The resistance to allowing WFH really shows how bullshit the push for EVs āto help the environmentā is.
Iām not anti-EV and do believe they are better than ICE. But even better than an EV-driven mile is a mile that isnāt driven at all.
Iām not sure how you equate that first paragraph at all. Can you expound? The second one just nullifies the first lol.
My point is that if they were serious about protecting the environment, they would promote WFH (for those who canā¦not everyone can obviously) in addition to EVs. Instead, there seems to be a big push for return to office.
Got it. Thanks. It definitely read like you were saying EVs were some secret not as good as you thought it was issueā¦
When theyāre pretty damn fantastic at lowering pollution over time.
https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016823009055
Itās not bullshit at all. It is a lot better for cars that are being used to not shoot out smoke from combusting refined oil. There will always be cars in use, so it will always be better for them to not shoot out smoke.
Itās not possible for all workers to live inside dense cities and use public transport and work in offices or at home. MANY other jobs are out there and still need doing every day. Everyone who physically maintains all of our critical infrastructure, manufacturing, and food supply industries is pretty much going to commute to work one way or another. Millions of those people donāt live in cities with public transport and/or donāt work where public transport can take them to. EVs are an improvement for all of those necessary use cases, because the vehicles they need could not be shooting out smoke.
Iām not sure what percentage of workers could do their job from home if they were allowed to. Itās probably a small minority, though a quick glance of numbers from COVID would suggest 15-20%. Iāll use 15% for sake of argument but would welcome a more āconfidentā number if someone has it.
Reducing the number of miles is and important way to reduce impact. Additionally, even those who cannot work from home benefit from reduces congestion and reduces vehicle idling. Although idling has less impact on EVs (though they still have to run HVAC), ICE vehicles are still the majority of vehicles being sold today in most nations and will be in circulation for decades.
Not everyone can WFH, but it needs to be part of the strategy of reducing emissions from transportation. Not pushing WFH (for those who can) is leaving a lot on the table. This is not a replacement for EVs, rather in addition to.
Iām all for WFH and EVs personally. Havenāt bought an EV yet but I would like to have a non-spyware-laden one for a reasonable price.
This is the truth. People like to tout EVs as the end all, be all, āsilver bulletā for the petrochemical industry. Bullshit. Your EV is riddled with oil-based products and asphalt contains a shitload of petrochemicals. EVs are better than gas burning cars in the same way getting stabbed with a knife is better than being shot. If you really want to help the environment by buying a car, buy a used car instead of a new one. Still, nothing really compares to just having a society where the average individual doesnāt need a vehicle. I think if we had a more robust service economy structured around couriers who took care of shopping and delivery, and then had a genuinely decent public transportation system or taxi options, weād do a lot to reduce emissions. But the car is itself a sign of affluence and personal freedom in America. Always has been; probably always will be. Ownership of one, especially an expensive one, confers a certain status, and thatās a cultural problem, not an environmental or material one.
None of my coworkers drive to the office and we actually like seeing each otherā¦ Hybrid remote work is great for us
I think 90% of the problem is people being forced to drive everywhere
Traffic would be so much better with a staggered work force. We might actually enjoy the commute.
Because of traffic, the workforce started staggering by themselves here if possible. The result was that bad traffic was spread out over the entire day instead of just two peaks in the morning and evening. Good traffic is only at night and working at night defeats the purpose of having business hours.
Another factor is the spaces that offices take up or the power used whilst unoccupied, these space could be used for housing or maybe even industry.
Its great that no one drives to your work but this is more uncommon than common.
In conclusion: work from home is better.
Some companies are doing it to create a hostile workplace to increase attrition. If an employee quits, they donāt have to pay unemployment or severance. Other companies have huge investments in corporate real estate. They have been sitting on short-term loans that are coming due. The property owners are keeping their real-estate values artificially high, but to one wants to rent/lease them, so they arenāt as valuable as in practice as they look on paper. Some companies get tax breaks from cities to put their offices there and will not continue to reap those rewards if their workers are not coming into the city. Donāt let them gaslight you about culture or face time because that has all been debunked. A lot of remote workers are coming in to the office and sitting on Zoom/Teams calls in their cubicles.
