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I Miss Working from the Office

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Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#351

Post by coliveira »

dandellion wrote: post #117
st1x7 wrote: post #48

I think that what isn't discussed enough is the variance in quality of your office environment and of your home office and how that quality affects your preferences about working from home. It sounds quite obvious but in these arguments people often just state what they personally like and leave it at that. Your office can be place where you still have the option to work uninterrupted but also get the benefits of fac…

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…

I think big point is that, even if you have a very good office, this means that you employer just shifted the office costs from themselves to you. Depending on where you live, this might add up to several hundreds of dollars per month. This might be OK with some people, but it is definitely an additional cost for workers.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#352

Post by ryandrake »

ck425 wrote: post #253
watwut wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the truth is, for many people colleagues are the only people they regularly interact with. Especially people who work a lot have basically non existent or purely formal other relationships. They don't even know how to relate to people outside of job setting.

And that is horrible. But there are a lot of folk who feel lonely from WFH who are not like that. The comment was insulting because it implied that if you're lonely from working from home it must be because you lack a social life. You can have a thriving social life and still miss the social aspect of an office.

If you have a robust social / family life outside of work, and you are lonely now, it’s probably because of COVID stay-at-home and not because of WFH.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#353

Post by tartoran »

kevsim wrote: post #233
tartoran wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Likewise zoom meetings aren’t the same thing but replicate the original experience. Im not using any? but am using a wacom tablet for similar handwriting purposes but have to admit that it’s not realtime. If you can’t find something that you like at least you found a business idea

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#354

Post by sfteus »

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.

My last job was like this, but they didn't care if people brought in their own equipment. I brought in an inexpensive mechanical keyboard, a nice mouse, some decent speakers and a headset, then requisitioned a second monitor from the surplus room. Granted, I had my own office so the noise bothering other people wasn't an issue. I would wager many places wouldn't allow bringing in your own equipment, but unless it's explicitly prohibited, I would happily spend a few hundred for a day to day quality of life improvement.

Software is another big thing overlooked by a lot of companies, in my experience. I've bought a Jetbrains account to use for my development because the effective $12.50/month I spend on it is nothing in comparison to the productivity benefit I get from it.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#355

Post by awakeasleep »

ravenstine wrote: post #303

I don't plan on ever going back to the office. HOWEVER, it is possible that a company could entice me to come in to the office, and here's how: - Stop with the ridiculous open office plans - If you have free snacks or a machine with Monster energy drinks, don't get rid of those things a year after instating them - Give my team a budget for tools, like if we need Parallels or Sketch, and make that budget transparent -…

You're lucky your merit increase even keeps up with inflation.

I work for a fortune 500 tech company whose stock is up 600% in the past 3 years, and they got rid of the merit increase unless you get promoted or were nearly promo'ed.

Even before that it was generally 1-2%, well below even the meager increases social security provides year over year.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#356

Post by coliveira »

The writer forgot the following:

- People to clean your workspace; - People to replace equipment when necessary; - People to design your workstation; - Free electricity; - Free phone; - Free security;

And the list goes on... all these costs have been shifted to workers.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#357

Post by learc83 »

ravenstine wrote: post #308
learc83 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t go hiking where you live? Hiking is a very low risk activity.

Hiking trails near me are STILL closed due to the virus. For a while it was only open during weekdays and by appointment only. Now they've been flat out closed for a few months. Sure, I could drive half an hour to a completely open trail, but if I'm going to burn that much gas all the time I might as well start working in an office again.

It’s completely insane that your location decided to close all the trails. We took a 4,000 mile hiking road trip (up the east coast of the US and back down more inland) a few months ago and we never ran into a closed hiking trail.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#358

Post by m463 »

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 have to say employees are just as silly sometimes.

All my life I've always just bought the stuff I need and took it to work.

No matter where I've worked it was 1/100th the hassle to do that rather than figure out how to go through channels.

I've also tried stuff and ditched it a few weeks later and tried something else.

this applies to lots of things at work -- who cares if the office pens are free - they suck.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#359

Post by disown »

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…

> I'd like to think that after the nth discussion of this topic we could all generally agree:

It's either this or the neverending "How do I become more creative", "How do I become more productive", "Tricks to stop using your smartphone", etc...

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#360

Post by randmeerkat »

partisan wrote: post #195
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…

It’s the exact opposite for me. At work, we had 3 monitors, standing desks, great chairs, a gym, free breakfast and lunch, full private bathrooms with showers and towels and toiletries, amazing views, etc. Now I compete for space with some children, a spouse who also works from home, and I work on a 14 inch laptop screen from a couch. It’s a downgrade and I would work from the office if it were practical. We can go i…

You had all of that plus amazing views..?! That sounds amazing.
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