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Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

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Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#61

Post by input_sh »

hhjinks wrote: post #49
strstr wrote: post #4

This is a massive accidental experiment on the effectiveness of fully remote teams. Most of these companies are fairly reticent to have even a few workers remote, let alone entire teams/orgs. It'll be interesting to see if teams push for something closer to full remote wherever it worked well (or if some employees will want it, having not realized what it was like). Plausibly teams that it works well for will have gr…

I have no desire to have a long term remote job. I want to work in the office. However, I've opted to be remote for a couple weeks after someone in the office tested positive for COVID-19. My productivity is noticeably lower (for me at least). I would imagine such a radically different work environment would take time for anyone to adapt to.

I feel the same way. I need a change of environment in order to be fully productive. Whether it's a cafe next door or an office, doesn't matter as long as it's not my home.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#62

Post by orion_uranus »

input_sh wrote: post #61
hhjinks wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no desire to have a long term remote job. I want to work in the office. However, I've opted to be remote for a couple weeks after someone in the office tested positive for COVID-19. My productivity is noticeably lower (for me at least). I would imagine such a radically different work environment would take time for anyone to adapt to.

I feel the same way. I need a change of environment in order to be fully productive. Whether it's a cafe next door or an office, doesn't matter as long as it's not my home.

Have you tried the library?

Personally I noticed it help me if I did my usual routine but instead of going to work I'd go work at home. What I mean by this is that i'd wake up at my normal time, wear actual work clothes and fully prepare myself like I'd usually do going to the office. Gets my head in the right space.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#63

Post by lloeki »

strstr wrote: post #4

This is a massive accidental experiment on the effectiveness of fully remote teams. Most of these companies are fairly reticent to have even a few workers remote, let alone entire teams/orgs. It'll be interesting to see if teams push for something closer to full remote wherever it worked well (or if some employees will want it, having not realized what it was like). Plausibly teams that it works well for will have gr…

I had a similar insider story being recounted to me recently about one of the previous worldwide outbreaks (I think it was SARS).

The French administration at large was extremely reluctant to allow remote work, even very occasionally, if at all, purely by policy. Then the outbreak happened and people started calling in sick.

But when you're calling in sick, chances are you've already been contagious, and so the body count started to go way up, until people started asking to work remotely instead because it was obvious their work could be carried remotely and they just did not want to become sick, because it just made sense.

Which was denied. Because policy.

So people started calling in fake sick (sometimes with direct management being complicit) and worked from home anyway. And then upper management realised that... it worked! People that were marked as sick (but were not, this was a thinly veiled secret) were actually working, and quite efficiently to boot.

And ever since that outbreak the policy changed, and remote work is now a thing. Maybe not like big-R remote, but at least it went from an outright systemic impossibility to being possible.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#64

Post by mcv »

> "at least 70 confirmed cases and 10 deaths."

This low number of confirmed cases combined with the high number of deaths, suggests there are hundreds of undiscovered cases still out there. Most countries seem to have a death rate closer to 2%, but in the US it appears to be a lot higher, which suggests many cases are not represented in these numbers. That, or it's become a lot more deadly. Neither is good.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#65

Post by znpy »

This is a massive accidental experiment on the effectiveness of remote work in general.

A lot of entities (here in .it, besides companies: public administration workers and education workers) are turning to remote working, either willingly or unwillingly.

I really hope we'll all do a good retrospective after this emergency is solved and can finally challenge our own assumptions.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#66

Post by rsynnott »

BigBubbleButt wrote: post #9
freepor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this works well I will eat my hat. This represents: companies with no remote-work culture (thus systems that are not fully documented, etc.), forcing employees into this suddenly (so they will not have a proper space at home set up for this... some of them will be in the same room as a crying baby), while their spouse may also be working from home due to the virus, while everyone is also thinking about getting a d…

> while everyone is also thinking about getting a deadly virus every time they leave the house Am I the only person who isn't worried about the coronavirus? I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

I'm not hugely _personally_ worried about dying of it; people my age in otherwise good health in developed countries usually don't. I am definitely worried about its impact on others, though, and also its impact on society. Especially as it spreads in the west; for better or for worse, China was far better set up for this than most of the world. Some western countries are still basically denying that it's a problem, which has the potential to make things _much_ worse.

For older people, in particular, death rates for over 70s are truly worrying.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#67

Post by rsynnott »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #22
BigBubbleButt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while everyone is also thinking about getting a deadly virus every time they leave the house Am I the only person who isn't worried about the coronavirus? I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters. San Francisco just reported its first cases today, but there's definitely been panic shopping. The city closed down Lowell today as a precautionary measure (but that leaves nearly 200 campuses open). Even if you don't suffer any health or financial effects…

> if our idiot president succeeds in closing the Mexican border

Wait, is he trying to do that? Why is that his solution to everything?

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#68

Post by mcv »

hhjinks wrote: post #49
strstr wrote: post #4

This is a massive accidental experiment on the effectiveness of fully remote teams. Most of these companies are fairly reticent to have even a few workers remote, let alone entire teams/orgs. It'll be interesting to see if teams push for something closer to full remote wherever it worked well (or if some employees will want it, having not realized what it was like). Plausibly teams that it works well for will have gr…

I have no desire to have a long term remote job. I want to work in the office. However, I've opted to be remote for a couple weeks after someone in the office tested positive for COVID-19. My productivity is noticeably lower (for me at least). I would imagine such a radically different work environment would take time for anyone to adapt to.

I prefer to sit with my team[0]. Better, more spontaneous communication, and better team spirit. It's fun to have lunch together. But considering the circumstances, I can totally understand working remote. I'm doing it today for different reasons, but I'm seriously considering doing it next week because of Corona.

[0] Which is a problem at my current office where all desks are officially flex, which means anyone can sit anywhere.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#69

Post by rsynnott »

cm2187 wrote: post #25
BigBubbleButt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while everyone is also thinking about getting a deadly virus every time they leave the house Am I the only person who isn't worried about the coronavirus? I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

I am not either. I see a disconnect between the numbers published by the WHO and the alarmist reaction of the mainstream media. Earlier this week there was a speech from the director of the WHO on the front page of hn suggesting the virus was less contagious than the flu, I don’t see any mention in any major newspapers. It feels like one of these “facts that don’t fit the narrative will be simply omitted”. I am conce…

I mean, "less contagious than the flu" is a bit like saying "less poisonous than cyanide"; the flu is very contagious. If you have something that's less contagious than the flu but much more lethal than the flu, that's pretty scary.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#70

Post by mlang23 »

summerdown2 wrote: post #59
mlang23 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People die on a daily basis, especially elderly ones. Sorry, but I am not buying this hype.

Even if your life is dominated entirely by self-interest, and the interests of the rest of the population isn't important to you, don't you have any elderly relatives? Or friends with pre-existing conditions? Speaking only for myself, I have elderly in-laws who I'd rather stick around, a wife with asthma and I know well two people on immunosuppressants. So I'm not taking this lightly at all.

I am not paying a visit to my elderly eelatives in the upcoming weeks and maybe months. So much I have already stated elsewhere. HOWEVER, the original question was how much people are concerned regarding this. And I stand with what I've said, I am not concerened about Coronavirus killing me. And I think some western countries, like italy, are overreacting.
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