Working From Home Is A Privilege

You all have heard people claiming that they don’t want to go back to the old office! Well working from home is a privilege that most workers cannot do.

 Assembly line workers must be done in a factory! Truck drivers, bus drivers, pilots, and delivery personnel operate vehicles require their presence on the road! Cashiers, store clerks, restaurant servers, bartenders, hotel staff, and cleaners interact directly with customers and cannot work from home. Farmers, ranchers, agricultural workers, and food processing employees work in fields, barns, or processing plants cannot work from home. With Trump's push to bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. (Which I agree with but not the way he is doing it... but rather offering incentives to bring back manufacturing jobs instead.)

These are low paying jobs!

NY CPA writes…

Analysis of Population Data Breaks Down Who Works From Home and Why

By: S.J. Steinhardt

Published Date: Mar 8, 2024

Workplaces have reached a new hybrid-work status quo, but the population of hybrid and remote workers in the United States does not reflect the larger population of workers, The New York Times reported.

Roughly one-tenth of workers are working in a hybrid arrangement, the Times found in an analysis of government data, and a similar portion are working entirely remotely. The other 80 percent work fully in person. The Times noted that out of the 143 million U.S. workers between 18 and 64,  the biggest group of workers have no college education. But when the Times zeroed in on just the hybrid and remote workers, college educated workers become the most prominent. That led it to conclude that working from home is, to a great extent, a luxury for the highly educated.

[…]

White workers are overrepresented in the remote work force, the analysis found; although they represent 59 percent of all workers and 66 percent of remote workers. Hispanic and Black workers are underrepresented; Hispanics comprise 20 percent of all workers, but only 10 percent work remotely. Black and Hispanic workers, meanwhile, more frequently hold jobs in food service, construction, retail, health care and other fields that require them to be in person.

Education = Work from home

Uneducated = Salesclerks, farmers, delivery driver, nurses aides, etc.

Work from Home – Privilege or Imperative?

Robin Report

By Mark Cohen

January 25, 2025

As the pandemic has abated over the past several years, a pseudo-debate has emerged throughout many companies as to whether “working from home” policies should continue. I say a “pseudo-debate” because many employees believe that they have a consequential voice and vote in the matter. Like it or not they do not.

[...]

Pragmatic Decisions

In reality, a decision to continue to support remote work from home vs. a mandated return to the office is one that must be made by the leadership of an enterprise based, cold-bloodedly, upon what is necessary for the overall health and well-being of the business. It is a decision which must be well thought out and influenced by the opinions of all of those principally affected. But when all is said and done it is likely to be a binary decision that will not be applauded by many. At the end of the day, leadership’s mandate must be to protect its business’s viability.

So who is working from home… 66% are white employees. The Center for Economic and Policy Research wrote last year that,

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began just over four years ago, one of the most notable transformations has been in how and where people work. The pandemic emergency forced the traditional office environment to undergo a seismic shift, as organizations across the US swiftly converted to remote work out of necessity. Where remote work was somewhat of a novelty before the pandemic, it quickly became normalized as a viable option for many jobs.

[…]

The Demographics of Remote Workers

Those who work from home are diverse, but some demographics are overrepresented. In 2022, those with more formal education were more likely to work from home than those with less formal education (Figure 2). Nearly a quarter of those with at least a Bachelor’s degree reported working from home, compared to just 8 percent of workers with only a high school diploma. This is unsurprising, as jobs that can be done from home often require higher levels of formal education.

[…]

There was also considerable variation in reports of remote work by race and ethnicity (Figure 3). White and Asian workers were more likely than their Black or Hispanic peers to say that they worked from home in 2022. While this may similarly reflect occupational segregation, a study from 2020 found that differences in income and education did not fully explain racial disparities in access to remote work. Once accounting for other factors, the researchers found that white workers were more likely to be permitted to work from home than workers of color. Those dynamics may partially explain the persistent racial and ethnic gaps in remote work in 2022.

It seems like working from home is a White privilege… they are much more likely to have higher educations and not working manual labor jobs. Do you think an Amazon driver can work from home?

******

But what are we giving up from working from home?

The Importance of Social Connections in the Workplace

WebMD

By Christine Muldoon

March 25, 2025

Human beings are, by nature, social creatures. We rely on interactions with others to fulfill our need for connection and belonging. Given that we spend up to a third of our lives at work, a lack of social connections there can negatively affect employee well-being and workplace culture—and impact the bottom line. This week’s blog explores the importance of social connections in the workplace and offers suggestions for how you can begin to create a more connected environment.

The importance of social connections in the workplace.

Loneliness, isolation and alienation are on the rise. According to new data from Morning Consult commissioned by Cigna, more than half of U.S. adults (58%) are considered lonely.1 Former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has characterized loneliness as an epidemic and released an advisory on the issue.

The data is alarming because of the impact it has on not only individuals, but the organization as a whole. Workplaces with a strong culture of connection and belonging generally see greater engagement, productivity and worker well-being.

[…]

The connection between social interaction and employee well-being.

Former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy has written extensively about the impacts of a lack of social connection on our health and well-being. He points to numerous adverse physical outcomes like a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, and premature death. One of his most eye-opening and oft-cited remarks is that a lack of social connection can increase our risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

There are also mental health implications of poor social connections. Studies conducted by Stanford University found that people who feel more connected to others have lower levels of anxiety and depression. There is also evidence that these people have “higher self-esteem, greater empathy for others, are more trusting and cooperative and, as a consequence, others are more open to trusting and cooperating with them.” Further, “social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional and physical well-being.”

Way back when I first started working for the company, it was were a private company with about 60 employees… we were a family. We went bowling together… we traveled together… and we celebrated together! And we grieved together over the lose of one of us.

One time the employee association went to Brotherhood winery and boy did Lil get smashed tasting all those wines! And George bowled a perfect game! We saw their children grow up. We saw pictures of their new babies. We saw pictures of their dog Spot. We were at the marriage of Bob and Sue. Eddie one of my techs, we knew every summer he will spend a little too much time at the 19th hole, we would send him to dry out every fall. I cried when I had to fire him when he didn’t want to go again to dry out, I’ve known him for over 25 years, probably for ten of those years we sent him to be detoxed in the fall.

I do not understand why anyone would want to work from home, I can understand it if there are school age children or an elderly parent but for other reasons I don’t understand.

But any way you look at it working from home is a privilege especially if you are White.