411–420 of 624 posts
Maybe that because remote working is affecting their politicking ways more than it affects people who do the grunt work on the ground.
Outside of the pandemic, I think a company doing remote/WFH carries with it some implications people don’t seem to talk about - namely that your physical workspace and equipment used is capital, and the company is not compensating employees for the use of that capital. If a company does not need to maintain office space, that is a huge expense they don’t have to pay for - but an employee is paying for it. Right now y…
IMO, this is one of the least concerning things with WFH. It's just another trade off. That isn't hard for many people who prefer working from home.
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Remote work at tech companies isn't something completely new, it just wasn't the norm. The good companies compensate employees for internet and hardware.
My company pays a good chunk for startup expenses for remotes but so far we haven’t convinced them to pick up the tab for internet.
> “There’s sort of an emerging sense behind the scenes of executives saying, ‘This is not going to be sustainable,’” said Laszlo Bock, chief executive of human-resources startup Humu and the former HR chief at Google. Maybe that because remote working is affecting their politicking ways more than it affects people who do the grunt work on the ground.
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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.
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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?
My commute was a pleasant 25m bike ride I could use to listen to podcasts (which is exercise I've now lost, so losing the commute didn't exactly give me a bunch of extra free time). Seeing coworkers in person was a really nice way to not only get some social contact every day but also build a rapport with my teammates. The office was also going to be a great place for my dog to get some socialization with other dogs.
Yes, I was annoyed at the moves to more open spaces and with regular frustrating interruptions, but with those mitigated, an office with my actual coworkers (with at most 1 day a week at home) is vastly superior to what I'm doing now, regardless of how much processes change. Not to mention, employers sort of implicitly assume that any time you gained back from not having to commute or whatever are just going to doing extra work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remote work at tech companies isn't something completely new, it just wasn't the norm. The good companies compensate employees for internet and hardware.
My company pays a good chunk for startup expenses for remotes but so far we haven’t convinced them to pick up the tab for internet.
However, I would have internet whether I worked from home or not. I realize some people may need to upgrade their internet plans, but this probably doesn't apply to most.
Also, if you go outside the company bus shuttle bubble, companies never paid people all the commuting expenses that people incurred. Some _might_ give you a few bucks, but that rarely covers parking, gas, full public transport passes, wear and tear on your car, etc.