulder real quick.
uh...
that's an advantage my current job they like to fly all the remote people down to
jacksonville one to two times a year i'm told to you know just be in office and
just keep everyone on the same page uh...
when i do that i'm planning on at some point like a show me how you do this like
i kinda know how to do this but you've done this in this system for years like
what is like the veteran way to do this what's the fast smart way to do this
Yeah, definitely.
I definitely like actually seeing someone physically do something, even if it's on
like a computer, even if it's like them showing me how to do something on a
computer.
I appreciate that more than like doing it through like TeamViewer or Microsoft
Remote Desktop or anything like that.
I feel like the, I don't know, that it just it's just a lot easier for me to
absorb the information.
And it's nice to not have like this delay with the internet or like having a screen
between you and the other person
but I mean sometimes it's not really possible, especially because like I said,
a lot of people that work for the company I work at, they're kind of like all over
the place.
So we can't always be at the same location at one time, but being flown down by the
company is, I mean, it does sound pretty nice.
I can imagine that that's pretty good for like international companies like team
building.
So that's pretty important when you're, if you want to build the team, like team
spirit or team bonding.
Yeah.
I think, so I think like 90% or of their workforce that aren't drivers are in
Jacksonville, Florida, where they're based out of.
And I know they have some in Georgia.
I think us in Montana are by far going to be the farthest out and one of us is in
Detroit, but I'm looking forward to it.
I won't lie.
Uh, having a company pay for me to go somewhere is on my bucket list.
So.
And I'm gonna take it seriously, it's not an opportunity for a vacation.
I'm sure something fun will happen, but that's...
I understand that, and I'm keeping that mentality, but it's, uh...
It is pretty cool to me.
I mean yeah, having the company pay for your travel is something very interesting.
I haven't actually ever had that, but on the other hand, I've never actually gone
anywhere for a company, so I mean who knows, that might be something I'll do in
the future.
But for me, I really do enjoy working from home.
It gives me a great amount of flexibility, and it's really nice to know that people
aren't like breathing down my neck.
which is something I've had while working physically at a location.
You can get at work from home too.
I definitely saw it at my last job.
Like, Hey, I can't get ahold of so-and-so.
Aren't they working from home today?
Are they even working?
Why can't I get them on the phone?
Why aren't they responding to my emails?
Why aren't, you know, depending on the job, you still gotta be like on, or people
are going to be on you right away.
Yeah, that's definitely true.
I always make it a point to
reply as quickly as possible to my emails and my messages and all of that.
But I get kind of conflicting information because if you look online, you'll find a
lot of these auto-complete searches by Google.
I think one of them was like, how do I know if my remote employees are actually
working?
And one report will say if your employees take too long to answer or reply to like
phone calls or emails, then they're not actually working from home, they're doing
something else.
And then another report will say if they reply too quickly, then that might be
suspicious because it could be like an auto reply.
And so you can't really win with some people, you know, if they want to find
some way to make your life difficult, then they're going to.
Yeah, I mean, if some employers just hate work from home and do it because that's
just the stand, you know, it's a standard option these days, but they still hate it
and they want any reason they can to take it away from you.
Yeah, I think when Elon Musk took over Twitter,
now x which i think is such a stupid name no i'm not calling it that i refused to
too but he said a lot in news reports um he i think he got rid of uh work from home
and he said that it's a slap in the face to everyone who can't work from home like
mechanics which to me is such a stupid comparison um i think if you can work from
home you should work from home well i don't know if you should but i mean you
should have the option at least but obviously i mean there are things that you
can't actually do from home like a mechanic or like a i don't know working at
a supermarket
But anything office related, I mean, sure, I think it should have the option.
Well, and in this, hopefully work from home is going to be a big benefit to
society in more ways.
So I don't know if you've heard this, but obviously there's lots of empty office
space around the country now because people, so many companies just went to
full-time remote, remote work from home.
or they downsized.
So there would be contracts to build these massive office buildings.
You know, they take years to build.
Yeah, I heard that.
So I think the government is trying to get them converted to housing, apartments and
stuff, which with the way the housing market is right now, I mean, I'm sure it
won't be perfect, but it's something.
Like, put more options in the market.
I think I heard
something about that or I read something to the effect that it would affect the, I
don't know, the activity of like the inner cities.
Because if you have like a lot of office space and you have a lot of people working
there, if you have a lot of people working there, that means they live in the area,
they'll go to other businesses, you know, it's good for the economy.
