Remote work is the best way to address the issues facing cities in the 21st Century.
Our experiment during covid-19 proved that companies can survive and workers can thrive with remote and hybrid working arrangements.
Consider the positives:
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A much improved work life balance. Remote work allows workers flexibility with child care, the freeing of up to two hours in commuting time, and improved well being. Time commuting can instead be spent at parks and in nature.
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Remote work promotes opportunity based on merit and talent in a national labor market that is not constrained by local market conditions. Companies can find better workers, faster, and find undiscovered talent by adopting remote first policies.
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Remote work improves the environment by lowering transportation emissions, far more than EVs. Statistics show that pollution levels and health effects were greatly improved during the pandemic.
- A PREPARE study found a decrease of 40% in asthma events during the pandemic.
- A NASA Study noted decreased nitrogen dioxide concentrations by nearly 20% during the covid-19 pandemic.
- A study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment noted decreases of up to 21% in particulate matter in the US during the same time period.
- Telecommuting allows workers to live in lower cost areas and get more for their money in real estate, and takes pressure off dense city housing markets. Providing a boost to smaller community economies is a great outcome that should be promoted, not discouraged.
The Challenge:
Local government’s are incentivizing companies to make use of downtown commercial office space, causing return to office orders to be issued to prevent the loss of tax incentives.
The Solution:
The federal government should incentivize telecommuting in the form of incentives to counter balance the local anti-incentives. Workers could also be incentivized by programs that promote not commuting. The federal government can also provide remote working options to workers, and incentivize remote options for their workers.
Let’s improve conditions for knowledge workers, improve the environment, boost the economy, and provide modern working options for this new century!