{"id":26773,"date":"2020-05-01T12:58:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T16:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=26773"},"modified":"2020-05-01T09:54:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T13:54:54","slug":"how-productive-are-you-during-this-coronplague-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/01\/how-productive-are-you-during-this-coronplague-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"How productive are you during this coronplague shutdown?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy International Workers’ Day,<\/a> comrades!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How productive are you and your co-workers now that everyone has gone to work-from-home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my small survey of for-profit enterprises that are still up and running, but dispersed, popular answers are in the 75-80 percent range. (Massachusetts public schools, however, are down closer to 10 percent.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One manager at a “Big Tech” firm said that he expected productivity to fall as new projects were undertaken, but that 75-80 percent was a good number for the current work. He’s in Silicon Valley where hardly anyone has children. A manager at a “Big Tech” coding plantation here in Cambridge, also said that her team was at 80 percent. “Really?” I asked. “What about the people with children.” Her response: “Oh, they’re useless.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers: What are you experiencing? If companies can truly work at 80 percent without an (expensive) office, can this be boosted up to the point where office space can be cut out? And if remote work does become popular, why will people want to stay in high-tax high-cost mediocre-weather states such as Massachusetts, New York (#1 in overall state and local tax burden<\/a>), and New Jersey? Why not sell the $1 million 2,000 square-foot house in MA and work from home in a $1 million 6,000 square-foot house in Texas or Florida, while paying nothing in state income tax?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n