The dumbest most mismanaged bullshit in history.
A history that includes the fucking Bolsheviks!
You think the Bolsheviks were bad, just look at the guy they replaced. He made the Bolsheviks look good!
Korensky? He wasnt great, but I donāt think he was as bad as those dipshits. At least he didnāt murder all the communists.
Well, having the office was nice because I like my colleagues. Iām lucky in that regard though, and as nice as it was to socialise at work, working from home is nicer. Not to mention much much cheaper by every metric. In conclusion fuck ever going back to the office, thank you for coming to my TEDx Talk.
I personally like it too, but not daily. I average 1-2 days in office now and itās healthy for me. See my coworkers, they know my name, we catch up, have our meetings, then I go home for a few days again. Iāve just learned everyone is different, and the company definitely shouldnāt be telling people how to work, people are grownups and can decide themselves. (And if they canāt, then fire them instead of punishing everyone).
However for this meme, another great way to get people off the roads would beā¦ trains
I like freight trains, but I wouldnāt want to live anywhere that commuter trains would make sense.
Some people donāt have the space at home to set up a working area and really want to just go to an office that their employer pays for, and thatās fine.
This is why coworking spaces exist.
I donāt know in other countries but it is working quite well in France, you can get a subscription to the closest working space and have a desk, meeting rooms ā¦ To work remotely.
I like that it gives a separation between home and work but without long commute.
This, and I do a lot of gaming on my pc, have a nice setup etc, usually not great trying to work there (donāt have space for another desk and canāt really justify having two sets of monitors, keyboard etc
Working from home reduces emission much faster than electric cars.
Working from home is also considerably safer. The most dangerous part of most peopleās work day is their drive to and from work. If that time had to be covered by workplace injury insurance, management would be begging for as many people as possible to stay home just to keep insurance costs down.
Yeah it really doesnāt help when everyone is driving worn out, pissed off, and/or fearing of retribution from being late due to things out of their control, like traffic, accidents, and sudden construction.
I have terrible time-blindness, so Iād frequently be one of those stressed out trying to make my commute. More often than not, Iād make it to the clock within 5 minutes or less!
There was a few times I felt pushed to make a risky turn where youāre allowed to go but yield to oncoming traffic (who were also speeding to not get yelled at or fired, surely!)ā¦, so I could clock in on timeā¦then I thoughtā¦
āI refuse to die on my way to work. That would be so pathetically stupid.ā
Thankfully I quit when they wanted to get on people for being literally sixty seconds late.
Their answer is always āJust leave earlier?ā If they had it their way youād just be wasting hours of your life unpaid in the parking lot just for them. As if theyāre remotely worth it.
How many deaths are caused by a ridiculous obsession with punitive punctuality, which is hampered by forced office commute traffic, which encourages panicked angry driving?
I too, miss ācovid traffic.ā Roads actually made sense thenā¦
I always turned up 30 mins early to avoid all of this shit. I know people dont want to be at work this early but fuck it, give yourself some leeway. Bosses had the option years back to have flexible hours and spread out that traffic. The 9-5 is bullshit and ancient.
True
People going on about how much electric cars suck are usually shocked when I agree with themā¦ And moreso when I point out that they suck because theyāre still cars, and thatās not a conversation the anti-EV crowd is ready to have.
Also, goes into the old āReduce, Reuse, Recycleā mantra which it seems nobody understands is ordered that way intentionally as thatās the order they should be implemented. Reducing usage is by far the most effective tactic for positive environmental impact or environmental harm reduction.
They just get to ārecycleā and see that they can change pretty much nothing more than putting trash in a different bin and figure thatās all they need to do. Even though itās a really poor overall impact.
