Comment by t-writescode
Comment by t-writescode 4 days ago
"I worked in the mines / on the farm since I was 13, it was just normal" - until child labor laws protected the kids (mostly)
"I worked 12-16 hour days in the factory" - until a lot of people fought, incredibly hard, to push that number down.
People have learned in these last 4 years that they can work just fine AND have a life AND not have a commute and it can be many, many companies' "best years ever!".
Inertia is a sad, but common, excuse for bad practices.
Not trying to excuse it at all. You're completely right. But at the time, it was normal. Few people could even conceive that working from home could possibly work. I just mean it as an example that whatever people do, it seems normal if that's what everyone does. You see your dad go to work every morning, it's normal. You go to school every day, it's normal. It's only when something shakes that up that you get the idea that it might not be ideal.
WFH did not seem normal to most employees or employers until they were forced into it, and forced to make it work. I can't think of any other way we'd even be talking about it if the pandemic lockdowns hadn't happened.