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I Miss Working from the Office

roguelazer.com

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Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#451

Post by edogg »

ghaff wrote: post #441
matthewh806 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would rather that outcome than having to wake up at 6am multiple times a week for a meeting. There is no way I wouldn't hate my job anyway if it was forcing me into ridiculous schedules like that...

Many people have to adapt to working across different timezones in their jobs. Obviously to the degree that something like that becomes a continuous pattern you need to decide if it's worth it to you to adapt to that schedule or not. There's nothing inherently "ridiculous" about it. For example I have a friend in Hawaii who has an agency with West Coast clients and she just adapts her waking schedule accordingly.

I had friends in Hawaii who were stock traders, they really had to wake up early

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#452

Post by Aeolun »

ryandrake wrote: post #434
newusr1121 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this either. This existed at our company before remote work because we have global offices. People who had early or late meetings may take them from home AND then still had to commute to the office. Otherwise they'd had to get up even earlier to commute first.

It seems like a pretty common scenario, at least to me. There’s a 1 hour meeting to present Project X Status to Executive Y. You are presenting for 20 minutes so are required. Exec Y’s schedule for the next month rules everything out besides next Tuesday at 6am. You can’t just decline and not show up. You just have to suck it up and wake up earlier that day. This scenario is actually much easier in COVID-WFH because…

> Exec Y’s schedule for the next month rules everything out besides next Tuesday at 6am.

Eh? My schedule for the month rules out anything before 9am.

I guess we’re not going to have that meeting then unless Mr exec thinks it’s more important than something else on his schedule (which is healthy anyway, he shouldn’t have to wake up at 6 any more than you do.)

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#453

Post by Aeolun »

crispyporkbites wrote: post #80
Aeolun wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Yup, it doesn’t get rescheduled and you slowly lose influence and find yourself working on things you hate, getting bad reviews and eventually getting fired/leaving because you hate your job

Kind of want to leave anyway if the only way to retain influence is to go to 6am meetings.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#455

Post by djsumdog »

badestrand wrote: post #43
mfDjB wrote: post #34

Through my career I've traveled to new countries and cities for work, each time the office helped me connect with people and make new friends, some of my best friends in fact. What does the future hold for me in this respect? It seems like a lonely place.

Coworking offices can fill this space: Meeting new, interesting people, coffee chats and after work beers.

and yet in this context, you'd still miss the co-working office. They're gone too.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#456

Post by djsumdog »

thendrill wrote: post #97
mfDjB wrote: post #34

Through my career I've traveled to new countries and cities for work, each time the office helped me connect with people and make new friends, some of my best friends in fact. What does the future hold for me in this respect? It seems like a lonely place.

I am sorry you had a bullshit job that just involved meets and greets. Not really helping anyone except your salary.

Don't be so smug. Just because you don't like social interaction doesn't mean everyone else is an introvert.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#457

Post by chad_strategic »

tubularhells wrote: post #269
donatj wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Office socialisation is hell for me. I'm probably autistic, but I would prefer socialising with people with whom I share a common interest. My coworkers are not those people. We collaborate, not comingle.

Agreed. I like to get work done and not procrastinate. Pre-Covid I would go to meet ups or play basketball to socialize.

Besides I don't necessary trust people at work, so I don't see a much need to be socializing.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#458

Post by djsumdog »

coliveira wrote: post #356

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.

Huh. I never thought about this. Some companies will ship you monitors and such, but you're right, a huge amount of cost has shifted to the worker. You now have to heat and cool your home for the entire day.

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#459

Post by [deleted] »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #438
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…

> Your office can be place where you still have the option to work uninterrupted That used to be the case many, many years ago, before the "open floor plan" debacle. It's not the case anymore.

[deleted]

Re: I Miss Working from the Office

#460

Post by ashtonkem »

ghaff wrote: post #435
ashtonkem wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re absolutely right, and the interesting thing is going to be how many people recognize their own personal preferences past their current circumstances, and make changes to optimize that. In my case, I had a small apartment within walking distance of $WORK. The office at $WORK was ... ok. Not as bland as the finance office I used to work at in Chicago, but a bit cramped and poorly provisioned on things like coffe…

>most software jobs were in large cities I'm not true that is necessarily true. Most software jobs were in large metros. But, in the Boston area for example, I suspect most software jobs are still outside the city. (They were essentially 100% outside the city 20 years ago.) The same is almost certainly true of the Bay Area; most of the software jobs are not in SF proper.

That’s a fair point, although I’ll point out that the legal definition of a city and what is commonly considered the city tend to vary a lot. LA is legally much smaller than what most people would call LA.

That being said, this doesn’t change my argument much for two reasons. First, “you have to live within commuting distance of downtown” isn’t that much different from “you have to live within commuting distance of this suburb”. The nearby suburbs of some of these metro areas are still pretty darned expensive and congested compared to the rest of America. Second, the zone of reasonable commutes is much smaller still if you have a spouse who works in another area, or if you’re liable to change jobs in the next few years. And of course the housing centers with reasonable commutes to all possible job centers tend to be expensive.

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