So I saw the somewhat up voted post on the CEO linkedin post yesterday. I've got 2 questions at the end of this for this subreddit. This may come off as a little 'devil's advocate', but bear with me…
There's a big problem about that post^ that no-one in the comments on that post or that I've seen otherwise has really touched on so far – As much as WFH has been proven to be more productive, I've found this to be only true for existing business models/non-start-ups (Source: Myself, a start-up founder).
Although everyone's experiences have and will be different – I've found the initial 60+ hour week grind with co-founders is not practical to be done with WFH [Hybrid or not], as the intensity of iterations needed is insane (At least SaaS/digitally-oriented solutions) – Thus my WFH experience with (now former) co-founders was highly unproductive [I also understand that few people on the planet either have or will become a start-up founder, thus the complexity]. My favorite story might be Weebly for this – The 3 main co-founders all lived in the same apartment, coding from sunrise to sunfall, Sunday to Friday (Every saturday off) for > 1 year [Before you argue living in the same apartment is WFH, this is definitely not the case for most founders]. In terms of labor rights, this is an atrocity. But you'd be mistaken here, for it is a way of life/lifestyle, not employment.
For employees, obviously we all deserve fantastic & far better labor rights than the majority of nations are exhibiting; Ranging from being entitled to WFH (unless proven incapable of doing so, i.e. A restaurant Chef), fair pay (Or market pay) and so on. But it's this relationship between founders and employees, that make this a very topic awkward. In start-ups, a well known quote is “Everything works fine until you add people”. Even with intrapreneurship in larger companies, this WFH barrier of concurrent communication in building a start-up (Particularly in the early-stages) will prevent it's survival. Thus for future start-ups of mine – It feels like getting the solution to a post-PMF stage, then getting employees to take over and start on a new solution, is the only way to enjoy 'working'… Maybe I'm a terrible leader? Communicator? Motivator? All of the above?
No, I'm not here to shout the 'productivity' horn – I'd definitely prefer to overpay than under (Let's face it, if you're on this subreddit, we've at some stage all been underpaid). We're all on this planet together, no person left behind, including your physical, mental and emotional well beings and sense-of-selves.
Then again, is this exerpt/stimuli also out of touch? Is the reason you became an employee to avoid the (potential) 60+ hour a week grind that founders do (And thus the risk vs rewards will be inherently different)? I don't know for sure [Voice your opinion below].
And for the other question; If you could choose, (in your respective countries given they're democracies) who gets WFH entitlements, to what extent, and why? Could you brainstorm ways to equally or equitably democratize WFH?
Thanks in advance, Roariii…