Is anyone in this sub or instance a remote worker? I have been one first partially and then completely for a few years now and I began to think as a kinda of solarpunk way of live that has the potential to propel humanity to a more decentralized and sustainable way of life, specially since I plan to move to a smaller town because of it. What do guys feel about it? Do you do it? Don’t do it but would like to? Do it it but miss interaction?
Yes and no - I’m remote and I’m happy with it, it’s fairly recent but I’m planning on finding a nice coworking space to keep social links and community, which is foundational to making a better world. I’m a bit afraid that being remote will damage my ability to organize with other workers and to build a strong foundation for my life on the local scale.
I don’t think remote work is solarpunk in itself, if only because most of our jobs that can do remotely are not very useful to the world. I just try to see it as freeing the commute time so we can spend it building community and building alternatives for the future; it’s not an end in itself.
I did try the cowork thing. I did it in Porto, Portugal but I think that because real estate here is fundamentally broken there is no way that it works. I did found some places but the good ones were expensive and the bad ones were also expensive just not that much. And only the really good ones were better than working at a library or a coffee shop.
I don’t think the remote work itself is solarpunk but I think it gives a slight opening to create solarpunk communities. Less time commuting, more time spent with people you want to spend time with and less with coworkers, community and political envolvment, sports, etc… Besides, I agree that a good deal of remote jobs are not inherently useful to the world but just the fact that it opens a way for a lot of people to move from big urban centers to smaller urban centers, reduces centralization and with it can move the workers that can’t do their work remotely also to the decentralized communities.
I agree that remote work isn’t the end and that it helps to allow time and energy to be used for community-driven interaction. We won’t truly be at “an end” for solarpunk since we always want to keep making life better for everyone, so any opportunity we have to reduce our impact on the climate and work with the people around us is cause to celebrate if only a little.
I currently work at a place where I could do 90% of my job remotely, but because one department has to be in the building our director requires everyone to work on-site. I lose a lot of time that could be used for self improvement or forging social bonds just sitting at a desk waiting for a phone call. If I could work remotely, I feel like I’d have the time and energy to bike to a community garden and help grow food for people at the very least.
There is a solarpunk festival happening soon near me and there will be some job fair stuff as well. I’ll go and see if there’s something I can do that helps our planet as well as myself if I can. Any improvement is nice.