I don't know how true that is because I'm not an economist or anything, but I can
definitely see people being worried about, you know, like the inner cities dying out.
but I think people should be more interested in not building like huge
office spaces, but like more affordable living, which I think is a global problem.
You can't really find good affordable living really anywhere.
You sure can't and the office space is cheap.
So it didn't end up working out, but my a friend of mine basically had his own
office space paid for by another company.
about a year, year and a half ago, uh, cause he, he was basically trying to get a
startup off the ground for them.
And this office suite, it was on the third floor of like an office complex, a top
floor.
It, uh, had probably enough space for, you know, five to eight people to work
comfortably.
Maybe more of you stretched it and there was like a little kitchenette built in and
all these things.
And
it was $500 a month.
Yeah, a lot of these prices are pretty astronomically high.
It's the same here though.
I think because a lot of these like office space, a lot of it is subsidized by the
government or like the local governments, whereas housing isn't, unfortunately.
Yeah.
Wait, do you think that 500 was high?
Cause I think that's like super low.
I mean for office space, I mean what I'm saying is the space itself, like ignoring
office space, ignoring living space, just paying for that much space for $500 a
month, like at that point, like just put a cot in there and live there.
I guess, yeah, I guess if you look at it like that, then it's somewhat comparable
to the office space here.
Although, I don't know if you're actually allowed to live in an office.
I think that would actually- Oh, I'm sure you're not, but that's what I'm saying.
Like it's still space, like convert it.
Yeah, I mean that's technically I guess you could convert it.
I have kind of flirted with the idea of doing something like that But um, they're
pretty strict about the rules here when you rent stuff So if you kind of break
your contract then they'll you know, throw you out But Yeah, I think in general
office space is a lot cheaper than actual living space um because the idea is that
In my opinion the idea is that if you have office space and you're going to generate
revenue
Whereas if you're living somewhere you don't necessarily generate revenue, so I
think it's just a net win for like the whole city
But I mean, they're trying to build more stuff here.
So hopefully that'll lower the prices, but I'm not holding my breath that anything
will change anytime soon.
Yeah, well, hopefully someone gets motivated to fix it, but that's another
talk for another day.
Yeah.
Now, so we're slowly coming to a close.
I definitely think that remote work is here to stay.
I know that in the future,
I'm not planning on changing my job anytime soon, but if I do it'll definitely
have to have You know a work from home component to it Even if only hybrid, but
if I have to actually go somewhere 40 50 hours a week
I don't know.
But a lot of companies are kind of scaling back this policy.
Like one of the biggest culprits is Google.
At the beginning of the pandemic they were all like work from home and you know be
flexible and now they're threatening to fire people.
They're telling people to come back and work in the office.
It's good for company culture and all that fun jazz.
But only time will tell if it's here to stay.
But I think it is.
Yeah, and oh, just one little thing I want to add, something I'm looking forward to.
Once I'm like settled in my new place, one thing I'm planning on doing is having,
cooking all my meals.
Oh.
And you know, there are things like, like if you bake a turkey, for example, like
that takes like six hours.
I'm not saying I'm gonna bake a turkey every day, but you know, I could have
something going like that, where I could, you know, eyeball it all day and you know.
That's kind of another one of the benefits that I'm planning on making great use of.
I don't know why I didn't think of that.
I don't know why I didn't mention that.
Yeah, like that's one of the benefits of working from home is that you can cook.
Obviously I'm not cooking like, you know, five meals a day while I'm working.
But I'm not really consigned to just having to like, I don't know, eat fast
food or anything.
I can actually cook in my own kitchen.
Although at my work, we have a kitchen so I could cook there too, but you know what
I mean.
What?
That's crazy.
Yeah, yeah.
I've never heard of that.
We have a kitchen.
We have a full blown kitchen so we can actually cook there.
But that entails me actually having to buy the ingredients, take them with me, go to
work.
You know, there are more steps involved.
And I mean, it sounds inconvenient, but just the fact that you can.
That's crazy.
I mean, I've done it once.
I mean, it's nice, but I don't feel like bringing a boatload of ingredients to
cook.
If they had ingredients, that would even be even better.
But I don't know of any company that's going to provide you with free ingredients
to cook your own meal, unless it's Google.
Anywho.
That's all from my side.
I don't know if you have anything you want to add before we get out of here.
I think we covered it.
Alright, thanks so much everyone.
Thanks so much for listening.
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