I’m actually not WFH (working from home) today but reading about WFH. And I learned some new things about the world today. One of my favorite tidbits of unsolicited advice comes in the form of this question:

Do you live to work or work to live?

As Gartner research shows, workers want a more “human value proposition,” with 65% of survey respondents agreeing that the pandemic made them rethink the role that work should have in their lives. For all of our talk for decades about work-life balance, people finally feel in their bones what that means. The big question has shifted from “How does life fit into work?” to “How does work fit into life?”

How to Motivate Employees When Their Priorities Have Changed — https://hbr.org/2023/05/how-to-motivate-employees-when-their-priorities-have-changed

Nice to see others coming around to my way of thinking. The strongest motivation I had to establishing a WFH life was to not have work dominate my entire life. Not once have I felt lonely working in my home office. But apparently some WFH people get lonely.

When I first made the switch to working remotely, I was elated. I had been commuting for years, which regularly constituted 12 or more hours stuck in traffic each week and resulted in incalculable levels of stress and frustration. When I began working from home, in addition to regaining my lost commuting hours, I loved my new ability to focus on my work without the distraction of an open-plan office environment.

However, as time progressed, I started to feel lonely. I was able to laser-focus on my work, but my interactions with others were driven solely by virtual meeting agendas or email. I noticed I was becoming less enthused and more withdrawn. I spent too much time scrolling social media because I was silently craving connection with others. I was slowly but steadily becoming isolated.

Is Your Remote Job Making You Lonely? — https://hbr.org/2023/05/is-your-remote-job-making-you-lonely

Maybe you should turn your camera on during meetings.

A recent survey of 4,200 work-from-home employees found that 49% report a positive impact from engagement when their cameras are on during online meetings, and only 10% felt disengagement from turning on cameras. As leaders are figuring out hybrid and remote work, they are facing the challenge of deciding whether to encourage employees to keep their cameras on during meetings. This decision has a significant impact on communication, engagement and trust-building within the team. I can attest to that from my experience helping 21 organizations transition to long-term hybrid work arrangements.

The Pros and Cons of ‘Cameras On’ During Virtual Meetings — https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/the-pros-and-cons-of-cameras-on-during-virtual-meetings/450959

Then again, there may be a good reason why people have their cameras off.

A May 2022 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta estimates that the number of working age Americans (25 to 54 years old) with substance use disorders has risen by 23% since pre-pandemic, to 27 million. A figure that’s about one in six of people who were employed around the time of the study. It’s caused a 9% to 26% drop in labor force participation that Karen Kopecky, one of the authors of the report, says continues today.Drug recovery firm Sierra Tucson concluded from a November 2021 survey that about 20% of US workers admitted to using recreational drugs while working remotely, and also to being under the influence during virtual meetings. Digital recovery clinic Quit Genius found in August 2022 that one in five believe that substance use has affected their work performance, also according to a survey.

Remote workers with substance use disorders face ‘rude awakening’ in return-to-office mandates — https://fortune.com/2023/05/13/remote-workers-substance-use-disorders-return-to-office-mandates/

OK, enough about WFH. Time to get back to thinking about retirement because (I am) Flunking Retirement.