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Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#151

Post by bart_spoon »

kdabir wrote: post #34

I am in the same boat as you. I like to work from the office as it feels lot more social and productive too. Brainstorming or white boarding is not the same for me when I am remote. I have made so many good friends at work because we were meeting everyday. While I have made some good friends in remote setup too, I haven't met them outside work (working hours) ever. However, there are people, who don't like interrupti…

Work relations have always been transactional. The idea of everyone being buddy-buddy at work is pushed by a company right up until the moment they lay you off because it is in their best financial interest to do so.

For many of us, we are happy to trade less time spent socializing these forced, thin relationships, for more time with the meaningful relationships we’ve created with friends and family.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#152

Post by [deleted] »

MikePlacid wrote: post #100
larusso wrote: post #81

I also work in Berlin and are making it a habit to go back to the office more. Yesterday was a specially good day because of some incentives our office was half full again. It was such an awesome change from working away on your own at home with perfect silence to a more buzzing and clicky workspace. I could speak to people about issues directly by simply nudging them and have answers right away (I dislike video call…

> I could speak to people about issues directly by simply nudging them Who would do such a nasty thing? When in the office I usually do not just enjoy the cubicles scenery and meditate to keyboard clicks. I am in the middle of something and getting to that middle requires some diving and concentration. Send an email.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#153

Post by sixhobbits »

peyton wrote: post #143
bodge5000 wrote: post #118

With all due respect, this is mostly my problem with the "work-from-office" (WFO for ease) crowd. Generally, the stance of the WFH crowd is that each individual should get a choice of what makes that individual happy. Very few, if any, of the WFH crowd want mandatated WFH, it would make no sense. But then the WFO crowd often says no, I don't care what makes you happy, because you being in makes me happy. That doesn't…

You can literally flip the O and H and change the “what makes me happy” part to get the opposite side’s point of view.

But in liberalism my wish to not be in another individual's company strongly trumps their desire to be in my company

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#154

Post by atribecalledqst »

At least for me, my primary hangup for going back to the office is that COVID -isn't over-! Since I can do my job just as well from home as from the office, I'd far prefer to stay in an environment where I have control over my level of risk. (I realize not everybody has this at home, but I live alone)

For this reason, when I hear corporate taking advantage of the between-wave lull to trumpet going back to the office, it smacks to me as corporate deciding their need to see butts in seats is more important than my desire to not get sick. Long COVID is a scary thing and AFAIK we don't know any predictors for it!

If it weren't for COVID I would likely prefer to be in the office for the reasons OP lays out. (though now that COVID has happened, I think I'd try to make my commute shorter than it is now)

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#155

Post by bodge5000 »

peyton wrote: post #143
bodge5000 wrote: post #118

With all due respect, this is mostly my problem with the "work-from-office" (WFO for ease) crowd. Generally, the stance of the WFH crowd is that each individual should get a choice of what makes that individual happy. Very few, if any, of the WFH crowd want mandatated WFH, it would make no sense. But then the WFO crowd often says no, I don't care what makes you happy, because you being in makes me happy. That doesn't…

You can literally flip the O and H and change the “what makes me happy” part to get the opposite side’s point of view.

But as I said, its about choice.

The WFH crowd are unhappy if they don't get a choice in where they work. The WFO crowd are unhappy if others DO get a choice of where they work.

Or to put it another way, one side are unhappy if they're forced to do something they don't want to, the other is unhappy if the first are not forced to do something they don't want to do.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#156

Post by lotsofpulp »

samuel_backend wrote: post #65
danwee wrote: post #31

> And finally, I feel no one else is realizing that they are happily hacking away at the amazingly well-paid branch they're sitting on. As soon as a company's IT department is practically fully remote, why should they page a German wage for someone who is a face on a screen, when they can pay a fraction for that same face broadcasted from a few hundred kilometers further east or south? German is hardly used in busine…

I did not see coming how I could offend someone this hard with that sentence. I hope it was clear that I was not speaking from my personal opinion but from the perspective (tech-) companies inevitably take. But then again, what do you think the consensus among developers in high-wage countries is? Do you think most people gladly see their salary drop by double percentage points because "someone else is just as good w…

The same thing that happens when Aldi in Germany tried to sell apples for 2 euro each and Lidl sells for 1 euro each.

If the Aldi apple is so good, then people will buy for 2 euros. If the Aldi apple is not so much better, then Aldi will have to lower the price or find something else to sell.

But no one commiserates with Aldi when they have to do that.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#157

Post by hooby »

I personally enjoy WFH - but I also enjoy the self-organized "office day" me and my team hold once a week, to get together with everyone, having coffee together in the morning, and sometimes a beer after work.

I think it's important to keep personally connected to your team - and while I feel that should be possible with WFH as well, it seems like the online tools we use aren't really up for it though. We tried having coffee together using video chat... but there's always friction.

Even on the rare occasion where nobody drops out of the call, has their voice go all robotic, lags horrifically or turns into a mush of compression artifacts - you still just sit in front of a grid of floating faces... there must be ways to improve that!

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#158

Post by madcow2011 »

mudrockbestgirl wrote: post #107
thunky wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It all doesn't sound so bad when you frame it differently I disagree, it still sounds bad. It sounds like elementary school for adults.

> It sounds like elementary school for adults. I think that sounds pretty amazing.

do we get snacks and naps? I'm in.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't I see gold at the end of the remote working rainbow?

#160

Post by shiftpgdn »

bodge5000 wrote: post #118

With all due respect, this is mostly my problem with the "work-from-office" (WFO for ease) crowd. Generally, the stance of the WFH crowd is that each individual should get a choice of what makes that individual happy. Very few, if any, of the WFH crowd want mandatated WFH, it would make no sense. But then the WFO crowd often says no, I don't care what makes you happy, because you being in makes me happy. That doesn't…

I'm on a team that has a mandatory "in-person" day twice a month. This seems to be the best balance for everyone as it's just infrequent enough to not feel like a grind but frequent enough to keep everyone moving in the same direction.
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