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Why Do We Still Commute?

citylab.com

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Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#221

Post by marcosdumay »

bluGill wrote: post #204
crdoconnor wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, except the elephant in the room isn't laziness or the value of face to face interaction, it's trust. The driver of this lack of trust is the rise of managers (e.g. MBAs) who have limited expertise in the fields which they manage. For jobs where there are measures of performance that are accurate and not gameable (e.g. certain call center workers) and/or it is a job executives probably reckon that they could do…

The best managers are the ones who know they don't know how to do your job so they get out of your way. The worst are those who don't know how to do your job and get in the way. Those who know how to do your job at least don't get in the way when they help.

Ideally, they would both know how to do your job, and get out of the way.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#222

Post by PeterStuer »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #51

Managers. People working from home scare them. They might be slacking. They might be leaking. Heaven's sake, man, they might even be organizing a union!

Closer tot he truth: they are scared that the 'managing' is actually not realy needed and contributing all that much.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#223

Post by dsfyu404ed »

gerardflo wrote: post #197
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #33

To a lot of people 2hr/day commuting is less terrible than the trade-offs associated with living closer to the city.

2hr/day commute gives ~ 40hr a month of unpaid work commitment.

It's not a work commitment. You're not working for your employer when you're commuting (unless you commute by train/bus and choose to do so).

It's like a side gig where your compensation is you don't get bent over for rent, get the freedom that comes with owning a home and no longer have to put up with the downsides of living in an apartment.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#224

Post by btbuildem »

duckmysick wrote: post #213

I have a practical question about organizing remote jobs. How do you deal with the security aspects of working remotely - especially if the work deals with sensitive data or code? In a regular office setting everyone is connected to a same network that sits behind a firewall (or in extreme cases it's just an intranet with no outside access) with tightly controlled permissions. How can it be translated to a remote env…

Usually connect via VPN to the corp network?

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#225

Post by swat535 »

wpietri wrote: post #182
swat535 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too have both in office and remote and I agree with all your points regarding working from home. However I must confess that the downsides of working from the office majority outweighs the other. I can no longer focus. I am constantly pulled into meetings. I have 120 minutes of commute everyday. When I get home I am too tired and can no longer spend quality time with my partner like I did when I was working from ho…

> I can no longer focus. I am constantly pulled into meetings. I think this is often an environment and culture problem. When I'm setting something up, I work hard to create spaces that minimize noise and distractions. And I think it's important to limit meetings, because they'll definitely expand to fill all time available. But most places don't bother with either of these, throwing people into noisy open offices an…

I would really love to have those options but living in the Greater Toronto Area doesn't leave much room for those.

In addition we have some of the harshest winters with freeing black ice falling from sky :)

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#226

Post by dsfyu404ed »

marcosdumay wrote: post #211
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a stupid bridge that has had every social engineering plot applied to it to no avail (HOV lanes with pay-to-use transponders being the latest fashion and cops to enforce the rules slowing everyone else down). Too bad just paying poor people not to use the bridge isn't politically correct. It would be a heck of a lot more efficient than combining a bunch of disincentives that affect the lower classes.

> Too bad just paying poor people not to use the bridge isn't politically correct. Why does nobody ever try free public transportation? Paying the poor brings a lot of practical issues, but at a minimum you can make them not pay for taking the long route.

> free public transportation

Because someone has to pay for it.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#228

Post by throwawaywfh »

vog wrote: post #133
codingdave wrote: post #81

I worked from home for five years, and just this week started back into a job where I commute to an office. I don't love the commute, but I also don't agree that working from home is a universally better answer for me on a personal level. Everyone knows the benefits of working from home, but there are downsides as well. Fixable downsides, but they exist nonetheless -- it is easy to become a hermit. Easy to over-work.…

> it is easy to become a hermit. Easy to over-work. Hard to draw the line between your work time and your personal time Not just that, but there's also the other side: Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. I know these issues from remote workers I worked with, but also know this personally while working on my Diploma theses. Whi…

>Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline.

This is so, so true for me. I used to work in a place which had an office, but you wouldn't be expected to be there most of the time, just come in at least once a week, maybe for meetings, etc.

I used to procrastinate and report progress to my manager when there was much less. But since the work was deadline-based, I'd just grind through the weekend with little sleep and catch up with what I've reported. I've never missed a deadline, but I'm still feeling bad about doing it that way and misleading them.

Just to be clear, this was a long time ago, when I was just starting my professional career, and didn't yet have stronger ethics.

(Throwaway for obvious reasons, the employer I worked for at the time browse HN)

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#229

Post by Chiba-City »

pixl97 wrote: post #136
r2dnb wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I have nothing against MBAs, this is a typical example of what people call MBAish / corporate BS and why managerial profiles have gained a bad reputation here. It looks smart on the surface but scrutiny exposes non-sense. >Conversations around whiteboards between stakeholders creates value. Why ? Are whiteboards magic ? >Pair programming makes for lower defects and more reliable scheduling Putting aside the fac…

>Why ? Are whiteboards magic ? Anecdotally, for the amount of problems I have seen them solve in short order. Yes. They force an idea in the mind to become concrete and logically digestible to other members of the party. If you can't draw it in a manner that other people understand, you don't understand the idea well enough yourself. It is also free flowing. Ideas can be added to and removed quickly with an interface…

FWIW, spreadsheets are another remarkable group planning tool with an HDMI big screen. Many projects work forward against backwards constraint logic not always clear from day 1. Bugs made shallow with enough eyes applies early in projects. Even editing text documents of tables and lists around consensus concerning values of features and costs of risks is very useful. I have never had much need for any developer just typing against personal request. I always force stakeholders across roles and departments to sign their names to schedules and sign their names to ongoing weekly schedule adjustments. Every slip is caught ASAP including eyes on features bigger than schedule budget stomachs.

Re: Why Do We Still Commute?

#230

Post by lordCarbonFiber »

ck425 wrote: post #215

Articles about home working often ignore the social aspects too. I enjoy working in the office for many reasons but top amongst them is the social interactions. Like many many engineers I was attracted to the role because I would work with other people like me, geeks and nerds (I realise there's a potential side critique about cultural homogeneity here). Being in the office is fun because I can make relatively obscur…

I notice many of the biggest proponents of remote work are people with partners and/or a healthy social life. I won't begrudge them that, but, as someone with social anxiety, the structured routine of coming into the office offers a lot of benefits.
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