Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#201

Post by luspr » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

_nhynes wrote: post #150

mjayhn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't go near an open office after COVID19 and I doubt I'm alone, I think things will change greatly.

I'm not sure that I understand this sentiment. Is the worry about COVID specifically (and hence would be abated by a vaccine or herd immunity), or is it about increased awareness of all infectious diseases? My lack of understanding stems from a (perhaps naive) assumption that social distancing will eventually go away along with the threat. I'd be glad to hear others' opinions on the matter.

It will go away. I'm in Europe where things are closer to normal already. I meet friends, people go shopping (with hygiene measures and masks), schools and gyms are opening.

Also keep in mind that there was always a threat of infectious diseases. And it will persist until we find a universal cure for all viruses. Being somewhat of a germophobe myself, I was always aware of it.

Hopefully, people will stay at home when they are sick, though.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#202

Post by dqpb » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

fermienrico wrote: post #85

Then why pay $200k for a software engineer in the valley when the same talent can live outside of the bay area and can do with 1/3rd of the salary? The question I have is what portion of the $200k salary is 1) due to the raw talent of the individual 2) because they live in the bay area.

Regarding raw talent, didn't Google, Apple, etc. form a cartel a while back to suppress the wages of engineers? I highly doubt wages are tightly bound to value output.

In my own experience throughout my career I've been both severely overpaid and underpaid relative to my economic impact.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#203

Post by lhorie » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

dddbbb wrote: post #137

I work at a large tech company on a young team (average age is late twenties). In my experience many don't view working from home regularly as a benefit. I understand that must change drastically when you're middle aged, have a family to live around and a spacious house in the suburbs. But most younger people want to live in the middle of the city (i.e. small, often shared apartments but a short commute) and have no…

As I understand, you're allowed to (but not required to) work from home. So it seems like a win-win for both groups?

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#204

Post by Aeolun » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #95

robbyking wrote: post #18

I work for a pretty well-known tech company, and my hypothesis is that we'll switch to a mostly at-home work week, where most people WFH 3 or 4 days a week with one day of the week being designated as a "meeting day" where everyone is in the office. I don't think this will happen because of people are worried about virus transmission, but instead because most people like working from home and we've proven we can be j…

I am having a very hard time staying motivated in the current context. Kids at home yelling at each other, other coworkers distracted, work tasks badly defined without the ability to verbally hash things out, emotional / mental health stress due to the current scenario. I don't feel like the current scenario is indicative of a well structured WFH setup, even though we've been doing it for 2 months now. In short I hop…

I’m really starting to resent my childless co-workers and their ability to just work happily all day long.

My day is basically split up into maybe 20m at a time where I can do something before being distracted.

I end up working during the night to catch up (just got done), but this is unsustainable long term.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#205

Post by TylerE » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #135

dumbfoundded wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collaboration tools are already pretty solid. What else do you really need other than a remote desktop + video conferencing? I think the biggest use case will be helping recreate the virtual water cooler.

>>I think the biggest use case will be helping recreate the virtual water cooler. I dont think that is hard to replicate. Group chat / slack / teams is a common feature and can easily be used to fill this void.

That's recreating a water cooler with an HR drone sitting there spying.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#206

Post by 0xdeadbeefbabe » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

Immortality deserves a better headline than this.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#207

Post by CodeCube » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

mikeappell wrote: post #184

Ididntdothis wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes sense. In my team it’s the same: the young guys like going out together after work and also often don’t have the space at home to set up a good workplace. They also need the most handholding. I remember some discussions a while ago where the conclusion was that it’s hard to onboard juniors remotely and remote is more suitable for experienced people.

This was my experience as well. When I started as a developer, my team was fully remote (I was the only developer in NYC, most of the rest were in Portugal or elsewhere in the US.) I found it very difficult to ask questions remotely for several reasons: I never knew if I was intruding on somebody else's time, and explaining things over Slack isn't as effective (in retrospect, I should have made more use of video and…

This is why assigning an "onboarding buddy" is so important (even on-site) ... a new team member isn't going to feel empowered to ask questions and interrupt people right off the bat usually. Their more-senior onboarding buddy can make the introductions and get their questions answered by the right person without feeling awkward about it.

This isn't really a remote-only problem

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#208

Post by Bedon292 » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

caseyw wrote: post #26

I’ve worked from home for a number of years. It’s all about having a normal schedule. My family knows when I’m in the office, I am at work. There isn’t anyone popping over my shoulder, and general interruptions are almost nil in my case. I think a lot of people are going to be super surprised what a quiet room and your playlist of choice can do to increase productivity. Just my 2 cents.

Before this, I was just not able to work at home. I was always distracted and would only get a half day of work in at best. But finally had to actually buckle down and set up my desk. And set boundaries for interruptions. I could really use an actual KVM, but otherwise working from home is finally nice for me.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#209

Post by Trasmatta » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

itsmefaz wrote: post #176

This is a really bad idea.. Firstly, home is not an effective place of work. I come home mostly to be with my family and not take my problems from work to home.. Aren't there many studies done on the same, why work shouldn't be brought to home and stuff.. Secondly, if the employer provides all the required setup (monitors, webcams, speakers) and support for electricity backups and stuff then I might be willing. The p…

> Firstly, home is not an effective place of work

This is a huge generalization, and is not true for many people. For me, the office is not an effective place to work.

We should give the option for people that work effectively at home. I've worked at two fully remote companies, and our work output is equivalent or better than any in office job I've had, and I'm much happier now that I don't have to deal with the open office bullshit.

I agree it doesn't work for everyone, but it certainly can be very effective for the right people.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#210

Post by davewritescode » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

robbyking wrote: post #18

I work for a pretty well-known tech company, and my hypothesis is that we'll switch to a mostly at-home work week, where most people WFH 3 or 4 days a week with one day of the week being designated as a "meeting day" where everyone is in the office. I don't think this will happen because of people are worried about virus transmission, but instead because most people like working from home and we've proven we can be j…

I think some of the replies here are misguided, I've interviewed (and turned down offers from) some well-known companies who were doing remote work and renting office space for face to face meetings 1 day a week while they were constructing a new office in my city.

This is the best of both worlds for a company.