Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

nbloom.people.stanford.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 570 posts

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#101

Post by chrisseaton »

throwaway45349 wrote: post #42
chrisseaton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I live in the UK - very few places in London will have the space for a separate home office + space for family. It will get incredibly expensive if we all need to buy more space (and I'm not having my office setup in my living room forever).

But you don't need to live in London anymore, due to work from home? So that's not a problem.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#102

Post by erik_seaberg »

ghaff wrote: post #89
stupidcar wrote: post #59

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 mu…

I suspect that even if you go back to an office, you'll generally still spend hours of your days on video calls in most places because others won't be in the office. And, TBH, I already was because I work with people all over the world.

Half of my Google meetings were over video because we didn't want to blow a half hour getting to the other end of the Mountain View campus.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#103

Post by slantedview »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29

I've been 100% remote and run remote teams since 2014 and I promise that it won't stick for the broader society. Here's why: 1. Socializing is the primary activity that happens at work for the vast majority of workers. The gal or guy coming by your desk to "check in" or "see how your weekend was" etc... is literally where they find their social outlets and personal connections. 2. Managers like to be able to watch th…

While 3 is true, the tradeoff for not having commute vastly outweighs the normalcy of having a routine commute. Commuting is atrocious and not having to do it is wonderful.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#104

Post by [deleted] »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29

I've been 100% remote and run remote teams since 2014 and I promise that it won't stick for the broader society. Here's why: 1. Socializing is the primary activity that happens at work for the vast majority of workers. The gal or guy coming by your desk to "check in" or "see how your weekend was" etc... is literally where they find their social outlets and personal connections. 2. Managers like to be able to watch th…

[deleted]

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#105

Post by ghaff »

erik_seaberg wrote: post #102
ghaff wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that even if you go back to an office, you'll generally still spend hours of your days on video calls in most places because others won't be in the office. And, TBH, I already was because I work with people all over the world.

Half of my Google meetings were over video because we didn't want to blow a half hour getting to the other end of the Mountain View campus.

Yes, it's a very small company view of the world that everyone was a few minute walk from each other. I would sometimes walk into co-workers now and then but I haven't been in a situation where I was really co-located with people I worked with for years.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#106

Post by behnamoh »

slantedview wrote: post #103
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29

I've been 100% remote and run remote teams since 2014 and I promise that it won't stick for the broader society. Here's why: 1. Socializing is the primary activity that happens at work for the vast majority of workers. The gal or guy coming by your desk to "check in" or "see how your weekend was" etc... is literally where they find their social outlets and personal connections. 2. Managers like to be able to watch th…

While 3 is true, the tradeoff for not having commute vastly outweighs the normalcy of having a routine commute. Commuting is atrocious and not having to do it is wonderful.

When I moved to a smaller city for grad studies, I soon started missing the subway system. Crowded and dirty as it is, taking the subway was a constant reminder for me that there is life outside of my confined world and that alone contributed a lot to my sanity.

In the smaller city, I took buses or walked, but I noticed taking a bus still makes a difference, even though one might have to stand up a little. Just the idea of being surrounded by people, each with their own untold stories and problems, made me feel part of something bigger. I agree with the OP; commuting actually helped me feel like I belong to a community, even though I'm introverted and would never talk to any of the people that I would see.

Now with the pandemic on top of it, depression has kicked in. I sometimes play youtube videos with city/car/library... ambient sounds, just to get that feeling again. It does help a bit, but I can't wait for things to get back to "normal", whatever that means from now on.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#107

Post by dehrmann »

sputknick wrote: post #14

I think WFH continues until a company misses financial numbers for a quarter, or a competitor brings their people back into the office, or performance slips. This won't last beyond that.

I think it lasts until a startup (not necessarily in tech) dethrones an incumbent because working in-person helped with vision, alignment, and performance. My hunch is that WFH projects are less ambitious and have less collaboration.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#108

Post by lambda_obrien »

behnamoh wrote: post #106
slantedview wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While 3 is true, the tradeoff for not having commute vastly outweighs the normalcy of having a routine commute. Commuting is atrocious and not having to do it is wonderful.

When I moved to a smaller city for grad studies, I soon started missing the subway system. Crowded and dirty as it is, taking the subway was a constant reminder for me that there is life outside of my confined world and that alone contributed a lot to my sanity. In the smaller city, I took buses or walked, but I noticed taking a bus still makes a difference, even though one might have to stand up a little. Just the i…

We need to replace the "work as social outlet" with something else. It's not the office anyone wants, it's the connection, we're just lacking the connection part to make remote work... well... work.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#109

Post by bootlooped »

slantedview wrote: post #103
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #29

I've been 100% remote and run remote teams since 2014 and I promise that it won't stick for the broader society. Here's why: 1. Socializing is the primary activity that happens at work for the vast majority of workers. The gal or guy coming by your desk to "check in" or "see how your weekend was" etc... is literally where they find their social outlets and personal connections. 2. Managers like to be able to watch th…

While 3 is true, the tradeoff for not having commute vastly outweighs the normalcy of having a routine commute. Commuting is atrocious and not having to do it is wonderful.

I once lived and worked in the Midwest, in a medium sized city, and drove 30 minutes to work. Traffic was not bad. It gave me a chance to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and sometimes just to think alone in silence. Now my subway commute from Brooklyn to the financial district on the other hand...

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#110

Post by dehrmann »

Smaug123 wrote: post #49
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.

Did you really get the flu twice a year like clockwork? That must put you in like the top 0.01% of flu-getters; you have my sympathy.

A lot of people refer to the common cold and flu interchangeably, but they're very different, and it's usually just a cold.
Post reply on HN