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Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

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Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#51

Post by throwaway45349 »

konjin wrote: post #25

One thing I don't see mentioned is the class action lawsuits that will be incoming for unsafe working environments. I haven't gotten the flu once last year, yet in open offices I got it like clockwork at the end of fall and at the start of spring. If covid is dangerous enough to lock down society yet is only x5 as deadly as bad flu seasons open offices are literal murder.

> If covid is dangerous enough to lock down society yet is only x5 as deadly as bad flu seasons open offices are literal murder.

Flu is only deadly for a very small segment of society, though.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#52

Post by pram »

ttul wrote: post #46

All of the tech CEOs I talk to have plans to downsize their offices. All of them. Employee surveys strongly indicate a desire to work remotely as a permanent option, with the office being for meetings. The OpEx on office space is significant - 10-15% of salary costs. So getting rid of the office or reducing its size and cost is like cutting pay by perhaps 5-7%. That’s a big deal.

Yeah this has to be long-term catastrophic for commercial real estate, which was already on the rocks. My previous company commissioned/leased and furnished an entire 12 story building in 2019, and now it's practically abandoned. Who is going lease such a thing afterwards? Seems grim to me.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#53

Post by turtlebits »

croutonwagon wrote: post #4

The problem is multi-faceted. While this is entirely anecdotal I have observed a LOT of time theft by employees. And been asked more than ever to investigate employee behavior (even when I normally try and advise against the approach) Some more egregious than others. While most probably aren’t going to awol for a day at a time I know a LOT of people that now spend working hours doing leisure things. Maybe that’s a su…

Has work output decreased? Have you properly communicated expected response times and set an interval for requiring updates? If not, that seems like a mistake in management.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#54

Post by [deleted] »

chrisseaton wrote: post #28
WalterGR wrote: post #3

I haven’t read all 63 pages, but I’m surprised that the abstract doesn’t mention: All the $$$ that businesses get to save by eliminating or reducing office real estate, including $$$ saved by pushing some of those costs onto employees.

What costs? Even people who work from an office still usually have a home study or office for doing their bills or whatever. Do you mean electricity costs to run your laptop? What does that add up to?

[deleted]

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#55

Post by varjag »

zabzonk wrote: post #32
varjag wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality of work is something people can argue about until they're blue in the face, but hours put are objective.

Objective in the sense that someone sitting at a desk for 8 hours without moving a muscle has sat at a desk for 8 hours. But useful to the company employing them - not so much.

The GP writes:

> Responses that are normally in minutes take hours etc.I have to now probe for updates etc.

I think that's rather objective and affects teamwork/project cohesion.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#56

Post by ameister14 »

varjag wrote: post #44
Haunted_Cabbage wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hours of asses in chairs isn't really a measurement of goals being meet. The quality of the time spent is what gets the goals met.

Sure, most employers would take 8 hours of quality work over 4 hours of quality work for the same salary.

Most employers aren't actually operating with efficiency as the main goal.

Look at it this way:

worker A makes 10 widgets an hour. In 8 hours, he makes 80 widets.

worker B makes 20 widgets an hour. In 4 hours, he makes 80 widgets.

Why should the employer care about which one works more hours?

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#57

Post by fartcannon »

DC1350 wrote: post #43

WFH makes the new grad experience miserable if you go to college somewhere far from where you grew up. I’m graduating soon and the only place I have geographic ties to is my home town where I tried very hard to get away from forever. Everyone I know from college is scattering all over the continent. Does anyone have tips for choosing where to live as a remote worker, or how to make friends as a young person in a new…

Well, pick a big city? While it will definitely happen, it's unhealthy to befriend only coworkers. Learn how to make friends outside of your office life. That way your employer can't use your social life against you leaving.

Trust me, after the pandemic, when the daily grind kicks in and your office life and daily commute drains every ounce of energy, you'll be happy to WFH.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#58

Post by lrossi »

croutonwagon wrote: post #4

The problem is multi-faceted. While this is entirely anecdotal I have observed a LOT of time theft by employees. And been asked more than ever to investigate employee behavior (even when I normally try and advise against the approach) Some more egregious than others. While most probably aren’t going to awol for a day at a time I know a LOT of people that now spend working hours doing leisure things. Maybe that’s a su…

> While most probably aren’t going to awol for a day at a time I know a LOT of people that now spend working hours doing leisure things

Oh, the horror!

> people are shifting work hours to ones more of convenience (again anecdotal)

They have no shame!

> But even some of my direct reports will slack significantly more if they think I’m not online. Responses that are normally in minutes take hours etc.I have to now probe for updates etc.

This all sounds very familiar. Let me give you another perspective on this.

It’s very stressful and disruptive to be pinged 20+ times a day. While some of those are people asking for my help, which I gladly do, a good chunk are managers and seniors asking for “updates” or checking in just to see “how it’s going”. Like we didn’t have a standup 4 hours ago. Sometimes it’s colleagues asked by the manager to check on others, so that it doesn’t look like they’re too annoying. I know because it’s obvious and I got asked to do the same many times.

The answer is that it’s going great, thank you very much. At least it was until you interrupted me for the nth time today and now I will have to waste time trying to remember what the hell I was doing in that debugging session. Actually no, a timer expired, so now I will have to restart the whole thing from scratch.

So yes, I sometimes stop answering the chat, or close it altogether. Because I want us to hit the deadline and ship on time, since I care about the team’s results instead of seeing how busy my subordinates are and feeling important for nagging people all day long.

A micromanager hurts the company by reducing productivity and team morale. Your subordinates are not “doing leisurely things” during working hours. They are probably brushing up their CV and doing leetcode to find another job.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#59

Post by stupidcar »

If my employer tries to remain 100% remote I will leave and go somewhere with an office. I find working from home too lonely, and I detest spending hours of every day on video calls. Of course, I'm just a single data point, and perhaps not representative, but I'm also generally less social than other people, so I find it hard to believe there won't be a lot of people feeling the same.

I'm sure that there will be a much greater prevalence and acceptable of working from home after the pandemic, but I'm equally sure that there will be a gradual but significant shift back to large numbers of people working in offices. The only way this won't happen is if there genuinely is a major uplift in productivity from remote work, and I'm incredibly sceptical about that. Self-reported improvements in productivity are worthless, IMO.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#60

Post by mech422 »

throwaway45349 wrote: post #38
mech422 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"All the $$$ that businesses get to save" This. And not just on office space - all the perks: snacks, on-site gym/child care/etc. Not to mention janitorial/security staff, utilities. I think now companies have tried WFH/Remote, they'll remain open to it in the future.

Very few companies have on-site gyms, snacks and child care. These are competitive advantages, and as long as top-tier SWEs are a sellers market, these businesses will have no choice but to spend money to attract talent. The cost of those things is a drop in the ocean compared to salaries anyway.

>>Very few companies have on-site gyms, snacks and child care.

I'm not seeing your point here? it IS still a sellers market, and companies do pay for those things. So its still a savings for them. As for a 'drop in the bucket', I've seen companies try to save money by buying cheaper pens. So I'm sure cheaper rents, utilities, perks, etc. will be considered...

edit: grammar

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