It's actually a rather interesting question because I really hope telecommuting becomes massively accepted in the United States in the not-too-distant future. People should be able to get work done on their own time, but it's very important that there is not a required expectation to do more work than they would be doing otherwise and pressure to complete more at all hours of the day. Employees must stand firm and not allow work to interfere with their lives unless they choose to multi-task in minor fun tasks. They need to schedule their own lives around a chosen work schedule knowing what they need to complete. Flexibility is key so long as it isn't more work than one is willing to handle. There should probably be some sort of cap so there is not a disparity between employees driving to outearn others that might force everyone to do more than a reasonable amount. But work is generally good so we shouldn't seek to limit it especially when lack of flexibility in it limits our other personal endeavors.
Somewhat positive overall even though MSFT likely has ulterior motives.
Good luck with that.
At this point, I think the only way we as a society are going to get any kind of work-life balance back is to accept the tradeoff of a very rigid, but proscribed work environment. You go to an office at 8am, you do your work, and you leave the office at 5pm, taking nothing with you. Until 8am the next day, no emails are getting checked, no presentations are getting worked on, and no conference calls will happen. Saturday and Sunday are strictly personal time. But conversely, no working from home, no "flex-time" and no wasting working hours on pointless BS that's only tangentially related to the task at hand.
Poll
