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The Atlantic Daily: The Home Is the Future of Work—And Travel

What does it mean to stay home from work if you work out of your living room?

By Caroline Mimbs Nyce
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Every Thanksgiving, I, like so many other people, will journey from my office to my family dining table. This Thanksgiving, that journey will be about 10 feet.

For a smaller-than-you-might-think, privileged class (as of August, just 13.4 percent of employed Americans), the pandemic means home is still work, and work is still home. This holiday week, people will take time off, only to, functionally speaking, remain in their office.

The effects of this blurring of work and play are once again following us into the holiday season. As a culture, we are still adjusting to what the large-scale merging of work and play really means.

  • Work from home is challenging when you need time off. “Companies would be smart to reconsider standard working hours, and to apply parameters rigidly,” Ed Zitron argues.

  • The home is the future of travel. Call it a “workcation” (honestly, or not). Our staff writer Derek Thompson caught up with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to discuss what the company’s recent uptick in longer stays suggests about the convergence of work and vacation.

The news in three sentences:

(1) Five are dead after a man drove into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin. (2) A Georgia jury heard closing arguments in the case of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. (3) President Joe Biden renominated Jerome Powell for a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve.

Today’s Atlantic-approved activity:

Listen to the new Adele album while reading our critic Spencer Kornhaber’s review: “May this album inspire you to knock on the walls of your own life and replace whatever can’t stand the test.”

A break from the news:

Real men drive electric trucks.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.