Discussion
Asia rolls out four-day weeks and work-from-home as emergency measures to solve a fuel crisis caused by Iran war
niek_pas: "Asia" didn't roll out anything. Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Pakistan rolled out independent measures.
butILoveLife: Right? Weird title.
butILoveLife: Makes sense for short term damage control. However, I think in the medium and long term you end up having productivity hits from such measures.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.Although, if you want to justify WFH, introverted-like people do not get the same level of benefit as extroverted-like people in this situation. The extroverted people will just start talking. The introverted people need to be asked.
alexjplant: [delayed]
glitchc: Does this mean that President Trump is the (unexpected) champion of the remote working crowd? Not the hero we need but the hero we deserve, and all that.
yellow_lead: I love WFH but I'd also rather we not blow up schools.
idiotsecant: Sounds like your problem is that management hasn't provided the right tools to be productive.
butILoveLife: Go ahead.....
scottious: It's too bad that countries only consider things like this to address a crisis in fuel costs. Why not enact measures like this to curb the pollution and CO2? I guess it says a lot about what humanity truly values.
lizknope: We saw how much less pollution there was during the pandemichttps://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.
butILoveLife: But it gets solved when we are in-person.We could develop new technology, research culture solutions... or... meet in-person.
nhubbard: Maybe a better title would say "Asian nations [independently] roll out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel crisis"?
alephnerd: "Some" Asian nations.It's still 5/6 day workweeks in China, India, SK, Japan, and Singapore.
wing-_-nuts: I've long said that WFH is an easy win climate change solution that costs nothing, is well loved by everyone who participates (except management). Turns out in times like this, it's also an energy security measure.
electrosphere: 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.
apercu: I get that, and a lot of people like to be social with other people. But just because 10% (made up number) like it, there's no reason to force it on the rest of the workforce (not that you are).I encourage people who are remote but want human contact to rent a desk once a week at a co-working space.For me personally, I want to do my work as efficiently as possible, in as little time as possible, and then have my social time, which has very little in common with my work and/or colleagues.I might be an exception, but I get up very, very early and work almost right away, and I don't want to be on a roll and then have to pack up, get in the car at a terrible traffic time where (some) people are driving like animals, hunt for parking and then find a desk. That's a huge _tax_ on my productivity.But I don't expect or demand that the rest of the world do this.As a side comment, I would agree with you though, that 2 in the office is better than one. But I also had a very effective pattern around 10 years ago, where I spent 2 days in the office per month, and that worked really well for me (though those days were far, far less productive than my at home work days).Now, if the world adopted a 32 hour, 4-day work week I would probably be ok with the office 1 day a week.
recroad: Why are they calling it the "Iran war". It's more like the US/Israeli War. Or more specifically, the US/Israeli assault on Iran.
thewhitetulip: 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...
fulafel: 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.
achierius: Isn't that a good deal more reasonable though? China, as a polity, does indeed have agency. It's strange to suggest they don't, as if only America can do things on the world stage.
josephcsible: Having the option of working from the office is a good thing. It's only being unnecessarily forced to do so that's bad.
1970-01-01: Long-term planning rarely hooks-up with reality until it's too late. It's abundantly clear "Asia" should spend the remaining 20% of their working week directly on ripping away their dependency on fuel.
Razengan: "Asia" is one of the dumbest archaic misnomers still in use by Western people
recursive: What do you call it? It's a continent, right?
kelseyfrog: We're going to get a 6-day work week, aren't we? :(
fulafel: Sure, the usages aren't all flawed. But in similar cases it's far more likely to see "Europe" doing something than "US" doing something in the headlines in similar cases, I feel.
wat10000: It's a somewhat vaguely defined region. It often excludes India and the Middle East. It always excludes Europe, despite there being no sensible reason to consider them to be two separate continents.Consider this sentence from the article: "Asia is particularly dependent on oil exports from the Middle East." That's a bizarre statement if you take "Asia" literally. The Middle East is in Asia. Is Saudi Arabia dependent on oil exports from the Middle East? Is Iran?
andrewflnr: Calling Eurasia a continent would make more sense. "Asia" doesn't have a really sensical physical boundary. May as well say Mexico is a different continent from the US just because there's a big cultural and ethnic difference across the border.
bilsbie: I wish we’d all go to four day work weeks.My whole life 5 out of 7 full days of work always felt so daunting and almost dehumanizing.But 4/7 is close to half and just feels way different qualitatively. If you have a job you mostly like, 4 days a week feels really sustainable.
throwaway82931: > when I have my 2 programmers in officeI'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.
apercu: 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.
butILoveLife: But would you be more productive in person? I am just describing my experience. In a 4 hour block, people will ask a dozen questions in-person. WFH, I'm lucky to get a single phone call despite begging them to call to ask questions.
Plasmoid: I'm not sure that counting "How it's going?" as a productivity stat is the win you think it is.
hshdhdhj4444: 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.
