People love working remotely • Hacker News Board

Re: People love working remotely

#21

Post by maxaf » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:03 PM UTC

taneq wrote: post #6

I am astounded that the only mention of pants is a tweet regarding "working in lululemon pants" as being a perk. I thought one of the chief benefits of remote work was that pants were entirely optional!

For me the main perk of remote work is that the status of pants is by design entirely unknowable.

In practice, this also covers data points such as status or style of shirt, whether I’ve showered that day, where on the planet I happen to be, whether I’m actually in a pool, how far from civilization I am, or whether I’ve injured my leg and didn’t tell anyone because it’s not a big deal and I don’t mind typing while my leg hurts, or whether I have loud death metal playing at top volume.

I’m content with all of those things remaining a mystery for my coworkers because none are correlated with quality and timeliness of my work.

Re: People love working remotely

#22

Post by ReptileMan » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:04 PM UTC

ken wrote: post #19

Elephant in the room: how many of these people would prefer it to having a private office ? Strangely, this article/survey/infographic never mentions that option. I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.

I don't know. For me commute is the most pointlessly wasted time a person could do. And I have played lineage.

So as long as your commute is 10 seconds home office beats real any time. At least until we get the whole teleportation thing nailed down.

Re: People love working remotely

#23

Post by tinyhouse » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:05 PM UTC

chadash wrote: post #8

> "91% of remote workers said working remotely is a good fit for them." Right, and 97% of current ferret owners say that ferrets make great pets [0]. I'd like the survey to include people who worked remotely in the past and no longer do. Count me in that group. I worked remotely for a six months at a remote-friendly but not remote-first company and here were my findings: * It was lonely being at home. And I wasn't as…

Good points. What you described is one of the main reasons the vast majority of remote companies are small. Less than 100 people. Company wide retreats help a lot with some of these issues.

Re: People love working remotely

#24

Post by chadash » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:05 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #18

chadash wrote: post #8

> "91% of remote workers said working remotely is a good fit for them." Right, and 97% of current ferret owners say that ferrets make great pets [0]. I'd like the survey to include people who worked remotely in the past and no longer do. Count me in that group. I worked remotely for a six months at a remote-friendly but not remote-first company and here were my findings: * It was lonely being at home. And I wasn't as…

I have worked from home for many years now and identify with ALL those drawbacks, but I still wouldn't want to change to a full time in-office position. The drawbacks of that (mostly an hour wasted commuting both in the evening and in the afternoon) is just too big. Being able to work remotely on occasion, or perhaps the ability to not work remotely on occasion (e.g. work remotely from a coworking space 2 days a week…

> "Being able to work remotely on occasion, or perhaps the ability to not work remotely on occasion (e.g. work remotely from a coworking space 2 days a week and from home 3 days a week, or work in the real office 1 day per week) would be ideal."

Being able to work in an office one day a week makes a big difference. Some things are easier in person, but they can be delayed until that day you are in the office. I had a boss at a previous company who did two days at home and three in the office and it was an ideal mix. He could get the benefits of being able to do things face to face and the benefits of being able to do deep work at home (personally, I do deep work better in the office, but I understand why many people do better at home).

Re: People love working remotely

#25

Post by Frondo » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:06 PM UTC

If companies paid for commute time I'd feel a lot less strongly about in-office requirements.

Re: People love working remotely

#26

Post by jbarberu » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:06 PM UTC

For me it's: Office with my own office > Working from home > My own cube > the middle of a busy construction site > open office

I'm currently in a cube, which is miles better than open office. I say I like working from home, only because I don't foresee getting my own office anytime soon.

Re: People love working remotely

#27

Post by mpweiher » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:07 PM UTC

g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

> We're also "Agile" now, so we spend a ton of time in useless meetings.

One of the crazier things that has happened.

When the XP folk said "we do a standup", the idea was that meetings are useless and awful, you shouldn't have them, but if you're going to have them, then let's "encourage" brevity by having everyone stand.

Add a few decades of agile certified consultants, sc(r)umification and now "agile" means "lots of meetings".

Sigh.

Re: People love working remotely

#28

Post by cmiles74 » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:08 PM UTC

ken wrote: post #19

Elephant in the room: how many of these people would prefer it to having a private office ? Strangely, this article/survey/infographic never mentions that option. I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.

I had a private office with a door (clouded glass) for five years. It wasn't large but it was quiet, interruptions where rare. It was great and I preferred it to working from home (I've done four years working from a home office).

Re: People love working remotely

#29

Post by coolvision » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:09 PM UTC

g051051 wrote: post #16

I was full-time WFH for 6 wonderful years. I was happy, my productivity was off the charts, I was saving tons of money because I didn't have to spend it on my car and clothes, I had extra time that I wasn't wasting on my commute, etc. Then, we had a big shake-up. A bunch of senior people left, and new "leadership" came in to "transform" our workplace. All WFH was cancelled in our division (in spite of still being off…

>white noise over the speakers

I'm fine with open spaces, but this would be the final straw for me

Re: People love working remotely

#30

Post by throwaway242221 » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:09 PM UTC

I "love" it in the sense that I can get paid while watching Netflix, playing games and do whatever I want. I instantly start slacking off and all my working hours become a game to make it look like I'm working when I'm not. This doesn't happen when I'm in a office where I'm "forced" to work.

Yeah, you can slack off at the office as well but why? I obviously can't do any meaningful leisure activities there. And yes, it's a tooling and management issue but I haven't come across a single organisation where it's not possible to game it unless your job output is extremely easy to measure.

I believe this is way more common than people think.