Live data from Hacker News

Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

inc.com

31–40 of 301 posts

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#31
post #28

I work from office (40min train) and some days from home. Home working enables me to recharge quickly and stay healthy. Office is good for seamlessly collaborative work. If I had to choose just one mode I would go for "home". It's just saves huge amount of time and energy. Feels much healthier. You can still collaborate fairly well if you have internet.

I have worked exclusively remotely for a couple of years in my career and I'd say the perfect world for me is this hybrid. I can go to the office when I need or want, it's better to collaborate, to do pair or mob programming and to get discussions going on.

Working from home is great when I have a clear view of priorities and the task at hand but I sorely missed the social interactions of an office when I didn't have the option for it.

As most things in life, it's a spectrum, there are some people that probably work much better away from the office, personally I still need sometimes the social aspect of work to be my most productive self.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#32
post #15

On the other hand, it is also imaginable that working at home away from everyone else makes communication harder, and more opaque. Or it can make you lonelier. Not every company has policies and culture that makes it conducive to work from home.

> lonelier

How can being at home ever make you lonely when it gives you more time to focus on relationships that actually matter.

Am I alone in thinking that those who expect any kind of meaningful bonding at work are misguided?

Yeah, one can enjoy smalltalk and the like but I'd much rather change that for a chat with a friend or my dad early in the morning.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#33
With the population exploding and space to build new houses growing ever so scarcely I can not imagine a long-term future in which working from home would be profitable. Instead of working from home, living at work seems to be the more logical step forward.

Personally I'd prefer living at a shared-workspace or company campus as long as work and living facilities are clearly separate.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#34
post #33

With the population exploding and space to build new houses growing ever so scarcely I can not imagine a long-term future in which working from home would be profitable. Instead of working from home, living at work seems to be the more logical step forward. Personally I'd prefer living at a shared-workspace or company campus as long as work and living facilities are clearly separate.

Yeah, it's called peonage.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#37
post #34
post #33

With the population exploding and space to build new houses growing ever so scarcely I can not imagine a long-term future in which working from home would be profitable. Instead of working from home, living at work seems to be the more logical step forward. Personally I'd prefer living at a shared-workspace or company campus as long as work and living facilities are clearly separate.

Yeah, it's called peonage.

see also: Company Towns (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town)

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#38
post #2

of course it's a productivity boost, but is it healthy for the worker?

1. Poop any time you want 2. Take a nap vs. pretending to work 3. Less stress - no dealing with assholes in person, now you can simply click away. 4. Spend time with kids 5. No driving needed, avoid polluted highways, more sleep, less stress, less frustration. 6. Eat healthy home made. No need to ingest preservatives every day. 7. Keep sanity by working only when you are most productive vs. pretending to work when you can't get anything done. 8. Less stress from seeing asshole "managers"

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#39
post #15

On the other hand, it is also imaginable that working at home away from everyone else makes communication harder, and more opaque. Or it can make you lonelier. Not every company has policies and culture that makes it conducive to work from home.

> lonelier How can being at home ever make you lonely when it gives you more time to focus on relationships that actually matter. Am I alone in thinking that those who expect any kind of meaningful bonding at work are misguided? Yeah, one can enjoy smalltalk and the like but I'd much rather change that for a chat with a friend or my dad early in the morning.

> How can being at home ever make you lonely when it gives you more time to focus on relationships that actually matter.

Not all of us have kids or live with our family, and as such those 8 hours of office work are the only option for having a human presence around us during the day. Working 8 hours trapped in the loneliness of your house's walls each day, every day can be quite unsettling in the long run.

Re: Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home

#40
post #13

First para hits the nail on the head. The issue is: trust between managers and employees. Also, "work from home" paradigm will only succeed when management paradigm changes from managing time to managing outcome. And changing that management style is not easy. Managing outcomes requires managers to understand not only the strategic agendas set by the bosses higher up but also the technical paths to achieve them confr…

> Also, "work from home" paradigm will only succeed when management paradigm changes from managing time to managing outcome. And changing that management style is not easy

I've been working 75-80% from home for several years now, and I've had 5 managers during that time. Before that, I mostly worked in an office, but my managers were located in another country. In that whole time, even having some terrible managers at points, all of my managers were more focused on managing outcomes - it always just seems to come naturally.

I'm in the UK, working for a Norwegian company - maybe things are just more progressive here than in the US?

Post reply on HN