Apocryphon: What's your commute like? There are many aspects to the RTO vs. WFH debate, but having to waste away 1-3 hours a day on the road, coupled with the energy use in the OP, really cancels out the mental health aspects of being in office. It even detracts from the amount of work done.
bluescrn: 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' tooAnd 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.(Still, anything to eliminate a miserable and environmentally wasteful commute...)
a456463: you can just send "hey you got 5 mins"? you have to do that in person. you do that on chat. nothing different. this is a made up reason. I do this all day, everyday
neaden: 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.
bombcar: It's too broad a term - it covers too many disparate countries and ends up being like using Americas to refer to Canada and the USA or similar.I read the headline and assumed it was "Japan and China" but it wasn't.
neaden: TBF the entire Western Hemisphere is about the population of China, so it's actually far far worse.
jghn: My favorite is when people say they like "asian cuisine" or "asian food". China alone has several distinct cuisines. Why do we act like this is a monolithic concept?
01100011: 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?
a456463: No it doesn't. That economoic activity when done from home, raises their local neighborhoods now where mom and pop businesses can thrive instead of competing in a costly rental market based on scarcity.
EA-3167: The equivalent term is "The West."
whycome: Just wait for "the Shield of America" too (bleh)
wafflemaker: Everyone knows who started it, most people think they know why (he who didn't kill himself), but it does take place mostly in Iran (or at least that's where the focus is).Nobody is excusing war crimes.
thelastgallon: I wish India did this. Millions of copy paste workers, would ease up traffic.
a456463: The keywords that you are not saying are "is a sweet spot FOR YOU"If it is a sweet spot for you fine, I am happy you found it. But DO NOT FORCE all of US who have different sweet spots to meet you at yours.
0x457: Because there was a lot of cultural cross-contamination between these countries, there is a huge overlap in ingredients due to climate similarities and trade between neighboring countries.I group European & American food into their respective groups as well.> Asia rolls out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel cris...Makes no sense, same with "I'm in a mood for asian food"
ultratalk: I don't think GP was forcing anyone to do anything.
kubb: It's similar to how people say "Europe does this or that". Basically the part of their thoughts dedicated to that part of the world is so small that all they can afford is a tiny box, and everything has to go in there, reality be damned.
Hamuko: It's not really that different from "Europe", especially when you listen to Americans talk about "Europe".
vamos_davai: Don't forget about holders of commercial real estate debt and the owners of commercial real estate and restaurants who depend on foot traffic!
bsimpson: 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…
alephnerd: It's also Vietnam, Thailand, and unofficially Pakistan.The reality is the bigger Asian nations like China, India, SK, and Japan that worked on building resilient alternatives after the 2022-23 ONG shock due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine aren't as dramatically impacted. The others didn't.Additionally, in Pakistan's case, their government raised fuel taxes by around 33% because they didn't meet their IMF loan terms [0] but somehow found $11M to buy a private jet [1] for the CM of Punjab who is also the niece of the PM and the daughter of the former PM and Pakistan is in the middle of a war with Afghanistan [2].Edit: can't reply> gas cylinder booking...The gas cylinder/LPG issue is due to consumer habits - induction and electric stovetops have been available in India for decades, but there has been a cultural aversion to adopting electric.Even Indian Americans in the US prefer using Gas Stovetops over Electric for cultural reasons (eg. I've had my parents say the "taste" of food is worse on electric instead of gas stovetops despite living here for decades).And dhabas and restaurants used to use coal briquettes or kerosene until those were banned in the 2000s for pollution reasons (much help that did /s), and will most likely revert back to those.[0] - https://www.dawn.com/news/1979709[1] - https://www.arabnews.com/node/2633978/pakistan[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Afghanistan%E2%80%93Pakis...
fakedang: There's currently a gas crisis in India. A country that had a $10 billion investment in an Iranian port to trade oil and gas directly with them, except they decided to become America's bitch and halted the project after American sanctions.Anyways, everyone's affected - gas cylinder booking requests which usually take a couple of days to fulfill currently have a 30 day period to fulfill in some major cities. Roadside vendors are shutting down temporarily, as are many restaurants.At least EVs have had a good success rate in adoption, so commuting isn't as much affected. But freight is pretty much fucked.Again, this is a country that could have gotten a sweetheart deal from Iran, just like China, but apparently decided to become a little bitch.
throwaway473825: Freight will eventually go electric as well. It's crazy how fast it's happening in China:https://www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/year-end-surge-electric...
mschuster91: > It's crazy how fast it's happening in ChinaThe benefits of living in an authoritarian state. The CCP says "we will provide for cheap electric trucks" and it happens, no matter if that displaces tens, if not hundreds of thousands of workers in ICE car manufacturers.
scottious: but then again, vehicle miles travelled per-capita has been mostly increasing in the US since as far back as 1975. There could be a lot of confounding factors. Like astronomical housing prices in urban areas forcing people live very far away and incur more VMT at a faster rate than WFH decreases VMT. I'm no expert here, I'm just spitballing.
garyfirestorm: Poverty doesn’t have the luxury to choose or take moral stands. When a dollar worth oil price fluctuation can lead to thousands going hungry for a day, you as a leader will do everything to avoid catastrophic sanctions.
htx80nerd: You could never do this in America because 50x judges would pile on and there'd be 100x lawsuits.
Razengan: The way they use it is what "Oriental" used to mean: East Asia: Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam etc.
linhns: I’m living in one of these countries. Abject failure from powers that be to even consider 4-day workweek as an alleviation. Not the first time it happens yet they learn nothing.
bombcar: Don't bring Valinor into it.
