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I Miss Working from the Office

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Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#321

Post by matwood »

donatj wrote: post #133
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…

I don’t follow. Why should where I spend the majority of my waking hours, the majority of my life in practical terms, not also be my primary source of socialization? I genuinely feel the opposite. Relying on your few off hours to satisfy your innate human need for socialization places an unhealthy demand on your off hours, not to mention an unfair demand on your friends and family. I am now forced to spend 8 hours a…

> Why should where I spend the majority of my waking hours, the majority of my life in practical terms, not also be my primary source of socialization?

Work socialization is fine, but I'd cautious making it your primary source. What happens when you change jobs? It can also make it hard to remain professional at work.

> Humans were never intended to spend so much time alone, we’re social animals.

Maybe, but I and many others seem perfectly fine with less and/or different social interaction. Personally, I'm more of a few, but deeper friendship person than many shallow relationships person. I'm perfectly happy being home with my wife and dogs.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#322

Post by ghaff »

Aeolun wrote: post #72
bamboozled wrote: post #10

Thing I miss are: * Having someone clean my works space. My house gets dirtier now and I’m forever cleaning it, doing dishes. * The distinction between the beginning and end of my work day. * Having free space in my house. * Off the cuff dinner and drinks with colleagues. * No lag meetings and whiteboard sessions. * Having intervals apart from my family actually felt healthy, although we have adapted to being around…

> When someone of greater rank than me in an inconvenient time zone wants to have a meeting with me involved, I have to attend. I’ve practically lost all my mornings from 6am - 9am, 3-4 days a week. I don’t understand this situation. If this happens I reject the meeting invite, and later see it rescheduled (if my attendance was mandatory). Is there a different way this happens?

Early morning and late night meetings sometimes happen because of timezones. And you deal with it. But you can be sure that, if I were regularly having to attend meetings from 6am-9am for good reasons, I'm also generally knocking off at 3pm.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#323

Post by sologoub »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #155

I think an important thing to keep in mind is that the past 8 months aren't really a good indicator of what working remotely is really like. I've worked remotely for the past 4 years, and this year has easily been the most difficult and most unlike typical remote work: - Normally, I'd try to mix up my day and get some socialization in by going to a co-working space 1-2 times a week. - I had a lot of freedom to catch…

This! Can’t upvote enough.

People keep glossing over the structural differences of being in a crazy, hopefully once-in-a-lifetime, situation and comparing to the good’ol days of when office was amazing. I’d love to hear from those that have to go in and deal with no amenities and all the safety stuff that’s now so imperative.

The other thing to consider - a lot of posters talk about sub-par home setups. Much of that is driven by cost and living close to the office and preventing the city lifestyle. If you stop forcing people to the office, your costs will likely go down as now you won’t compete for space with families with kids or those who really want the space but hate commute. Seems like a win-win.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#325

Post by ukyrgf »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #70

I'd like to think that after the n th discussion of this topic we could all generally agree: - Some people prefer working in an office environment. There are valid reasons for this, and it's totally fine. - Other people prefer working at home, and this is also completely fine and understandable. - People other than yourself who experience challenges with either one of these arrangements are not idiots and the things…

Yeah I think there is a pretty huge gap between most people's office/home differences, and what the OP misses:

> I miss occasional after-work drinks at the sky bar with the $18 well drinks that we always convinced management to pay for.

It just took me a dozen emails, 6 phone calls, and 2 tedious in face conversations to get accounting to buy me a single AAAA battery - not AA, not AAA, but AAAA, yes I'm sure, AAAA, yes I only need one. So yeah I don't miss my office.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#326

Post by sontek »

I miss it too. I've been a remote worker for most of my career (2005-2020) with a 4 year stop in silicon valley where I worked in an office.

Those 4 years truly showed what I was missing and in 2019 I decided I was going start my own office and 5 of us started working out of it.

Since we were fully remote already we were already buying everyone nice desks, monitors, keyboards, chairs, etc. at their home but not every home was great for home work even though we did our best.

I have a dedicated office space with 4 monitors, a standing desk, nice chair, ergonomic keyboard, etc. but I still miss working out of the physical office.

