The less you earn, the less this article is about you
Being poor is a lot of work. If you don’t pay in cash, you pay in labor. Instead of just buying what you need outright, you spend your time scouring all the shops and websites for something you can afford. Your commute drains all your energy and free time, because you live five bus transfers away from where you work. You have so little affordance for acidents or errors, that anything from spilling coffee on your shirt to having the cable guy come in on a work day is a major disruption to your life.
In such situations having even a tiny bit of flexibility has a disproportionately positive impact on your life. If you are in such a situation, I think you should have this flexibility. That being said, I don’t think it is possible to completely escape the dynamic I am describing below.
Remote work is still a privelege
How one can earn that privelege:
- By being a part of a high-performing team with high trust and strong cohesion.
I’ve developed this decision matrix which explains if and how much remote work you should be doing, if you are unsure:
| People need to talk to you | People don't need to talk to you | |
| You need to talk to people | You should come to the office almost every day | You can take a day or two of remote work per week |
| You don't need to talk to people | You can take a day or two of remote work per week | You are not needed at all |
Look no further than the wage gap
The wage gap is still there.