When Covid hit I was getting ready to retire from professoring. I had already "created" 2 online courses bck in 2012 or so, It took me 3 semesters to get them "right", but after that they worked really well and it was smooth sailing. Well except for haing to constantly remnd 10% or so of each class that they were not in HS any longer, and therfore did, indeed, have to follow my rules and my syllabus.
They were Intro Am Govt, and State and Local Govt, simple courses, and most students really did learn from them.
My wife was a project manager for a survey research firm. She was in cubicle hell. She is very intelligent, very organized, and a very hard worker. But she had a "fishwife" across the way who evidently didn't have an inside voice, especially when she was on the phone. Which she was, pretty constantly.
Anyway, I taught stats (grad and undergrad) in the classroom, other undergrad online, and grad calsses in the classroom. I retired on Dec 31, 2020.
My wife was "sent home" to work probably in summer 2020. It was Michigan aftr all, with Gov wHitler running the place.
It was great. Not only was the fishwife not there, but she could do her housework, too. Her output nearly doubled, and she no longer had the hated drive to and from work. Win-win.
After the "pandemic" fizled out, she was allowed to continue to work from home. So we moved to NW IN to be closer to her family. For her, working from home has benefitted her and her employer a great deal. Her boss has always been a bit of a micromanager, but not as bad as most, nd he still bugs her a bit. I likes, for instance, to keep hold of data and not give to those who need it until he absolutely has to. I've helped her with some strategies about that.
Will AI take over her job? Possibly, but not real soon, I think. She wants to work ten more years, but we'll see. Her main job is roughly the logistics of setting up and running surveys, adjusting/adapting flow chart type stuff on the fly as screwups occur. Probably eventually an algorithm will do that, but it won't be good at it, I think, as long as there are still humans in the equation. Almost every one of the problems she has to fix is due to typical human stupid behaviors.
Anyway, to me working from home seems to be like when I was an outside salesman. I was basically my own boss, in charge of my time, as long as I sold enough. My bosses' sort of cared what I was doing, but as long as the sales got made and no laws were broken thet let me alone.
As an aside, no one should ever sell except on commission. Get paid for your own work. If you're on some kind of salary deal, even salary plus commission, either you're carrying some moron's dead butt or someone is carrying your dead butt. Not everyone can handle straight commission jobs. but if you can, they're dynamite.
When Covid hit I was getting ready to retire from professoring. I had already "created" 2 online courses bck in 2012 or so, It took me 3 semesters to get them "right", but after that they worked really well and it was smooth sailing. Well except for haing to constantly remnd 10% or so of each class that they were not in HS any longer, and therfore did, indeed, have to follow my rules and my syllabus.
They were Intro Am Govt, and State and Local Govt, simple courses, and most students really did learn from them.
My wife was a project manager for a survey research firm. She was in cubicle hell. She is very intelligent, very organized, and a very hard worker. But she had a "fishwife" across the way who evidently didn't have an inside voice, especially when she was on the phone. Which she was, pretty constantly.
Anyway, I taught stats (grad and undergrad) in the classroom, other undergrad online, and grad calsses in the classroom. I retired on Dec 31, 2020.
My wife was "sent home" to work probably in summer 2020. It was Michigan aftr all, with Gov wHitler running the place.
It was great. Not only was the fishwife not there, but she could do her housework, too. Her output nearly doubled, and she no longer had the hated drive to and from work. Win-win.
After the "pandemic" fizled out, she was allowed to continue to work from home. So we moved to NW IN to be closer to her family. For her, working from home has benefitted her and her employer a great deal. Her boss has always been a bit of a micromanager, but not as bad as most, nd he still bugs her a bit. I likes, for instance, to keep hold of data and not give to those who need it until he absolutely has to. I've helped her with some strategies about that.
Will AI take over her job? Possibly, but not real soon, I think. She wants to work ten more years, but we'll see. Her main job is roughly the logistics of setting up and running surveys, adjusting/adapting flow chart type stuff on the fly as screwups occur. Probably eventually an algorithm will do that, but it won't be good at it, I think, as long as there are still humans in the equation. Almost every one of the problems she has to fix is due to typical human stupid behaviors.
Anyway, to me working from home seems to be like when I was an outside salesman. I was basically my own boss, in charge of my time, as long as I sold enough. My bosses' sort of cared what I was doing, but as long as the sales got made and no laws were broken thet let me alone.
As an aside, no one should ever sell except on commission. Get paid for your own work. If you're on some kind of salary deal, even salary plus commission, either you're carrying some moron's dead butt or someone is carrying your dead butt. Not everyone can handle straight commission jobs. but if you can, they're dynamite.
Cube farms were never a good idea for jobs that require high concentration. Too much noise and other distractions. Better to provide actual offices.