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Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

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Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#61

Post by devoutsalsa »

oraphalous wrote: post #38
BoysenberryPi wrote: post #5

I think what's really happening here is that most people, especially older men, are realizing how much of their social life is tied to work and going to the office. My advice is to get some hobbies, make some friends, join some groups. Even if you aren't willing to go out, finding groups and chatting online in a voice or video call is probably better than just sitting in your home alone.

Yeah - I have been pretty slack with my social life over the past two years with the pandemic and a lot of friends moving away as well. But I still wouldn't trade remote work for the world. I can get a climb in at my local gym in the morning and a swim in the afternoon - with plenty of time left to cook n clean and some quality time with the missus. edit - also my home desktop is just awesome... 12k of total pixels a…

Sounds like a nice home office. The only thing I'd change would be to get 6 more monitors so you can play Tic Tac Toe.

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#62

Post by JohnHaugeland »

marak830 wrote: post #58

IMHO the only people that think remote is bad, is the middle managers losing their fiefdom Edit: JohnHauge Just because that is your idea doesn't make my comment incorrect.

the one and only reason i've heard and been sympathetic with is that working from home, near the kids, is hard

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#63

Post by kurko »

josephcsible wrote: post #56

I really hate going weeks or months at a time with my only interaction with co-workers being through emails and tickets. I wish we could have a hybrid setup where everyone is in the office 1 or 2 days a week.

Suggestions: daily standup (or a few times a week); pair programming more often; book club; 1h-presentations on technical topics once a week.

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#64

Post by pc86 »

13of40 wrote: post #51
BoysenberryPi wrote: post #5

I think what's really happening here is that most people, especially older men, are realizing how much of their social life is tied to work and going to the office. My advice is to get some hobbies, make some friends, join some groups. Even if you aren't willing to go out, finding groups and chatting online in a voice or video call is probably better than just sitting in your home alone.

I suspect there's a good chance you're going to wake up one day and find that you're an older man, so you might want to prepare yourself for the kind of social change that often comes with that. That said, I'm actually dreading return-to-work to a certain extent, because it's optional at my company right now, so I've been able to make my office into a nice little interruption-free cocoon. I spent the summer outside w…

I wish we'd stop calling it "return-to-work" - I've been working for years. We should call it something closer to what it is. "Return-to-burning-hours-every-day-on-the-interstate" maybe?

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#65

Post by prawn »

bckr wrote: post #6
Sevii wrote: post #4

Leave your house. Remote work has downsides, but you have the ability to fix them as opposed to the office where your only option is to switch jobs.

Do you mean "leave your house... to work somewhere else"? If so, that's sort of an option. But at that point, I might as well be working with my coworkers. If you mean "leave your house... outside work hours", this is also becoming more and more possible, yet most of my waking hours are part of my workday.

Work from a co-working space. You get the social aspects with more freedom (to move spaces, to be friendly or frosty with a co-tenant without risking employment, etc). I co-own a co-working space and we have part-timers and remote workers in the mix.

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#66

Post by bckr »

nstart wrote: post #43

I can relate to this. I’ve worked remotely for 6 years but that feeling you mentioned is something I’ve felt for the past year. I think it’s worth noting that remote work during the pandemic doesn’t really do justice to what remote work should really be. Prior to the pandemic kicking in, my remote work involved mostly working at home. But when I felt the need for change, I’d combine things like grocery shopping with…

> All that to say, what you are feeling is perfectly normal.

Thank you for the kindest, most useful comment

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#67

Post by kutenai »

BoysenberryPi wrote: post #5

I think what's really happening here is that most people, especially older men, are realizing how much of their social life is tied to work and going to the office. My advice is to get some hobbies, make some friends, join some groups. Even if you aren't willing to go out, finding groups and chatting online in a voice or video call is probably better than just sitting in your home alone.

I think you are right. I've been fully remote for about 13 years. I love it, but I also have other things to keep me busy. I am a member of the local tennis club, and have many friends and acquaintances there, as well as year-round activities. We also have many church friends in the area, and my wife and I do gardening and other outdoor activities, so, any "free time" that we end up with is easily filled.

Don't just be remote and a total couch potato, enjoy the freedom, and make the best of it.

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#68

Post by d_runs_far »

I lucked out, in a completely arbitrary move, I did a quick renovation project in December 2019 that gave me a decently set up office space in our house. Fast forward to March when we were sent to work from home for 'two weeks'.

Since then I've been to the office maybe 15 times, never for more than a couple hours at once.

I do not have any desire to be back working in the office. Couple big reasons: - the commute, while nothing compared to some of you, 30-45 min in the car each way is a mental drain, not to mention my current vehicle with the price of gas would be a killer on the bank account. - Family - I love that I am home to pick up my son off the school bus, get a few minutes to chill with him before I go back to wrap up some end of day business. Then I start making dinner for the family. Pre-pandemic was the rush to the after-school program, rush to get dinner made before any evening activities. - Structure of my day: I was always subjected to the 'drive by chats' at the office. Now, I put some blocks on my Teams channel in the calendar, and just get shit done when I know my brain is more likely to engage in deep work. If people try to schedule meetings, I point them at the calendar to look for a slot. And for many days, I know that from 12-2pm I can never really seem to focus, I just take a long lunch, and if the weather is good, go for a run. I do a bit more follow up on things in the evening and feel less rushed about the whole day.

I have no real desire to be back in the office full time and will resist as hard as I can.

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#69

Post by geoduck14 »

tharkun__ wrote: post #15

YMMV as always and your question makes you vary from my perspective already. No I am not sick of remote work at all. I love it! My quality of life has improved many fold. No more commute means I get a lot more time on my hands to do the things that I'd otherwise not have enough time for or for which it would be too late in the day (think kids that need to go to bed shortly after everyone is home vs. having hours of t…

>FWIW I do see the extroverts struggling but hey, us introverts struggled for decades before...

I'm an extrovert. It was hard at first, but then I stopped "waiting to go back" and I sunk my teeth into "working remote". I shifted my personal social schedule to emphasize face-to-face friends. I crave leaving the house on the weekend - and I spend more time at the home-improvement store. I have spent money on my home office. I have shifted my body language to express myself within the bounds of the camera

Re: Ask HN: Who's sick of remote work?

#70

Post by kurko »

MattGaiser wrote: post #32
johnnyo wrote: post #17

Unpopular opinion, but I was not a big fan. It was mainly because my house lacked a dedicated, private office where I could work, compared to my real office. My living space isn’t that big, but I’ve got a great office at the job. Big desk, big screens, giant whiteboard, and it’s just around the corner, so commute is minimal.

I want an in depth study that looks at things like this, as I prefer remote work because I have a bigger desk, bigger screens, a whiteboard, more screens, a better chair, and am not seated near a large window that dumps a ton of glare on my screen (my prior job). So for me, remote is an upgrade in terms of infrastructure. For you, it is obviously a downgrade. How many people who hate remote work have a Herman Miller…

I see most discussions around liking/disliking remote work include the infrastructure/equipment as argument. I personally like remote in great part because of it.

I love my 4k display, my standing desk, my keyboard, my Aeron Chair. However, I doubt that if those were offered it'd be reason alone for me to go back to the office.

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