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

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

#401

Post by XorNot »

ghaff wrote: post #169
closeparen wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need spaces built for working. Contemporary open offices are built for talking.

If anything, I'd expect offices more built around sometimes meeting and collaborating--not butts in seats all day. I can imagine hot-desking plus a lot of enclaves and meeting rooms.

Hot desking is a damn plague on offices, and the reason WFH has been so nice. No hot-desking. My space is my own and I can make it the way I want, leave what I want around and not worry about theft etc.

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

#404

Post by burlesona »

These threads get pretty emotional and dogmatic. I think it’s not actually that complicated: some people really enjoy remote, some people don’t. Perhaps we should learn to be more comfortable with “live and let live” instead of feeling the need to convince everyone to be the same way we are.

In my case, I worked remotely for a lot of my career pre-COVID, and of course have been remote since. I don’t like the Bay Area housing situation, and the freedom to look elsewhere is appealing... but I really do miss the office.

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

#405

Post by syshum »

mancerayder wrote: post #392

This is a complicated problem with different perspectives that no doubt will get muddled at some point. I'm confident at least the following is true: Some people have long commutes and wfh is great Others have small, expensive apartments they paid for shorter commutes and it's suffocating 40-50 hours a week Some people live in palaces and offices are a step down in comfort Some people are happy with the online intera…

While everything you listed is a factor, My experience it normally comes down to if you have a actual home office or not.

People that have the luxury of a dedicated office at home, an actual room that is just used as an office, not a corner of the kitchen or living room that has the "family desk" that everyone shares, is more apt for WFH

I know many people that do not have this space, and do not have the ability to create this space in their home. For them WFH is a challenge.

On the other hand, people like myself that do have a dedicated office space that is in many ways better than the office space at the commercial office find WFH to be great and prefer it, even when factoring in your list.

In my office I would say it was about 60-70% of people that preferred working in the office and did not want to work from home primarily because they did not have a dedicated working space nor could easily create one.

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

#406

Post by pbuzbee »

freyr wrote: post #362

The comments here are repeatedly suggesting a compromise between fully remote and fully on-site: "Just have employees come into the office X days a week instead of every day." This is my preferred outcome, but the main benefit of remote work, for me, has been the opportunity to leave the Bay Area. I can't really stand the idea that I'd be forced back into the Bay Area housing/rental market, just so that I can attend…

This is how I feel too. I like working in an office, but I don't find living in the Bay Area to be worth it. A partial WFH situation isn't that much better than full-time in-office if it means moving back to the Bay Area.

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

#407

Post by [deleted] »

Aeolun wrote: post #295
an_opabinia wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His wife looks after kids who are at school most of the day again This is the real story. Suppose you're a company that pays someone a really handsome salary. It's a man. Do you want him in the office, where he is guaranteed to spend 0 hours taking care of kids, or at home, where it's not guaranteed? Don't pin this on the wife. Do you think she'd rather he drive 2 hours a day and not take care of the kids, and get…

> Do you want him in the office, where he is guaranteed to spend 0 hours taking care of kids, or at home, where it's not guaranteed? I want him wherever he feels he’s more productive. If that means he plays around with his kids 2 hours a day then more power to him.

[deleted]

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

#408

Post by formercoder »

syshum wrote: post #405
mancerayder wrote: post #392

This is a complicated problem with different perspectives that no doubt will get muddled at some point. I'm confident at least the following is true: Some people have long commutes and wfh is great Others have small, expensive apartments they paid for shorter commutes and it's suffocating 40-50 hours a week Some people live in palaces and offices are a step down in comfort Some people are happy with the online intera…

While everything you listed is a factor, My experience it normally comes down to if you have a actual home office or not. People that have the luxury of a dedicated office at home, an actual room that is just used as an office, not a corner of the kitchen or living room that has the "family desk" that everyone shares, is more apt for WFH I know many people that do not have this space, and do not have the ability to c…

That’s not the only factor. I have a home office and can’t wait to get back. I work in an industry that’s all about relationships and those are hard to build remotely. I just started a new role and there’s no way I could ever progress upward in this state.

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

#409

Post by nitwit005 »

michaelt wrote: post #355
01100011 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry I was unclear. What I was trying to say is that if you haven't offshored your team already(i.e. moved part of your engineering operations to E. Europe, Asia, etc.), then you have a good reason for doing so. Offshoring engineering has been going on for decades at this point. Anyone threatening that working from home means your job is a target for offshoring(to someone else, not you in that location) is full of b…

> What I was trying to say is that if you haven't offshored your team already, then you have a good reason for doing so. What if, pre-covid, the reason was "we believe having everyone in one office, regularly meeting face-to-face, is more productive than anything involving videoconferencing" ?

Many companies have a history of failed outsourcing efforts. Or ones that didn't fail, but which failed to realize any costs savings.

And, of course, there are often other similar failures, like failures related to contractors, or failed attempts to switch from internally built software tools to third party vendors.

If a company has been around for 30 years and isn't using an option that seems much cheaper, there is going to be a history behind that.

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

#410

Post by syshum »

formercoder wrote: post #408
syshum wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While everything you listed is a factor, My experience it normally comes down to if you have a actual home office or not. People that have the luxury of a dedicated office at home, an actual room that is just used as an office, not a corner of the kitchen or living room that has the "family desk" that everyone shares, is more apt for WFH I know many people that do not have this space, and do not have the ability to c…

That’s not the only factor. I have a home office and can’t wait to get back. I work in an industry that’s all about relationships and those are hard to build remotely. I just started a new role and there’s no way I could ever progress upward in this state.

I am definitely not the person to address building relationships, I suck at it, that is why I work with computers not people...

that said I think you can build in remotely, even the people I am in the same office with 70-80% of our communications is over Chat, Phone, or Email anyway. Why walk 10 feet to the persons office when I can just message them on slack or teams?

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