Remote Work in 2025 and Beyond

[eDJ_]

If you work remotely for a company are you expecting to be shifted into RTO ? (Remote to Office) I don't know if there any Van Dwelling Federal Employees here or not but there is slated to be crack down on Remote Work for them and private sector employers are wanting to return remote workers to their offices. Will you be effected ?

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"Looking to 2025, I believe remote work will evolve into a more balanced hybrid approach," he says. "While some companies may push for a full return to office, the ongoing demand from employees for flexibility will likely ensure that hybrid models remain dominant.

Still there are a lot of businesses who cannot find employable personnel living close by. It may owe to the cost of housing. Then if people have to drive to work some distances they may want to look at the pay being offered and the cost of tires for their vehicle and other operating expenses. (have you checked the prices for new tires lately ? They ain't cheap. A new set could cost more than a weeks pay and possibly a months. So many tires are made in China and tariffs won't help matters if you need replacements)

 

[twomountainlions]

They had been cracking down on remote to appease interests of commercial real estate and other business owners. Literal slavery. Public servants, however, should not work remotely, they often use it to literally hide from the public they should serve.

 

[maki2]

There is a huge difference between actual slavery and the social construct of being a “wage slave”. Watch out because words actually do have meanings and sometimes modifying words do need to precede them.

 

[Cy_5th]

I am in the private sector, oil and gas. It is such a big company that there has to be remote work depending on your job duties. It's cheaper that way for this company. They had been closing pencil pushing offices for example in CA because of the cost rent and gives the employee a choice to move out of state to their new HQ or work remote (depending on job duties) or get laid off.

I have not heard about going back to 4-5 day work weeks where I am at which is on site. I think this hybrid schedule will continue. Like I mentioned it has been going on way before the pandemic with this company. It was only a fully remote when the pandemic happened.

In the Federal though there probably so much overhead they will just cut the job outright.

 

[eDJ_]

When high profile business people like Elon Musk begin to make broad statements regarding the work week hours that have become accepted practice, a lot of other small businesses may allow them their interest to be swayed by it too. Notice the first five words (a cop out in my own opinion) in the quote below. It can open a new avenue to micro managing. When workers begin to realize the cost of living/commuting to work against the pay scale being offered they may look closely at employers, going into debt on 30+% credit cards, and even remaining single opposed to trying to form a family in these austere times. If your commute time is over two hours a day, that's two hours of your own free time you aren't compensated for. An "opportunity cost" to have the present job. (is it really worth it if you are struggling to break even.....your employer wouldn't operate his/her business like that) Many of us are here living the Nomad lifestyle or studying it for some of these reasons.

“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week,” SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2018

Why Do We Buy Into the ‘Cult’ of Overwork?
..
An image from a tenement building in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1920's. ( Back when America was so Great....we hear so much about today) Less affluent workers worked long hours at low pay before the 40 hour work week was established in 1940 with The Fair Labor Standards Act. (which mandated time over 40 hours a week must be paid over time wages)

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[maki2]

Economist theorize what the future worker’s daily lives might look like. Why not go back to the 1960s business predictions and read those theories for what business models might look like today.? You might be very amused at what you see

Today, if you want to know what the jobs and economy might look at a particular future date then ask those questions of an AI. They are busy putting the human economic predictors out of business. You too no longer need to personally speculate about such things. You have an AI at your fingertips to do that for you. Have some fun today, ask your questions of an AI and see what it says.

 

[rruff]

“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week,” SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2018

That's just true. It's also true that the average person isn't "changing the world" by any stretch of the imagination.

An image from a tenement building in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1920's. ( Back when America was so Great....we hear so much about today)

That wasn't the great period. The "Great Period" started in the 30s and lasted til the late 70s... The only time in history when the average worker saw an increase in real income that matched the per capita GDP increase. In other words the "rising tide" really did raise all the boats... briefly. For the last 50 years the real wage increase has been ~0.

I expect many companies will be happy to continue allowing remote work, so long as it makes economic sense to do so. If a person can actually do their work in isolation, then the employer saves the cost of office space, and the worker saves money in living and commuting expenses. Win-win.

 

[eDJ_]

rruff, I grew up around loads of people who were young people in the 20's and on. They thought the 20's post WW1 (even the later 20's were the top of the greatness until the late 50's and 60's) The 30's was the Great Depression....the 40's WW2....the early 50's included Korea and recovery thereafter. None of them spoke of those times as American Greatness.

Now if you were The Astor's (died on the Titanic) Carnegie, Mellon, Frick, Vanderbilt, JP Morgan, Rockefeller, and Gould.......those who Trump likely sees as America when it was great. All the "little people" will remain the same now as then. And with the coming tariffs may struggle to afford the nomad life.

 

[rruff]

rruff, I grew up around loads of people who were young people in the 20's and on. They thought the 20's post WW1 (even the later 20's were the top of the greatness until the late 50's and 60's)

Yes the roaring 20s, but only the rich got rich then... followed immediately by economic collapse... which was followed immediately by huge policy and taxation changes that focused on benefiting the average person, economically. No one would have thought the 30s were great, because there was a big hole to climb out of. And then the 40s was WW2. But through that whole time median living standards improved a lot.

 

[eDJ_]

Of the people I spoke of, most didn't feel America was great for them until the later 1950's into the later 1960's. One, an electrical engineer who stated he couldn't really have much until the later 50's when he got his 1958 Ford T-Bird
when he finally felt he had made it. And he was from eastern Pennsylvania.

Others worked CCC and WPA. They got to keep $5 dollars of their monthly $30 dollar monthly pay check. The rest they had to send home to their family to help support them or keep the Farm running. (which would be necessary as WW2 was coming and agriculture would be a priority) All these people were war weary and glad the war was over and the 30's, 40's, and most of the 50's were over too. None of them spoke of prospering but more of limping thru it all as a survivor.

Still I'm sure that there were some who prospered during that time. I would imagine they worked in in industries that supplied the war effort with goods, transportation of goods, communication, etc. Others in various trades or professions may have fared better as well. (accountants, physicians, business people, welders & crane operators in ship yards, and the like)

 

[rruff]

None of them spoke of prospering but more of limping thru it all as a survivor.

Socio-economic changes take decades to reach fruition. That's what I'm speaking of. The people who are comparing the 30s-40s to the 50s-70s or even now, will not think anything was great about it, but there was a rapid climb in living standards through those decades. Of course the later part will be perceived as the best, because that is when living standards peaked.

 

[maki2]

All the various recessions and their causes, the length of time, depth of economic impact are easy to find on the internet. Being an aware child I noticed when my parents were being hit by them. Of course I remember all the ones that happened after I left home as they have all impacted my life. They impacted my life as a child as well, money got tight, treats went away, more hand me down clothes, what we ate changed, packing lunch instead of cafeteria meals. My parents were at odds with each other all the time. A childhood misery time to be sure! I have no nostalgia for the “good old days”. They never were around for very long before the next downturn showed up.