[SomethingNew2]

Anyone who has had several kids and worked at home knows you can’t do both unless you leave the house or have a nanny / partner / grandparent watch the children while you work. Young children are on a cycle of eat, poop, sleep, activity every few hours or even over a matter of minutes sometimes. It may be easier to have children while at home, but working and raising kids under the same roof would be challenging.

This article pulls together a lot of evidence, but it does not consider evidence for the contrary. Productivity went up with remote work. Fertility rates went up. How was productivity for people with little kids at home who never sleep? Is there any evidence that sleep deprived people aren’t as productive? Also what is productive? Pumping out the most units of work? Sitting at home with no in office social obligations will give more time for work output. But does that create the most value for the economy? What about innovation, serendipity, brainstorming, building relationships, sharing ideas etc. They will provide long term productivity, vs short term output based productivity metrics.

[coldtea]

>Anyone who has had several kids and worked at home knows you can’t do both unless you leave the house or have a nanny / partner / grandparent watch the children while you work.

Anyone who has had several kids and worked at home knows that it's much easier than when commuting to work. Even if you can't have one partner (or parters alternating) to cater to them constantly, and need a nanny, it's still much better, you can help much more, doing little errands, tending to them, be there for whatever small emergency and so on, than when stuck in some office 10-50 miles away. You also have the extra hours you'd be commuting to be with them.

And that's when they're babies and need constant care.

When they grow enough for school? It's not just much easier than commuting, but unbelievably better too.

Except if one goes for the "out of sight, out of mind" angle. Then sure, tending to your career in some office while the nanny or your partner takes care of the kids is better.

[SomethingNew2]

Agree. It is easier to be present for children and their needs when you are physically present. One could say the same applies in reverse. Being physically present at a business allows for someone to more easily reach them, discuss issues, get to know coworkers etc. I believe remote work works well enough with all the digital tools. But it’s not as engaging as being physically there surrounded by teammates.