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Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

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Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#221

Post by lostdog »

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…

Where are you even going to take your video calls from? Everywhere I've worked constantly runs out of conference rooms. Are you going to take your video calls from your desk, and disrupt the work of 30 people around you every time you have a meeting?

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#222

Post by canofbars »

ryanSrich wrote: post #200

I doubt it. Maybe those that haven’t been remote never saw this side of businesses, but as someone that will only work remotely, the options pre-Covid were exceedingly thin. Almost no public companies allowed 100% remote work. Almost none. Honestly I can’t even name a single company that did, but I’m sure there is at least one right? Also, it should be noted that when I say remote I mean they allow anyone, literally…

Gitlab is probably the biggest example of an all remote company.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#223

Post by lazide »

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.

You probably weren’t getting the flu even once every few years - common colds are pretty miserable on their own. Many people have never actually had influenza. It is really, really terrible and will make many people essentially non functional for a week or more, with high fever, crippling body aches, etc.

Sinus congestion and feeling out of it for a week is not the flu.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#224

Post by irrational »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #146
irrational wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. This is the main reason I prefer remote working. I don’t like socializing. I’m there to work, not to chit chat. You’re not my friend, your a fellow worker. 2. Time to get a better manager who trusts you. 3. Commuting is a waste of time. I roll out of bed and immediately start working. The company loses on time I could be working by having me commute. 4. Yeah, I definitely can’t relate to this one.

For something you're going to spend your life doing, it's a horrible prospect to not expect to make friends at work. As a child did you spend 12 years not making friends in school, since school is for learning and not socialization?

Yeah, it’s probably just me. I did not have friends at school. I really did just go there to learn things.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#225

Post by rmk »

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…

I think this paper, and survey, in general, appears to be ignoring one very important set of people: job hoppers and new entrants to the job market (to be fair, I did not read thru the entire paper, just looked over interesting sections). These two categories of people will almost certainly not prefer working from home: for job hoppers, it is difficult or in some cases, impossible to on-board; for new entrants, they can't become effective without close supervision initially.

Imagine the average intern being able to put out good quality work with minimal supervision. I feel these two things require that companies or teams will have to reorganise in some fundamental way to account for these two classes of people joining them.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#226

Post by dbish »

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…

Same, and I have quite a few people on my team who can't wait to get back. A few days a week working form home, fine, but I'm certain most companies will come back to the office for this reason.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#227

Post by j4yav »

Danieru wrote: post #134
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…

Thank you for sharing. I find it incredible how so far all responces to your post are in-denial. Being productive while remote is hard work and requires a high level of self-awareness and self-control. We cannot "will it into existence" by denying the negative experiences of employers. Time theft is a real concept businesses care about. Business think they are buying time, with an eye to capture the results. If any o…

I think the idea that businesses are buying your time (particularly in a salary context) and hoping they see results by maximizing your hours sitting in your chair is changing, and that's where the disagreement is coming from. It's not so much that they are in denial of reality but that the view of employees as time thieves or that there is just no way to understand if salaried employees produce results is already becoming a bit old fashioned.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#228

Post by deeblering4 »

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…

These are simply excuses to support the wasteful pre-pandemic status quo.

The fact of the matter is that the tech is now fully in place to support remote work, and the pandemic has been both an infrastructure and procedure stress test, as well as a turning point for businesses.

Remote work isn’t going away.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#229

Post by dbish »

fartcannon wrote: post #57
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.

It's ok to make friends at the office. I have a lot of great friends from my last company and from my current one and I did pick a city. I've gone to their weddings, traveled together, and have developed friendships that have lasted for almost 10 years so far for some of them. You tend to have a lot in common with other tech folks and you don't have to deal with the anti-tech discussions as much that seems to happen so much nowadays.

Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]

#230

Post by itronitron »

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…

A close friend of mine has a coworker who calls them whenever they are not in meetings (shows up as online in whatever chat thingy their organization uses.) and wastes at least two hours of their time everyday.

Are there strategies that fully remote companies take to limit that type of time wasting?

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