    - Morning chatter and basic social stuff is nice in a neutral area.  We do socialize over video calls too but its in your home where your dogs might be barking, your kids might be crying, your neighbor might be mowing his lawn, etc.   The mute button has become an extremely important part of work and that ruins the experience

    - Separation of work and home. Doesn't matter if its the holidays and in-laws are in town or your friend from high school is visiting for the week. Or you're watching your friends dog for a week.  You still have a nice work environment to go to.
Its nice not having a commute and being able to work from home but in general its only nice if you dedicate a large portion of your home to work and that isn't always do-able. How many people have a spare bedroom in their home that is quiet enough that children, dogs, and neighbor lawn work don't disturb it?

I think everyone of our team misses the office even though we only had one for 1 year of the 4 for we've been in operation.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#327

Post by ghaff »

Tomis02 wrote: post #165
bartread wrote: post #42

> I miss productivity! Our engineering productivity has fallen through the floor since COVID despite everyone working longer and harder; I fundamentally do not think remote teams can ever be as productive as in-person teams. So far I haven't found this to be the case. Somewhat the opposite in fact, although here I'd credit our move from scrum/scrumban to Shape Up as much as working from home. It's not perfect though.…

> Nobody's losing their minds, exactly, but plenty of people aren't really happy. There seems to be a lot of newfound concern for the wellbeing of the employees. Interesting how this wasn't an issue before Covid hit, and nobody was asked "would you prefer to work from home rather than having to deal with constant distractions in the office? Would you like to not waste your life away on a useless commute? Are you happ…

In talking with CIOs and others, as well as just personal interactions with financial institutions and the like, there are a lot of traditional practices and processes that were just "the way things were done." And even if some in authority wondered if they should experiment with this or that change, it probably seemed like a low priority and at least a little bit risky if it didn't work out. What's happened is a bunch of change has been forced. And some of those changes have indeed proven sub-optimal. But a lot have worked out, surprisingly to many, well.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#328

Post by Waterluvian »

I've been WFH for three years and hope to never ever ever go back. I do more in 20 hours than I did in a whole work week. And I don't have to drive. I only need one car. The savings and improved convenience is just ludicrous.

My one and only must-repeat tip: spend money on a proper office space. If you can, have a dedicated room. And prepare to spent a few thousand on a proper desk and chair.

Okay I lied, two pieces of advice: the point of a dedicated space is that you can walk away from it and not go back in until the next day or Monday. That's absolutely critical to success.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#329

Post by sodapopcan »

ck425 wrote: post #263
gamesbrainiac wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much agree. If you like working in the office, then work in the office, and if you prefer working at home, then work at home. We need to be inclusive of people, and let them work the way _they_ best feel productive. It is unfortunate that people think that it has to be either one or the other.

I think part of the issue, atleast within companies, it does need to be either or. An empty office often isn't any better than WFH for many folk. So if in your company you're in the minority then you might need to get a new job. There's also the effect of the industry. While flexible working is great (I could already role out of bed and decide to WFH whenever before covid) there's a chance companies might cut back on…

Ya, I used to hate working form home and HATED when my co-workers would (fortunately that wasn't very often). However, I'm LOVING it now that everyone is working from home. I find it crazy awkward when just one or two people are on a screen. It's hard to describe why but I know it's a common feeling. I've even heard of mixed office/remote teams will do all meeting over video chat, even the ones in the office, as it puts everyone on the same level.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#330

Post by bcrosby95 »

donatj wrote: post #133
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…

I don’t follow. Why should where I spend the majority of my waking hours, the majority of my life in practical terms, not also be my primary source of socialization? I genuinely feel the opposite. Relying on your few off hours to satisfy your innate human need for socialization places an unhealthy demand on your off hours, not to mention an unfair demand on your friends and family. I am now forced to spend 8 hours a…

It's fine and healthy to be social at work. But I'm not sure if it's healthy to hang all of your life's needs on work. The bonds you form from work are usually temporary and conditional upon continuing to perform well at work. This can add a lot of pressure: you can lose your coworkers and your "friends" in one fell swoop.

The bonds I form outside of work are simply because we enjoy eachother's company. Or a shared hobby. Something that doesn't require me to be at the top of my performance. As long as I don't do something ridiculously inappropriate, they will still be my friends.

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