The Real Deal on Remote Work
Welcome to the Cutting Room Floor, a newsletter where I round up all my personal finance articles, put out exclusive content and interviews, and flag my favorite job listings from around LinkedIn.
Excuse me for a minute while my blood boils.
You may have read about Eric Schmidt's comments recently. The former Google CEO made the news for eyebrow-raising comments to a classroom at Stanford: He criticized his former company for deciding that "working from home was more important than winning," and told students that if you "found a company, you’re not gonna let people work from home".
I hate to say this about such a successful guy, but comments like those are just ignorant.
(He later walked back his comments after the firestorm, saying "I regret my error.")
It's a little personal for me, as I've been working from home for some 20 years now. Around when my first kid was born, and I usually worked out of the Connecticut Muffin in Brooklyn's Windsor Terrace neighborhood. (Is it still there??)
When everyone was discovering remote work during the pandemic, I had been on that particular train for a couple of decades. Did it make me unproductive, lazy, distracted? Hell no!
Those stereotypes are born out of assumptions from a certain era. That wasn't the environment Schmidt grew up in, and he saw great success over the course his career, so he assumes there is direct causation between in-office existence and company success.
These days, that's just wrong.
Which brings me to me latest for Reuters , looking at the world's biggest study on this subject. The findings about hybrid work, from Nick Bloom of 美国斯坦福大学 : If you work remotely a couple of days a week, productivity is not affected; promotions are not affected; and because retention goes way up, the arrangement actually saves companies millions.
Special thanks to L Parker Barnum , by the way, who gave some real-life insights about why hybrid work is the right solution for him.
So get past the stereotypes on all this stuff, and just look at the data. You might be surprised.
My new column:
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Navigating the Freelance Landscape, With ... Me
What's it like to be a freelancer? Where do you get your ideas? How should people pitch you? Is it a hassle getting paid? How do you deal with rejection? What's the state of the industry right now?
I get a lot of questions as a longtime freelancer, and the nice folks at Qwoted actually put together a recent podcast helmed by the great Chris Roush . If you want to give it a listen, please do!
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Fun numerical tidbits from my overflowing inbox
5.4%: Annual home price gains in June, resulting in all-time highs, according to the latest data from Case-Shiller. The 20-city composite index is up even more, at 6.5%. Biggest gainers year-over-year: NYC (9%), San Diego (8.7%) and Las Vegas (8.5%). Good for owners, not great for buyers. And that's with interest rates still relatively high -- since they're finally starting to drift back down, that should be supportive of the housing market, too. The larger question is supply -- to really bring prices back to a more reasonable level, the nation needs more building. Seems things are trending that way -- Kamala has been mentioning the issue in policy speeches -- but that pipeline is going to take some time.
$4.77: Average combined fees for an out-of-network ATM withdrawal, according to a new survey by Bankrate . Not surprisingly, that's a record high. What a scam! By metro area, the highest average is Atlanta, at $5.33, with San Diego and Phoenix at $5.22. Basically you're paying two fees here -- one to the ATM owner, and one to your own bank. If you add up total cash withdrawals over the course of a month, you are bleeding a lot of money for no reason whatsoever. Some tips from Bankrate's Greg McBride, CFA : Make sure to stay in-network, get cash back when using your debit card, or look into what other networks your bank participates in, so you can get your money back out free-of-charge.
10%: Percentage of National Football League (NFL) teams that private equity firms may now purchase, after a vote by owners. Inevitable, perhaps, given the oceans of capital looking for places to invest, and given that private equity is already quite active in other spectator sports. But look at their spotty record in other industries (ahem, publishing), it does make you wonder whether they will be squeezing every nickel to death -- and whether that will affect the product on the field. Of course Commissioner Goodell is reassuring everybody that they will be silent partners whom spectators won't even notice. Sure Jan! Let's check in 10 years down the road, shall we?
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"How One Man Lost $740,000 to Scammers Targeting His Retirement Savings ," Tara Siegel Bernard , 纽约时报
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Stay tuned for next week's special Running Edition, when I talk about what it was like to run the Boston Marathon at 50. (Not pretty!)
As always, feel free to get in touch via Twitter (here ), or email ([email protected] ), or by DM on LinkedIn -- to suggest story ideas, or ask money questions, or hire me as a freelancer, or sponsor this newsletter, or broadcast your job opening.
Until next time!
-CT
SEO Everywhere ★ Digital Ninja ★ Search Engine Optimization Specialist ★ Healthcare Content Strategist ★ Managing Editor ★ Author ★ Copywriter ★ Blue-sky Thinker
2 个月Hello, neighbor! I lived in Windsor Terrace for 17 years.
Such great insight from you on the podcast!
Executive and employee communications, brand reputation and thought leadership professional
3 个月Ricky ?????? Cadden, thought of you with this post. :)