I feel like when you exist in the same spot, it's almost like your ghost stack up.

And I have a hard time thinking of my home office as my workspace after a while.

It's just a place I'm existing and I have trouble focusing.

And I resent how it turns happy places into workplaces.

You know, like I have a tiny, tiny backyard here in the city.

And I walk outside to take a break,

and my backyard has stopped becoming the area where I, like, barbecue and have fun, and now it's, like,

my break room.

I'm Jocelyn K. Gly, and this is Hurry Slowly, a podcast about pacing yourself, where I explore how you can find more calm,

comfort, and clarity through the simple act of slowing down. My guest today is Sean Blanda,

a writer, an editor, and a keen media observer, who recently wrote a thought-provoking piece

that summarily debunked all of the gushing articles about a sunny future in which we all

work remotely, live flexibly, and never see anyone at the office ever again.

Sean is also a friend and a former work colleague who I collaborated

closely with as real 3D humans working in an office for many years, as we put together at the

99U conference and other creative ventures together. In this conversation, we dig into not just how much of our identity is wrapped up in work,

but how much of our identity is wrapped up in going to work, in inhabiting a shared physical

workspace, and going to a space where you get to be a different person for a little while.

We also discussed the psychic weight of working from home, the disciplined boundary setting

that is required, the challenges of providing evidence that you're doing your work, and the

stress of constantly switching between your home and work identities.

Finally, we explore the divide between the haves and have-nots that's playing

...