Does Working From Home Make You a Loser?

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye was speaking at the Minneapolis Downtown Council's Annual meeting this week.  He was sharing the benefits of working from downtown.  The council has previously reported that since the pandemic, many office spaces have sat empty due to remote work.  The Mayor made a joke that folks in the audience laughed at, but at the expensive of those working from home.

The Council has reported that about 65% of the workforce has returned to downtown Minneapolis.  Most of that focused on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  In the Mayor's address he was talking about creating the right perception of downtown in an effort to bring more workers back downtown.

Mayor Frye said that right now crime in downtown is down and that it's worth sharing that information in daily conversations to help perception.  He believes that workers need to return to downtown offices.

But then he joked about a "study" and how work from home affects people:

 "I don't know if you saw this study the other day, what this study clearly showed... is that when people who have the ability to come downtown but don't. When they stay home, sitting on their couch with their nasty cat blanket, fiddling on their laptop. If they do that for a few months, you become a loser. It's a study. We're not losers, are we?"

A spokesperson later clarified that there was no study.  The Mayor was just joking.  But you've got to wonder if all those folks that are currently working from home didn't take it quite so light-hearted?

Benefits from working from home can be many.  Financially, parents can save on daycare, commuters save money on gas, all workers save money by not going out for lunch and clothing costs go down. There may be an ease of stress levels and of course you don't have the on-going interruptions that are constant in an office setting.