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Why are some people better at working from home than others?

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Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#111

Post by acituan »

analog31 wrote: post #54
radicalbyte wrote: post #4

If you have a baby and two young children around who you also have to homeschool for 8 hours a day then you're not going to be "productive" working at home. People who slack at work by hide it by having lots of meetings / playing politics are useless whilst working-from home because they don't know how operate when their productivity is more visible.

I first experienced this roughly a year ago when I was having a discussion with a colleague in China, and she happened to be at home because of the time zone difference. All of a sudden, a baby started screaming and all hell broke loose. She was so embarrassed, but we all just laughed it off and she realized that we weren't annoyed at all. When we all went on lockdown recently, I noticed that at first people were car…

> Maybe it will go even further, and normalize folks having a real life.

I absolutely love this. I love seeing my colleagues contextualized in their private spaces, that reflects their personal choices, humanity, wholeness. In the office this is reduced to a 2x5' desk.

Office as a space also has a sense of self-importance to it. It is not unlike a church or a stadium where the purpose of the gathering is super-salient and the participants' rich humanity is backgrounded. Working from home, it is harder to be reduced to one's function as a worker, it is impossible to forget that you are a human with a life when constantly surrounded by the cues that remind you of that life, in the space that you live that life.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#112

Post by gherkinnn »

dllthomas wrote: post #99
Xcelerate wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office) What I've found helps is to not buy snacks. I eat junk if it's available, but if nothing is nearby, then I can't be bothered to go out and purchase it, so I'll eat a grapefruit instead. Another thing that I have found helps is to order a community supported agriculture (CSA) produce box. A lot of farmers that supply restaurants are losing a…

Another nice aspect of a CSA is the push to eat seasonally. I'm not sure it really matters, but I find it aesthetically appealing. Of course, the downside is that I now have to figure out what to do with fennel for the 6th week in a row...

Alternate between steaming it and eating it raw. Rotate through sauces, including none, just some oil, and then fancy stuff.

I skip fancy stuff myself and nibble on them raw. Makes for a good Netflix snack.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#113

Post by james_s_tayler »

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #31

Let me caveat the following by saying that I'm one who believes the future of tech work is fully remote and personally hope to stay fully remote post-COVID. I do not believe now is the time to be drawing comparisons or conclusions between the office norm and the fully remote situation most of us have been thrust into. Sure, some people procrastinate more than others. Some people need more management than others to ke…

Honestly, it's just not for some people. And that's ok.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#114

Post by Joof »

Ductapemaster wrote: post #20

One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. So far I have lost weight, started a bodyweight workout routine, which I do in between meetings/calls/other work, and have gained back 2 hours of my day by not taking transit into the city. That's 2 more hours every day that I get to relax, work on a personal project, hang out with my SO, or even crush ou…

Opposite. I got lonely, so I went to Houston to visit family. I typically eat super healthy, exercise daily and do strenuous 16+ hour outdoors adventures on weekend days. Now, I just eat a lot, drink beer and watch TV. I lost all my fun outdoor activities, inspiration and what I do for stress relief.

More to do with being on lockdown than WFH.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#115

Post by [deleted] »

Joof wrote: post #114
Ductapemaster wrote: post #20

One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. So far I have lost weight, started a bodyweight workout routine, which I do in between meetings/calls/other work, and have gained back 2 hours of my day by not taking transit into the city. That's 2 more hours every day that I get to relax, work on a personal project, hang out with my SO, or even crush ou…

Opposite. I got lonely, so I went to Houston to visit family. I typically eat super healthy, exercise daily and do strenuous 16+ hour outdoors adventures on weekend days. Now, I just eat a lot, drink beer and watch TV. I lost all my fun outdoor activities, inspiration and what I do for stress relief. More to do with being on lockdown than WFH.

[deleted]

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#116

Post by arbitrary_name »

laumars wrote: post #84
kaitai wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have telephone directories anymore, and I certainly don't have 200 lbs of them in easily graspable form... hand weights are fine but kettlebells are better than those, and neither is at all the same as a barbell.

Yeah, 200 lbs would be pretty dangerous to attempt with DIY solutions I’d imagine.

My college house mate built his own Olympic lifting setup in his tiny bedroom. Slept at the foot of it.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#117

Post by saiya-jin »

Joof wrote: post #114
Ductapemaster wrote: post #20

One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. So far I have lost weight, started a bodyweight workout routine, which I do in between meetings/calls/other work, and have gained back 2 hours of my day by not taking transit into the city. That's 2 more hours every day that I get to relax, work on a personal project, hang out with my SO, or even crush ou…

Opposite. I got lonely, so I went to Houston to visit family. I typically eat super healthy, exercise daily and do strenuous 16+ hour outdoors adventures on weekend days. Now, I just eat a lot, drink beer and watch TV. I lost all my fun outdoor activities, inspiration and what I do for stress relief. More to do with being on lockdown than WFH.

This so much. If you were active outdoorsy person with pretty cool active life, WFH and all related can be a bit of a disaster. We can still go out, but doing anything with real risks is supremely selfish now. As in Europe, we can't travel in other countries. Being in place surrounded with beautiful France and having Italy within 1 hour drive, this severely restricts where we can go.

Also, I've been previously hitting gym 4-5 times a week on top of that, WFH can only go down in such scenario - I still try to motivate myself with some basic weights I have found at home, but it ain't the same as using ie squat rack with proper weights for example. At least running is +-same.

Human interaction is a topic on its own, I feel sorry for many single folks or those in relationships that aren't living together. In many cases it must be stressful.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#118

Post by [deleted] »

acituan wrote: post #111
analog31 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I first experienced this roughly a year ago when I was having a discussion with a colleague in China, and she happened to be at home because of the time zone difference. All of a sudden, a baby started screaming and all hell broke loose. She was so embarrassed, but we all just laughed it off and she realized that we weren't annoyed at all. When we all went on lockdown recently, I noticed that at first people were car…

> Maybe it will go even further, and normalize folks having a real life. I absolutely love this. I love seeing my colleagues contextualized in their private spaces, that reflects their personal choices, humanity, wholeness. In the office this is reduced to a 2x5' desk. Office as a space also has a sense of self-importance to it. It is not unlike a church or a stadium where the purpose of the gathering is super-salien…

[deleted]

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#119

Post by aszantu »

I've had so man bad experiences with ppl that I just came to hate them in general. I feel bothered by noises from outside, I hate my neighbour who just wants the house clean and asks me to clean outside of my room. She just wants a friend, but she akss for a thing back to just talk about how bad her back is and blabla... I liked the first few weeks of quietness when social distancing started,no I'm bothered by every noise that comes into my space.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#120

Post by gargs »

I am of the opinion that autonomy plays a major role in whether you enjoy working from home or not. If you have the autonomy to execute on a clear purpose that you have planned for yourself, there is seemingly no difference in whether that work is carried out in an office or at home. In my experience, all the need for constant feedback and 'catching up' is mostly a side effect of poor project management caused by kicking off work on unbaked requirements or where the estimations haven't been done well or where the dependencies were assumed to be in some state while they're not really there.

That said, you could still catch up from home, if not more, simply because you don't have to scurry around looking for a quiet place or finding the colleague.

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