The thing I feel like is really important to remember whenever thinking about the world and demographics is that most people are Asian. As in more people live in Asia then outside of it. Conversely when a headline or something mentions Asia, it is rare they actually mean the majority of the continent or people living there.

Especially because it sounds like the Philippines is pushing for a 4 day workweek, but the rest of SEA is asking people to work from home, use less AC, take the stairs…

Maybe a better title would say "Asian nations [independently] roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis"?

I wish India did this. Millions of copy paste workers, would ease up traffic.

not only these, other asian countries are also falling into this fuel crisis.

Right? Weird title.

Right this is a terrible title. An equally bad and catchy title would have been Asia orders people to take stairs instead of elevators.

"Asia" is one of the dumbest archaic misnomers still in use by Western people

Can't expect Western media to write well. I saw a funnt reel today. It's Italy to Americans but Eye-ran and Eye-raq...

It's a common pattern in HN headlines to assign agency to non-US continents and countries. We hear Europe and China doing stuff all the time as well. It's strange.

Don't forget about holders of commercial real estate debt and the owners of commercial real estate and restaurants who depend on foot traffic!

I'm introverted but very glad I have the option of working from the office and being among fellow staff, we also have a lunchtime exercise club once a week. It's much better for my mental health.

In fact, I've added two days working outside of home instead of one because of the benefits. I think 3 days home/2 days office is the sweet spot.

WFH was great to begin with, but as somebody living alone, the isolation starts to have an effect after a while when you're 'working alone' too

And for many people WFH has other problems - if you're a dual-WFH couple in a small home, lack of home office space is a very real problem. (Although if WFH was a permanent thing, many people could choose less expensive places to live, and have more space)

Still, anything to eliminate a miserable and environmentally wasteful commute.

and if you're talking to somebody who doesn't care about climate change just substitute "climate change" with "traffic"

> is well loved by everyone who participates (except management).

So? The only people who matter are shareholders and their proxies (management). To everyone else: you don't matter as much as you think you do, quit being selfish and be happy you get anything at all. The world doesn't revolve around you.

Except driving in the U.S. following the pandemic was significantly higher than driving before the pandemic even though WFH was much higher.

This claim might be true but it’s simply not showing up in the data which suggests that even if true, the effect is probably minor.

> is well loved by everyone who participates

You don't speak for me :)

I hate it.

I've been working 4/10 schedule (4 days, but 10 hours/day, so I still work 40 hours). It's a HUGE perk, and is the biggest thing keeping me at my current job.

We saw how much less pollution there was during the pandemic

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/04/8110190...

I worked from home but a few times I needed to go to my parents house during what used to be rush hour. Less than 5% of normal traffic and fuel demand dropped so much that prices were lower.

My job went hybrid in 2022 and then return to office full time last year. Everyone hates it. It's a waste of time and resources.

Less pollution, less traffic means we don't need to use tax revenue to expand roads and less wear and tear means less repairs.

Take it one step further and give tax breaks to businesses that let employees work from home and close physical offices. Then this means less new office construction which can be used for housing to help the housing crisis. It's a win win for everyone except control freak managers.

Because the economic activity which generates pollution and CO2 also raises standards of living and provides for the needs of their societies?

Let me guess, you live in the West and don't need to worry about your family's basic needs being met?

One is an immediate impact in your pocket, the other one has an impact lag that you count in years/decades.

Optimizing performance management and labor cost controls is more important to those making these decisions than climate change. Misaligned incentives.

> Why not enact measures like this to curb the pollution and CO2?

It does seem like a glaring contradiction, but it's actually not. In the West, at least, climate rhetoric is a tool primarily to discipline and control the masses through fear, with actual concern for the climate a distant secondary factor. This is why those elites can cry crocodile tears for the environment while also riding on private jets to private islands and staying mum about intentional environmental disasters caused in the ongoing wars (which they support, of course).

In the current fuel crisis, mandatory WFH is also an attempt to manage populations through controlled demand-destruction, which avoids more volatile forms of demand-destruction that result in unrest, like not being able to afford food.

From an (cynical) governance perspective, there is no contradiction here.

You can’t collapse countries and humans down to four sentences and conclude that’s what they value. Do you want to analyze the problem or throw quips at the wall?

"Leave the petro-billionaires alone!" Seems to be the driving force

Imagine if the world had aggressively invested in renewables at any time in the past ten years!

> when I have my 2 programmers in office

I'd like to think that you see "my 2 programmers" as "my team" but I've come to expect phrasing like "when we have our 2 programmers in office". That perspective emphasizes that we're all in this together, rather than serfs working for the benefit of the lord.

The "my programmers" phrasing plays into my prejudice that one reason you like having "your programmers" in office is the exhilaration you feel in seeing them at your beck and call.

> I know its unpopular to say, but when I have my 2 programmers in office, we get sooo much more done than at home. Someone gets stuck and we don't message/call, we just talk.

The technology exists to "just talk" in high-definition audio and video. If somebody isn't asking for help when they're stuck that's a people problem, not a remote work problem. There are several possible reasons for their avoidance; if multiple people are exhibiting the same behavior it could be cultural (specific to your workplace, not the person's upbringing). Using physical presence to force their hand is curing the symptom, not the underlying cause.

So you're saying we should only put extroverted people in the office and introverted people get to WFH? ;)

That's not a global issue though - I have people who I have worked with for years, we're highly productive and we've never met in person.

Especially these days where it's soooo easy to chat, video call, share screens, etc.

Sounds like your problem is that management hasn't provided the right tools to be productive.

Do they live in an exurb

I love WFH but I'd also rather we not blow up schools.

And all he had to do was make it too expensive to even travel to your usual working location.

Truly the hero we deserve.

Seems to be convention. If you search for "Russian war", the top hit is "Ukraine war", second hit "Ukraine-Russia war". Most results seem to mention both parties but when brevity is needed, the place where it's taking place seems to take priority over the belligerents

Just observing, not saying it's a good or bad linguistic practice

Point of view. If you are American its the war with Iran. If you are in most other English speaking countries you would go along with that. That said, I have also seen it referred to as "the Middle East war" and one headline calls it "Trump's war".

I wonder what they call it in Iran?

The US is involved in too many wars to call them all the "US war".