I Miss Working from the Office • Hacker News Board

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#231

Post by user5994461 » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:10 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #206

user5994461 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it. Even when I was working in countryside Europe a decade ago we had better equipment than that and often double display (17" or 19" at the time). Some of the companies even had personal offices or small offices for 1-3 people. I don't doubt that there are some shitty companies out there that can't get an office chair and a display from this decade, but it's far from the norm.

Maybe things have gotten better but I worked at a couple of large engineering companies in London 5-10 years ago and cramped, shitty, open plan offices with cheap ancient hardware was very much the norm at every place I worked at and visited. Coming from offices in Norway and Sweden I was shocked at how terrible their working conditions where.

Incidentally I've worked in London for the past few years, in a bank. Every desk in the building is equipped with aeron chair and multiple monitors. Yes every single one in the whole skyscraper (10 000 employees).

That includes multiple floors full of developers. On our floor the entire department had quadruple monitors (24" IPS Dell UltraSharp monitors if you're interested). Allegedly we're privileged because the norm is only 3 monitors for developers, the story goes that when the department was opened almost 20 years ago the head decided that developers would get proper equipment or the department wouldn't be opened.

Back to Dell, many companies are simply procuring equipment from Dell. The most classic display they sell is the Dell UltraSharp 24" IPS display, which is really good and really affordable.

London is the biggest tech hub in Europe with the most tech companies, quite of few of which are very serious about equipment because tech culture. I've not seen a company that didn't have dual displays since I moved here. I can't imagine a company that can't buy a display if you tell them what do buy. I don't want to jump into "just leave your company" because it's a bad HN trope, especially in COVID times, but come on, if your company can't procure a display/chair you can find a better company.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#232

Post by known » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:12 PM UTC

YMMV; I prefer to work from home;

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#233

Post by kevsim » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:12 PM UTC

tartoran wrote: post #205

kevsim wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No lag meetings and whiteboard sessions. I really miss whiteboard sessions. I've gotten used to zoom meetings, I'm not overloaded with them, and with a proper structured agenda I've found they can be tolerable. But nothing beats scribbling on a whiteboard with colleagues. We've tried Miro and other tools, but nothing quite has the same feel as those scribbled boxes and arrows on a whiteboard.

The whiteboard experience can be replicated with realtime visualization/collaboration tools. Just saying..

What setup do you use that replicates it? The ones that I’ve tried are a far cry from markers on a board.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#234

Post by k__ » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:13 PM UTC

After working remote for 6 years now, I miss office a bit.

I don't want to be forced to be there, not even one day a year.

But I want to have the option to be with my co-workers for a couple of days every few months.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#235

Post by eplanit » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

diarrhea wrote: post #154

dandellion wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very good point, I'm really enjoying working from home and I attributed it mostly to not having to do the one hour commute each way, but there's so many more things that add up: - At home I have the most comfortable chair I could find on the market that fits me perfectly. At work there are very basic adjustable chairs and they use some slippery fabric. - At home I have an ergonomic mechanical keyboard vs. a…

Your work just sounds very subpar. Crippling developers with that sort of equipment and environment is a poor move and also an awful trade-off, business-wise.

I think you mean that the workplace sounds subpar... or do you think it makes the commenter's work product of poor quality, too?

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#236

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

Jugurtha wrote: post #65

Yes. Some people on the internet were also advocating for a return to the office because people could not stand the loneliness anymore and need to interact socially. I had to point out that this was symptomatic of a poor social/family life [outside of work]. If someone is lonely working remotely and they miss humans, it is a sign the only humans they interacted with were colleagues. It's also a sign of what the perso…

[deleted]

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#237

Post by maitredusoi » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:18 PM UTC

I don't ;) ;) ;) 4 years at home and no need to go to any office ;)

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#238

Post by Fumtumi » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:19 PM UTC

The biggest factor for me is really simple the benefit of investing in my office.

I can now spend my money on my home office and build it as i like it for me and as long as i can work remote, im getting those benefits directly and i'm no longer bound by a company because of those benefits.

I got myself a standing desk at home with a nice real wood top, which is awesome.

I haave to have a work space at home anyway for taxes, learning/writing, playing games, doing something with pictures etc. Now i have a great home office and a great private 'home office'?

And yes holy shit finally a clean nice bathroom i like going to.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#239

Post by slumdev » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

I don't miss the office at all, and I never want to go back. If management asks us to go back full-time, I will start looking for another job. I'm happier and more productive than ever. I never want to go back to rotting in a cube farm pretending that 1-2 productive hours a day is enough.

1. Cubes, cube pods, and "open offices" are inhumane.

2. I don't have to wear headphones to "hear myself think" anymore.

3. Meetings no longer produce the positive feelings that result from the presence of another human, so there's incentive for everyone to eliminate the pointless meetings.

3a. I can multitask during the truly pointless meetings that haven't yet been eliminated. I can't tell you how much work I've gotten done during "town halls" during the last eight months.

4. No commute.

5. My house is way nicer than my office. I know this isn't the case for everyone. But if you're working as a software engineer, you can afford it. You have to ask yourself why it wasn't a priority before.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#240

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 21, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

sharken wrote: post #208

bluedino wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve brought my own SSD and RAM to jobs that give you a bog-standard issue PC. Shhh.

This is the part that I don’t get, why must it be so hard to get proper tools for the job. Having a fast NVMe disk, 16/32 GB of ram and a current generation (or previous generation) CPU should be the standard for a developer. Apart from that there is the crappy office keyboard, mouse and all too small mousepad. Fortunately those things can be replaced without much issue.

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