Why do so many people want us back in the office? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#71

Post by dschuetz » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

jefflombardjr wrote: post #58

dschuetz wrote: post #37

It's about control. Many managers like to micromanage everything and everybody very much, but that does not work very well remotely. They want to make sure, or at least to be able to make sure, that their workers, well, work. Many are afraid to loose that kind of control, because that's the only thing they can do best.

Yeah if anything this pandemic made that abundantly clear. Those in favor of control ran out of any scapegoats. The remote work debate was never about location.

Ironically, working remotely actually made many office workers more productive, but I cannot recall where I've read that. Maybe lack of management interruptions is not as bad as they say.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#72

Post by Nursie » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #50

There is a certain mindset - turns up all the time in economic discussions too - where if a change is made and doesn't lead to a metric-observable consequence in 6 months then that is the end of the discussion. Working from home is crippling for forming new social connections. Promotions are done based, primarily, on social connections. Hiring too. There is very strong pressure for ambitious people who know how the w…

Perhaps we'll see a lot of those 'ambitious' people who talk a good game get overlooked in favour of those who actually deliver?

Supervisors can understand what their reports are.doing without physical presence.

I don't think "the office" will become a thing of the past, but I will welcome it being downgraded as the be-all and end-all for work that is not location sensitive.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#73

Post by jeltz » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #48

mnd999 wrote: post #42

It completely depends on your home situation. If you have a quiet home office with fast broadband then why not work from home. If however you and your partner are squeezed round a small table in a studio flat with no air con fighting over crappy WiFi the office makes a lot of sense. The author finally comes to this point at the end of the article. It’s not all back to the office or the death of the office, it’s somew…

My question to those stuck two to a studio - are you doing that in a large, expensive city? Would you not be happier able to be completely unchained from an office location, and able to choose to live anywhere? Then you could likely have a bigger place too.

No. I love living in the city. I like the restaurants, shops, bars, etc. I also like having people around, especially during the summers.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#74

Post by Valgrim » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

At my work, almost everybody got to work from home since the beginning of the pandemic. I was one of the few who had to stay behind, due to the nature of my job. Here's what I have observed:

- The office is much quieter, and it's easier to concentrate.++

- People working from home are harder to reach. I can wait 6 hours before I get an answer to a question I would otherwise get answered within 5 minutes.

- Those who stay behind become the Go-For guys for all other departments. Marketing needs something sent to a client by mail ASAP? Just ask the only guy left to gogetit! It's tiresome, especially if the other department is a mess.

-People are really bad at describing things. In casual chatting, the amount of non-language communication, like pointing things, is staggering.

- The more time people spend time away from work, the more they seem to get out of touch with the physical nature of what they do. For example, if you want something transported somewhere, you need to tell me from where, to where, when, how big it is and ideally a reference number or a contact. No, we can't modify the order if the truck left four hours ago...

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#75

Post by Nursie » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

jeltz wrote: post #73

Nursie wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My question to those stuck two to a studio - are you doing that in a large, expensive city? Would you not be happier able to be completely unchained from an office location, and able to choose to live anywhere? Then you could likely have a bigger place too.

No. I love living in the city. I like the restaurants, shops, bars, etc. I also like having people around, especially during the summers.

That's fair enough, but the choice then is on you.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#76

Post by mattlondon » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

weeksie wrote: post #28

The long term shakeout of this will be that everybody realizes that yes, we need offices. They are spaces literally built for working. The required footprint will be smaller, people won't need to be in the office for absolutely everything, the demand for square footage of commercial real estate will decrease a bit—good news for cities who don't build b/c they can convert excess commercial inventory to residential. Bu…

I am not so sure productivity has definitely improved.

I agree there was a good head of steam where people were able to quietly and independently work through their "list" of stuff they wanted to do for ages but never had the chance to etc, or whatever had previously been planned out.

Now months later I feel like things are starting to grind a bit and productivity is starting to wane because the "pipe" is starting to dry up. Those ad hoc conversations that lead to a new feature, bumping into someone in the corridor who mentions some big issue they're having, meeting and talking to end users, the offsites to work out the strategy for next quarter, day-long workshops with UX and management and users and post-it notes galore where we thrash out ideas and concepts are a distant memory. Instead we have stilted video calls where people sit on mute 95% of the time and there simply is not as much collaboration as there was before.

Sure stuff still happens, but it feels like to me that the "spark" from people who usually generate ideas and set the agenda/work items is reduced significantly - if not entirely gone - and people are just going through the motions somewhat mechanically and "doing the best they can given the circumstances" etc.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#77

Post by mch82 » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

hazemotes wrote: post #12

My coworker seems to be fighting for us to go back because he's sick of spending all day at home with his wife.

This is, sadly, common. I’ve heard a handful of people say they go to work to get away from their family situation.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#78

Post by AlexTWithBeard » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

Every once in a while some blogger posts an idillic picture of a guy with his laptop working on a sandy beach under a palm tree.

Once you start thinking about it:

- it's hot there. There's no AC on a beach.

- wifi in the beach is mostly likely poor

- sand is a nasty substance which gets everywhere, including your laptop

- the nearest coffee machine may be a couple of miles away

and so on.

I'd rather work in an office.

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#79

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

xyst wrote: post #46

Why do people continue to push this myth? “ Kirsty Allsopp led the anti-remote work charge on Twitter, suggesting that if your job can be done from home, it can be done from anywhere in the world. Who would have thought that a couple of months of working in shorts and a T-Shirt has made us more susceptible to being replaced by less expensive folk in India, Myanmar and China?” It doesn’t matter if they are American or…

[deleted]

Re: Why do so many people want us back in the office?

#80

Post by rwmj » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

ketzu wrote: post #15

ckdarby wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you discuss why you want to go back to the office?

Number one reason for me is the separation of work and private life. It's so much easier to keep work from creeping into my private life when it happens in a totally different place. I also miss the social interactions, discussion with colleagues is much easier in person. Lastly, I hope it will reduce the amount of video conferences that crept up considerably. edit: Not OP obviously. edit2: Note: Just to make sure, I…

I've worked at home for 20 years, more or less, and I have a separate space (garden office), $300 conference camera and mic, huge screen, and the best internet connection possible. When this is your life you arrange things differently, and I've no doubt that others who make the change to working from home will make similar adjustments over time.