The Rise of the Remote Husband(economist.com)
economist.com
The Rise of the Remote Husband
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/04/04/the-rise-of-the-remote-husband
53 comments
https://archive.today/dh4fn
I have a lot of tech / healthcare couples in my friend group and this is definitely the arrangement. Especially true since healthcare careers have very different timelines than tech.
In once instance, one partner is a clinician and absolutely has to be on site 5 days a week, not counting on-call. The other works 100% remote but the company is global, so depending on the week they may be on Europe time or Australia time.
This is definitely a work arrangement I couldn't have imagined being common 10 years ago. This shift will likely be one of the defining economic changes between the 10's and the 20's.
In once instance, one partner is a clinician and absolutely has to be on site 5 days a week, not counting on-call. The other works 100% remote but the company is global, so depending on the week they may be on Europe time or Australia time.
This is definitely a work arrangement I couldn't have imagined being common 10 years ago. This shift will likely be one of the defining economic changes between the 10's and the 20's.
Not all that surprising - "care work" of all kinds, at least if going by distribution of unpaid care work [1], kindergarten [2] and later education [3] or nursing [4], is utterly dominated by women. Almost all care work by definition has to be done at the workplace, whereas (as we discovered in Covid) a lot of traditional "men jobs" (i.e. almost everything outside of mining, industry and security) can be done from home.
It's going to be an interesting next few years, as this shift can and does have serious implications not just on workplace and work condition equality question, but also if it will fuel further discontent among those men who have to go commute to a workplace vs those men who can enjoy the ability to work from home.
[1] https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-repor...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2024/02/12/over-96-...
[3] https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_PERS_SHARE... (you have to change the filter to "Pre-primary to tertiary education", then scroll down to the totalization rows at the bottom)
[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1099804/distribution-of-...
It's going to be an interesting next few years, as this shift can and does have serious implications not just on workplace and work condition equality question, but also if it will fuel further discontent among those men who have to go commute to a workplace vs those men who can enjoy the ability to work from home.
[1] https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-repor...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2024/02/12/over-96-...
[3] https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_PERS_SHARE... (you have to change the filter to "Pre-primary to tertiary education", then scroll down to the totalization rows at the bottom)
[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1099804/distribution-of-...
Decades ago, I knew two couples doing the "she heads off to work, he stays at home" thing.
Both husbands were doing essentially non-remote work at home (academia and a home-office business). And had multiple children to look after, at home, as part of the deal.
Both husbands were doing essentially non-remote work at home (academia and a home-office business). And had multiple children to look after, at home, as part of the deal.
I never thought about it before reading this but most couples I know fall into this category. Probably because they largely fit the "tech guy marries non-tech gal" stereotype.
I don't know that it means anything, but I'm a tech guy married to a tech gal and we still fit this category. In our case, it's because her work project is classified. The company itself allows full-remote work if your project is unclassified, but you can't get a SCIF in your house.
It's amusing to me that this article claims it is usually the case that the husband is still not cooking and cleaning even though he's home. I'm cooking and cleaning all the damn time. With all the time spent at home, cooking has become my favorite hobby. I am quite often sneaking in prep for some elaborate, showy dinner while waiting for a build to finish or on a call that doesn't require me to present or speak.
It's amusing to me that this article claims it is usually the case that the husband is still not cooking and cleaning even though he's home. I'm cooking and cleaning all the damn time. With all the time spent at home, cooking has become my favorite hobby. I am quite often sneaking in prep for some elaborate, showy dinner while waiting for a build to finish or on a call that doesn't require me to present or speak.
Why would someone's work location impact what house chores they do. It's still work-time not home-chores time.
Because, freed from the time lost to a commute, they may have an extra 1-3 hours per day at home which is not owed to their employer.
Even if you take commute time out of the equation, working from home frees up a lot of time for tasks that aren't all active time.
It's been a while but I did work remotely for about 6 months back in 2020. I enjoyed not having to wake up earlier, not having to "hide" my short downtime breaks that I normally would at the office, and being able to do some basic quick chores during those breaks so that I'd have more time to spend with my partner after the work day. It was a nice pace but since my partner would also work from home with much longer breaks between her active working periods (multiple part time contracts), I would get heavily distracted because she wanted to take breaks together. I really did miss working at the office where if I wanted to focus, I could.
Certainly having a different dedicated work space works better for a lot of people. I think I've been pretty good--and certainly don't watch video or take more than short walks during the day--but I appreciate that keeping work/life separate can have advantages.
I really did miss working at the office where if I wanted to focus, I could.
kids is another story altogether. definitely need a bigger boat in that case.
Breaks are a normal part of work. Smoke breaks, standing up and stretching your legs outside the office or going for a short walk, pomodoro breaks, coffee breaks, water cooler breaks, waiting for a build and reading a news site or just browsing the internet, etc.
