AFP, published on Sunday August 15, 2021 at 6:45 am
When Romain Daubec and his wife Monica leave San Francisco in the summer of 2020 to settle in Denver, Colorado, they think that teleworking 2,000 kilometers from their office will last no more than six months. But with the spread of the Delta variant, they are now comforted in the idea that this way of life is now imposed “naturally”.
In the United States, one after the other, companies are delaying the return of their employees to the office, worried about the new wave of contamination.
But as for this Franco-American couple, many Americans had already prepared for a second year of teleworking, this time wanted, and had no intention of returning to the office, fulfilled by their new professional and personal life.
Over the past week, nearly 113,000 daily cases of Covid-19 have been recorded on average in the United States. This is a 24% increase from the previous seven-day average, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the main federal public health agency, on Thursday.
A worrying development for Facebook, which announced the same day that it had postponed the return to the office of its employees until January 2022.
“It is the data, and not the dates, which influence our approach to return to the office”, justified a spokeswoman for the group, assuring that the priority was “the safety of all”.
A few weeks ago, however, the social network seemed to want to return to face-to-face working habits, planning to completely reopen its offices by October, requiring vaccination and masks.
Facebook has joined Microsoft, Amazon, American Express and even the NBC channel, all of which have delayed the return of their employees to October or January.
– Less salary, less taxes –
For Romain Daubec, 34, financial analyst for a BNPParibas subsidiary and his wife Monica, an employee at Facebook, returning to the office is no longer an option.
Admittedly, his wife lost 10% of her salary due to his relocation, but “this is more than compensated” by the quality of life, the price of housing – two to three times cheaper in Colorado than in California – lower taxes too.
Above all, Monica no longer has to endure three hours on the bus a day.
It took a little longer for Oren Klachkin, 35, an economist at Oxford Economics, to leave Manhattan, New York.
But in the fall, when a new wave hit the United States, it was obvious: “This is the opportunity, which comes once in a lifetime, to live elsewhere while keeping our jobs.”
Having more living space is a real asset: with his wife Nicole, a 35-year-old consultant, they shared a small apartment in New York.
In Boulder, not far from Denver, they now have their “little house” and each a room to work.
“I love my new life here,” says the economist. “I like to work while having access to outdoor activities”.
Teleworking in Colorado has allowed him to better balance his professional and personal life, he estimates, whereas previously he “lost” at least 1.5 hours in the subway every day.
“Of course,” he says, “there are some downsides to not being able to physically interact” with colleagues.
But “different online software allows us to see each other, even if we are far away (…), it allows me to maintain this almost physical interaction, even if we are not physically in the same space”.
– Confidence –
For Romain Daubec, it’s not so much where you work that matters, as the work you do.
“As far as I’m concerned, I just need a good internet connection and respect the San Francisco time zone,” he says, acknowledging that not all jobs are suitable for telecommuting especially when you have to develop a product or interact continuously.
He also insists on the relationship of trust between employees and employers: the company authorizes teleworking because it also gains by reducing its fixed costs, but the employee tacitly undertakes to work as seriously as if he were in the same room as its manager.
Oren Klachkin believes he is more productive since his days are no longer weighed down by transport times.
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