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

paulitaylor.com

611–620 of 624 posts

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

#611
There is a huge percent of people that simply hate their life at home. The office is an excuse that they "must" be away from their home.

Depending on where these people fall in the power/management structure is what determines how the return plays out.

I read somewhere that we didn't have people barricading themselves in the office refusing to leave. Where I'm at we literally did and those people successfully managed to stay at work when 95% of the staff was not.

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

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying at AirBnBs in the listed cities and working from there is quite likely cheaper than renting office space in Boston (probably even including airfare). So it’s not about “resources” as in money, it’s about being able to be productive working from all these places, especially when taking into account the time zone difference to other members of the team.

I met these guys a long time ago in Boston. It's literally a company based on a physical device that shocks you to make you more productive. It's a fucking joke

We’ve sold over 100,000 devices and helped people quit smoking, wake up on time, and lose weight. You can see articles about our users in the NyTimes, Bloomberg, and more. Why such hate, for a product that helps people?

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/a-shocking-way-rea...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/arti...

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

#613
post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some people are dissatisfied with the online interactions and prefer to talk to humans and not text strings from humans they can't see or hear I think this is easily resolved by audio / video calls. All of my coworkers are significantly older than me and have no issue communicating this way. I dont mind commuting but I dont want to commute as often. I think my sweet spot would be to commute around noon once traffic…

Video calls are not remotely (no pun intended) the same as meeting face to face. In the office I can casually joke with the person sitting next to me, and it is usually visually evident when they are busy and I shouldn't bother them. If we both need a break, we can take a short walk, go for a lunch together or something. Video calls are limited, akward and uncomfortable compared to that. Video calls have their place…

We mostly do audio calls and get to the meat of what we need, sometimes I get informal and nothing is wrong with that, you can still gauge if someone is busy by how they respond or if they seem distracted. Every office is differently but we've always had two or three people working remotely so the transition is nothing special for most of us.

On another note we've had lunch calls on Wednesdays as a more informal setting so everyone can talk about general things and keep the social aspect going. Course some people don't feel the need to partake (I sometimes am too busy) so it's quite different from call to call.

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

#614
post #184

From one perspective, it's frustrating to see employers happily taking advantage of employees' real estate and internet connections for free, but since I have the spare room already, and I'm not commuting, I'll take it.

What would be nice is either a stipend to account for a bigger place with a spare room and connections, or to work out of a shared work space things. Like give me an extra couple hundred a year to get a place with an extra bedroom

A shared work space thing... like an office? ;-P

But yes, I agree. Since my company will be saving tons of money once their lease comes up for renewal, and already hasn't had to expand despite hiring more than 60 people this year, it does seem like a stipend is in order.

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

#615
post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, how did your employer convince people to accept the increased risk of covid19 transmission that comes from working in the office?

Easy. Tell them they can come to work or find another job.

I think you may have misunderstood my post. I was asking how that particular employer handled the topic with its employees.

I'm trying to understand how much negotiating power software developers have with their employers these days; in general and on this topic in particular.

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

#616
post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. ^ This is not true. Where I work we have a mix of people who work exclusively from home, some who work some days at home and some in-office, and some who work exclusively from the office. This is including managers (some of whom like working fr…

Is it better now that everyone is working from home now?

I like it better, and the other developers like it better. It is a very good fit for our jobs, and has advantages that all of us very much appreciate.

I haven't done a company-wide survey :-D However, I have not seen complaints from anyone just dying to get back to the office.

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

#617
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What are you viewing it on? I submitted my comment using Hack (iOS) but the emoji is coming though for me as the black box as well.

Just in Safari, same on iOS & macOS.

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

#618
post #590
post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the points make sense, but this one does not > Impact on the body - prolonged unmoderated sitting in bad postures, eye strain due to constant staring into the screen, bad eating habits, etc. How does WFH change how you sit and the eye strain? You’re doing the same work, what changed? IMO having a good office setup (chair, device, screen, room lighting) is a must for any WFH position, but especially if it’s fu…

Most people don't have good WFH setup, that's one thing. Two, WFH can mean less interruptions requiring you to move, resulting in far more sedentary behaviour than normal office work, even if you assume no difference in movement from commute.

Competitive distributed companies already pay for your home office setup, and many people opt for better chairs and desks they would likely get in a normal office. I think for companies to stay competitive in a WFH environment, they will have to offer similar benefits.

The other point I agree with :)

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

#619
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never saw a single manager who likes WFH I do. But you've never seen me, so there is truth to your words. The employees are quite productive, I hate commuting, and Zoom works remarkably well to stay connected. Not as well as it could be, but it's finally "over the hill". Two things worry me: - The long-term isolation is detrimental to mental health, so we might be on borrowed time right now. - Onboarding new empl…

If you were working in a truly remote company, onboarding would be the first process polishied to diamond facet condition. I think your company is not "living on borrowed time", but burning through information capital saved during previous years.

[deleted]

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

#620
>An increasing number of executives now say that remote work [...] is not their preferred long-term solution once the coronavirus crisis passes.

An increasing number of people that spend their full office hours doing meetings, while devs need silence and solitude, complain that remote work sucks for meetings. Wow. What a bunch of egotistic children.

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