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I would say yes, it does. We’re seeing an important shift in the way Americans do business and think about work. It dovetails with other discussions surrounding minimum wage and single-payer insurance systems, but both of those topics are hot-button political issues (some might say dog whistles!) By contrast, the remote work debate is happening by and large off the political stage — which is probably for the best.
On the one side, we have those who believe that white-collar workers are more efficient working in offices together — that, barring another pandemic, the best way for people to work is together . There is some evidence that they’re right since people generally communicate and get along better in person. On the other hand, are the folks who argue for embracing new technologies that could prepare us for necessary changes, just as our ancestors did. White-collar workers didn’t exist before office buildings, and that is 100% the result of technological change. Why shouldn’t we change again with new technologies and embrace a new century’s method of doing business? This side is bolstered by studies on happiness and efficiency — both of which seem to go up when employees are allowed to work from home. You might expect me to throw in my lot with one side or the other, but I won’t do that. As a businessperson, I’m a pragmatist first and foremost. I’ll follow the trend that works best for my employees, and we’ll either join with the national movements or fly in their face.
That’s just the nature of business, after all.
One parting thought: I do wonder what will happen to the American city, commonly the place of highest real estate value in the nation and the heart of industry, if white-collar workers leave all of those office buildings behind. Something to ponder, no?
The Meow at 10,000 Feet High on the slopes of Bristen, a mountain in the Glarus Alps in central Switzerland,
snow,” Cyril noted. “We picked her up and carried her when she was too exhausted to walk uphill anymore. We were definitely confused. I felt really sorry for the cat. She was really exhausted on the ridge underneath the summit.” The cat stayed with them for some time before they met up with another group of hikers who were headed down the mountain. The cat joined them for what would hopefully be a journey back home. And it was! Remarkably, the cat’s owners were found. They revealed that their cat had vanished four days earlier and apparently followed yet another group of hikers up Bristen. “Animals do weird things. And they are way tougher than humans. They’ll never give up. Even though they are hurting really, really bad,” Cyril said of his feline hiking companion. Hopefully, that will be the little feline’s last trip up for some time!
a pair of skiers discovered something unexpected. At 4:30 a.m., the skiers climbed toward the summit of Bristen when they realized they weren’t alone. They were being followed by a cat — not a lynx or a wildcat, but a little mewling house cat. How does a house cat end up on the slopes of a snow-covered, 10,000-foot mountain? This was an answer the skiers wouldn’t get. They weren’t even sure what to do with a cat in general. It’s likely that it simply wandered away from one of the nearby towns or villages near the base of the mountain, but even for a human, that’s a major undertaking. Lost, the cat followed the only sign of civilization it could find: the skiers, Cyril and Erik Rohrer. “She started to shiver, and her paws began to bleed from the hard
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