The only difference here is sticking something in the oven instead of drinking coffee.
And I'll add, with remote the start of day and end of day work times become less well defined, so I think many people end up working more spread out hours at times that are more effective for the company (e.g. responding to late night pings, if they happen to be near their computer).
The only difference here is sticking something in the oven instead of drinking coffee.
And I'll add, with remote the start of day and end of day work times become less well defined, so I think many people end up working more spread out hours at times that are more effective for the company (e.g. responding to late night pings, if they happen to be near their computer).
My Tuesday/Thursday:
Load washer and dishwasher before signing in.
Put clothes in the dryer and put away dishes while my food cooks for lunch.
Sort away my now-dry clothes after work.
Spending a couple mins mid-day to make machines do chores while everyone else is out at lunch shouldn’t sound unreasonable.
Load washer and dishwasher before signing in.
Put clothes in the dryer and put away dishes while my food cooks for lunch.
Sort away my now-dry clothes after work.
Spending a couple mins mid-day to make machines do chores while everyone else is out at lunch shouldn’t sound unreasonable.
I can flip laundry in the time it takes you to fetch a coffee from the break room, unless you strike up a conversation while you're there.
a lot of work requires being "present" but not really being at a desk.
my 1-on-1s with my team dont require me or them to be at a desk. i take a notepad upstairs and do dishes while on those calls.
during COVID my boss used to get on calls with me and it was clear he was at the grocery store because i could hear the self-checkout sounds in the background.
as long as items are communicated, remembered, and acted on -- who cares what is happening?
my 1-on-1s with my team dont require me or them to be at a desk. i take a notepad upstairs and do dishes while on those calls.
during COVID my boss used to get on calls with me and it was clear he was at the grocery store because i could hear the self-checkout sounds in the background.
as long as items are communicated, remembered, and acted on -- who cares what is happening?
I didn’t read that part as saying “they’re not doing these things at all”, just that they’re not staying home them specifically to do them… they’re not “employed” as a “homemaker”, they are working from home. Unclear if you read it this way or are just commenting that you do more of those and you used to, several sibling comments seem to take, from your comment or the article, that this was a focus, and I don’t think it was?
> I'm cooking and cleaning all the damn time.
You don't fit the narrative, so most likely cases like yours are being ignored.
You don't fit the narrative, so most likely cases like yours are being ignored.
> you can’t get a SCIF in your house
Have you tried having a contractor follow ICD 705?
https://www.dni.gov/files/Governance/IC-Tech-Specs-for-Const...
Have you tried having a contractor follow ICD 705?
https://www.dni.gov/files/Governance/IC-Tech-Specs-for-Const...
the F in SCIF is for "facility" -- generally implies a very secure location
like charged windows to protect from TEMPTEST emissions, etc.
like charged windows to protect from TEMPTEST emissions, etc.
This is only an interesting phenomenon in so far as it shows how little progress we've made fixing gender imbalances across various fields.
You're assuming it needs "fixing". A different possibility is that people are choosing the things they prefer and what you see if biased by those preferences. In the latter scenario there's no need to "fix" anything.
something to be said about 'sexes in the workplace' here. women continue to make real progress toward equal representation in the physical workplace, which inevitably detracts from time for domestic responsibilities; and apparently a fair number of men are now taking their careers home, to the extent that it permits them to maintain some degree of organizational 'presence', while inevitably taking on more domestic responsibility. remarkable sorta-flip for sure.
yes I do the cooking, yes I do the cleaning… :)
Can't read behind pay wall. Does the article actually provide data or is it just based on the 5 "examples" provided in the beginning?
There doesn't appear to be much of a point to the article.
Just some data about the percentage of each gender who can work remotely--which isn't all that different in the scheme of things. (Slightly higher for men as you might expect.)
Don't have time to read it myself right now, but here it is: https://archive.is/dh4fn
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/dh4fn
Not much data. Just:
> Different occupations have also had to take different approaches to remote working...About half of people working in computer or mathematical jobs work remotely full-time. The upshot is that, in aggregate, it is easier for men to work from wherever they please. A survey carried out by McKinsey, a consultancy, found that 38% of working men had the option to work remotely full-time, compared with 30% of women. Roughly half of women report being unable to work remotely at all, compared with 39% of men.
Not much data. Just:
> Different occupations have also had to take different approaches to remote working...About half of people working in computer or mathematical jobs work remotely full-time. The upshot is that, in aggregate, it is easier for men to work from wherever they please. A survey carried out by McKinsey, a consultancy, found that 38% of working men had the option to work remotely full-time, compared with 30% of women. Roughly half of women report being unable to work remotely at all, compared with 39% of men.
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