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

paulitaylor.com

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

#221

Post by SergeAx »

1. WFH is not for everyone. There are people with kids and no dedicated workplace at home. There are people with low motivation and self-control, and office routine just helps them to keep up.

2. You can't mix WFH with work in office. It's either one or the other. If you have a single employee working remotely - you should transform all the processes to WFH-style.

3. WFH shifts most of the burden onto management. Managers should put 120-150% of effort in planning, communication, documentation and checking. I never saw a single manager who likes WFH. And the management are the ones who decides.

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

#222

Post by jdavis703 »

tima11234 wrote: post #192
gordaco wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I agree. I miss my old routine too. I even have a dedicated office of sorts, and working from home is comfortable and convenient to me. But... I miss the commute. The bus I used to take wasn't particularly uncrowded, but I always managed to get a seat (thanks to having a particularly early schedule) and I used to take the opportunity to read (since each trip took about 40-45 minutes, that's about 1h30m of readi…

People need to adapt. Just because you can't seem to figure out how to read a book now or listen to pod casts because you only did those things when forced to commute, isn't a good argument against WFH.

When I’m home my family wants to talk, watch TV or do so many other things not conducive to deep focus. On the train I can put on some music, and generally only be interrupted about once per hour.

And it’s not like there’s really any places to get deep focus anymore. The parks and plazas are filled with air pollution, cafes are takeout only and libraries are closed.

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

#223

Post by faster »

When I was building back end software, I could and did work from anywhere. I enjoyed working in the same space with my team, but not all day and not every day. And it wasn't necessary except maybe once or twice per quarter.

Now I work on firmware, and I have about $6000 of test equipment that is required to do my job, as well as multiple fragile circuit boards, some that I'm afraid to touch because some of the rework wires might break. I am working at home, but I guarantee that I'm not as productive as I would be in an office with access to the EEs and MEs and the people who built the firmware for the previous version of the product. Yes, I can schedule a call or ask questions on Slack, but so much is passed to new team members by osmosis or exposure or context, whatever you want to call that side effect of colocation.

> The best thing you can do in any period of change is to bet on neither black or white.

I agree, in some cases. There are still some cases where the best bet IS almost entirely black, or almost entirely white.

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

#224

Post by sjy »

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.

Yes, but I’m not about to give up my lease and start shopping around for rural real estate during the pandemic. Most of the upside of living in the city is gone for now, but I expect those advantages to come back next year.

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

#225

Post by system2 »

Remote work does not work for people who switch from office to home. It is not in their blood. Most office employees need constant management. If the employee can get away with watching netflix and do minimum from home, they will do it. I've observed many employees getting super slow or unreachable almost instantly after they start working from home. Most bosses don't like it and they get fired. In most cases nothing was related to covid in my opinion because obviously the employee performance dropped dramatically.

Work from home won't work for many companies. Period.

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

#227

Post by tehlike »

tikhonj wrote: post #211
aspaceman wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t even with this comment. Not everyone has the resources to make a working place anywhere viable. You seem to have the resources to make a hotel in Budapest or whatever work. Talking so causally about international travel already puts you beyond most Americans’ income. So yeah it is very, very easy for folks with a job like yours, and with the resources you’re afforded, to work anywhere. The issue isn’t proximi…

Why does working remote-first require more resources from the worker? You don't have a commute and you have the flexibility to choose where to work. In this scenario, nobody is forcing you to travel anywhere—a sharp contrast to non-remote jobs where you have to relocate if you don't already live in the right, usually expensive, place!

Snacking, food, cleaning, equipment etc.

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

#228

Post by [deleted] »

BillinghamJ wrote: post #19
ecf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems lately that most accounts arguing in favor of going back into office immediately are throwaways. I wonder why that is 🧐

Totally off topic, but I've never seen an emoji on HN before - maybe the restrictions on Unicode characters have been lifted? Edit: weirdly it seems to just be that specific emoji, others don't work

[deleted]

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

#229

Post by noir_lord »

nottorp wrote: post #195

There are about three problems with the current forced WFH situation: 1. People simply aren’t used to it yet. The self discipline part, knowing when to work... and when to stop too. 2. You do need some sort of dedicated space. I’ve been working from home just fine for 20 years but I have a separate room for that. 3. Especially in tech, management may not have the knowledge to judge productivity. Measuring time the ch…

I don’t have a dedicated office but I do have a dedicated space in the living room (which is large).

At home I have a fast 8C/16T desktop with two 4K screens and a comfortable chair, awesome sound setup.

Vs a 1.5hr commute and the inevitable MacBook it’s a good trade imo.

When we buy a house I’m converting the garage into a proper office/motorcycle workshop though just because I’ll have the space.

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

#230

Post by heavyset_go »

mikece wrote: post #3

Who is demanding this? My company is openly talking about “office optional” when normalcy returns with “office days” being the exception rather than the norm.

The people that I know who work managerial and director roles in healthcare and pharmaceuticals are discussing this, also. Apparently productivity is through the roof with work from home.
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