491–500 of 624 posts
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That's barely the cost of a couple of cups of take-out coffee a week for the cold months, which I'd be far more likely to buy when at work.
Speak for yourself, I have good coffee at the office. Hell I spend way more on coffee now just to go sit somewhere that's not my main room.
Then in my experience you're an outlier! I've never worked in an office with anything other than the worst bilge available for free....
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Companies don’t compensate employees for the cost of their commute either. I don’t see the big deal here; the marginal cost of working from home is often pretty close to zero.
They do actually. Maybe not where you live, but where I live it's normal (and expected) that employers compensate for commute.
Who's going to pay for me to upsize my apartment so I can make a home office? Working from the same desk I use for my personal computer / gaming is really taking a toll on the ol' mental health? Also who's going to pay for my extra electricity use, etc? I also used to get free food at the office, would I be getting a raise to cover that as well? My commute was a pleasant 25m bike ride I could use to listen to podcast…
You can still do that, though. Get up, do a 12.5m bike ride out, and 12.5m bike ride back home. Then start work.
Or do anything else. Maybe you'd prefer to go for a run some days? Great, you can do that. Maybe you want to lift weights? Great, you can do that. Maybe you stayed up late the night before doing something fun and want to sleep in a little? Great, you can do that. None of this other stuff would have been possible when you were fixed into the required, inflexible commute routine, but now you can do any of these things, or just keep doing your same commute routine, just with a different route that returns you home.
> 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.
They only assume that if you allow them to by working longer hours. Set your boundaries, and assert them.
Who's going to pay for me to upsize my apartment so I can make a home office? Working from the same desk I use for my personal computer / gaming is really taking a toll on the ol' mental health? Also who's going to pay for my extra electricity use, etc? I also used to get free food at the office, would I be getting a raise to cover that as well? My commute was a pleasant 25m bike ride I could use to listen to podcast…
Or, you have the choice to use that time in a way that you prefer.
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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.
> $300 conference camera and mic, huge screen Can you recommend your camera, mic and screen setup? And what brand/model they are? TY!
If I had the extra space and time to set it all up I would probably use a regular SLR camera on a tripod, and lavalier mic. But the Logitech is a lot more convenient - connects over a single USB through the docking station and just works with zero set up.
The screen is just a regular LG 4K 55" TV mounted on the wall which connects to the laptop docking station, allowing video conferences, slides, etc. to be "thrown" over there when it's convenient.
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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.
Which camera and mic are you using?
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Got to love the downvotes for expressing my personal opinion and experience through this nightmare that so many of us are in. HN comments are truly becoming like Reddit at times.
how do you downvote?
You'll find articles largely in the business and financial press, e.g.,
"Coronavirus set to usher in big changes at U.S. offices" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-of...
"Pandemic exposes ‘severe stress’ in commercial property financing" https://www.ft.com/content/e4b2302b-76c5-494a-8560-e6d24de93...
"Suburban Philly offices feel the brunt of COVID-19’s economic toll" https://www.inquirer.com/business/suburban-office-distressed...
"COVID-19 and real estate: How the coronavirus is impacting the AEC industry" https://www.bdcnetwork.com/covid-19-and-real-estate-how-coro...
"United States Office Outlook – Q2 2020" https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/research/offic...
Contrast the outlook as of October 2019: "base fundamentals indicate that the US CRE market remains on a strong footing."
Deloitte: "2020 commercial real estate outlook" https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-...
That's not to say that sandwich shops and individual workers and managers don't have concerrns, but their voices are far more relatable and telegenic than faceless megabanks. Even genuine and spontaneous statements can be repeated and amplified by other interests.
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…
In my current job I'm progressing quickly and have built good relationships with my colleagues. We can take a break and just turn around and chat for 10 minutes about random stuff. When everyone is working from home it's not like I could just call someone and chat to them because I don't know if they're busy or not. I can't build the same sort of relationships as I can in person.
I'm quite introverted in a way that I find it hard to go out of my way and make friends. But the longer I spend with people in person, the easier it is and I find that I'm able to get along with almost everyone I meet.
And as with most things, it's not really what you know, it's who you know. And knowing someone IRL is much better than knowing someone remote.
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One of the problems of remote work is that it’s kind of an all or nothing thing for your team. If some people are in the office and some people work from home, inevitably (in my experience) a lot of small decisions get made in the office without consulting the remote workers. And that creates a divide - the people in the office end up with more power and authority than the remote folks. Some teams fight this with som…
I understand what you're saying but only with respect to global remote hires. I've seen the same attempts to fight it. But with local hires and optional wfh you just let that sort of problem work itself out. If the by-choice wfh person feels like they are left out its on them to do something about it. Its a personal problem not a team problem.
Yeah, that’d definitely work itself out; but it’s not what I would describe as a remote friendly workplace.