Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 508 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#481

Post by BiteCode_dev »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #385
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's that weird, there not a lot of differences between people at the top or at the bottom. It's the fact that they were idealized that makes this dip into their intimacy so strange. But basically, those communications look a lot like ones that I would have with my own friends. And when I was a students, we were careful about spending 10 euros. Now, we have casual chats about buying a sauna for the gard…

It's interesting that you start your post by demythifying these people only to close it by rebuilding the myth again. It's like we can't accept they are just like us posting on HN.

There is nothing mythical as having qualities that others don't have, and any context or system have a local maximum, which optimize for a certain kind of outcome.

My qualities would have me dead 200 years ago, but make me earn money and social status in 2022. It's not that I'm amazing, it's just the current context is very favorable to those qualities. So it's just a lot of luck, and being fit for certains things that happen to be advantagious in your environnement.

The myth is that the process is just and fair, according to some people moral standard. The universe doesn't care.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#482

Post by nicbou »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #397
nicbou wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A house used 100% of the time is more efficient than a house used 50% of the time + an office used 50% of the time.

But it's not a house used 100% of the time vs an office used 50% of the time. It's 100 houses used 50% of the time and 1 office used 50% of the time vs 100 houses used 100% of the time.

The office needs to be heated 100% of the time, and it's larger than a house. The house is probably heated to an extent when it's empty.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#483

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

ProZsolt wrote: post #410
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own experience as a junior during the forced WFH transition of the pandemic is, albeit anecdotal, proof for me. It sucked. If the company doesn't shift and completely overhaul its entire culture from the ground up to full remote including junior mentoring, it's difficult to see, especially from the managers and senior perspective who already know the "games" of the organization and the know-how to get their work d…

I can completely understand your position, but it shouldn't be like that. I started my carrier as a remote employee before the pandemic. Pairing helped a lot to learn how others are working. Most of the technical discussions where public. Usually on slack or on GitHub (via RFC PRs). If somebody scheduled a meeting usually included the whole team as optional and encouraged juniors to listen even if they can't contribu…

>but it shouldn't be like that

Many things in life and in the world shouldn't be the way they are, but the reality in the field is very different and most of the time there's not much we can do about it.

Pairing was never a thing in any company I worked (in Europe).

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#484

Post by ljf »

Asooka wrote: post #409
ljf wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are very right - I am very lucky to have a shed/office I can hide away in and get some great work done in. I'd say it is a far better and more comfortable space than any office I've worked in. But when I had to work at the kitchen table with my wife and family in other rooms in the house it was so much harder. For those with room, especially if you have a good sized commute, remote working is great (I really real…

I can't imagine living in a home where every member doesn't have their own quiet/study/work space. I say this as someone who has lived most of his life in apartment buildings where that was a bit challenging, but definitely not impossible. I guess maybe if you are used to living your life outside of the house an just visit to eat and sleep you feel differently, but that's the beauty of WFH - you get to pick what best…

Very much this, but I've been lucky and riden the house price increases well to end up in a largeish place - but even then if I didn't have a garden office it would be hard.

Two friends if mine move to the nearest city and got a small one bed as they both do a lot out of the flat - theatre, movies, bars, sports etc - so the house was really a place to sleep and shower, plus eat and relax a little.

Home working for them meant losing space in their kitchen/livingroom/dining room - and having one of them work from the bed room.

Inner city UK flats are often very small, and still relatively expensive.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#485

Post by goosedragons »

foobiekr wrote: post #200
goosedragons wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah let's increase car dependence. Great idea. If people are mainly working from home then we can redirect public transit from business parks or whatever towards places people still want to go (e.g. shopping, nightlife, events) but without a car. Starving already often underfunded public transit is not the answer. Why not use the hundreds of millions spent on highways to subsidize people to work from home instead? M…

Subsidizing people in affluent, remote-work jobs is not a good allocation of resources. By all means, work from home, but subsidies should mostly help the people in the bottom two thirds of the income ladder.

You're right but we do already heavily subsidize those kinds of people with things like highways, tax credits for EVs etc.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#486

Post by edanm »

gregoriol wrote: post #27
lm28469 wrote: post #6

I'm not convinced it is a net positive in the end. Especially for big companies, heating an office space with 500+ people is probably much more efficient than heating 500 individual houses for example Not everyone commute with an ICE vehicle too

Most houses stay heated during the day anyway, remote work or not, it doesn't change the situation that much. And offices will remain heated whether there are full or only half of the employees actually in the building.

What? Why would most houses stay heated?

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#487

Post by Eupraxias »

oblio wrote: post #433
Eupraxias wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a friend who's father did the 4 hours of commuting in/out of NYC every day. Used to visit a few times a year, and he did that every day M-F. As a Vermonter kid, I had a lot of trouble getting my head around how he stayed sane.

He didn't want to be with his family.

Nope - he was quite a family man, great dad, gave every minute that he was at home to his family.

The money was good - I'm pretty sure that was the motivation. Also part of his personality - he grew up in serious poverty and was driven to climb the ladder. And climb he did.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#488

Post by gregoriol »

edanm wrote: post #486
gregoriol wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most houses stay heated during the day anyway, remote work or not, it doesn't change the situation that much. And offices will remain heated whether there are full or only half of the employees actually in the building.

What? Why would most houses stay heated?

Do you turn off the heating in every room in your house when you go out to work?

Even if you did have some "smart" appliance that would make it easier, you'd have to "over-heat" when you come back to get again the desired temperature (or pre-heat a few hours before coming back), which would mostly make the effort's result insignificant...

It would make sense to drop heating when leaving for a few days though, week-ends/holidays. Offices are not heated on week-ends for example.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#489

Post by edanm »

gregoriol wrote: post #488
edanm wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Why would most houses stay heated?

Do you turn off the heating in every room in your house when you go out to work? Even if you did have some "smart" appliance that would make it easier, you'd have to "over-heat" when you come back to get again the desired temperature (or pre-heat a few hours before coming back), which would mostly make the effort's result insignificant... It would make sense to drop heating when leaving for a few days though, week-en…

Yes, of course! I'm surprised anyone wouldn't.

I will note that I am in a warm country, so we much more rarely have the heat on. But if I'm out of the house for 8 hours, I'll definitely turn off the AC. It might take time to get the house cold again, but c'mon, no way we'd pay for a day's worth of electricity for no reason.

I wonder how much this changes if it's heating vs cooling, and based on how much you have to heat/cool a place.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't remote work advertised as a pro environment initiative?

#490

Post by hotpotamus »

guywithahat wrote: post #393
hotpotamus wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like some sources might be in order. And I say that as a person who despises working from home.

I can't help but think you may not despise working from home, the only people who dispute wfh is less efficient are people who want to wfh or people selling article clicks to them

Why would you think I may not despise working from home? I wouldn't recommend scanning back through my comment history because it's fairly dense and silly, but if you did, you'd find a recent comment where I believe I referred to it as "diet hell" because it only lasts 8 hours a day for 30 years as opposed to 24 hours a day for eternity.
Post reply on HN