Depends on the field of work
Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
351–360 of 570 posts
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
My productivity probably doubled when I moved to remote working last year. In the morning, I don't need to commute an hour to the office, giving me an extra hour of sleep. My workspace is also superior to what I'd ever get in the office. But the biggest boost in my productivity has come from the lack of distractions when working from home. If I'm trying to focus on something, I can set my status as busy and mute noti…
> My workspace is also superior to what I'd ever get in the office. An interesting factor is how this is dependent on how confident we can be to continue WFH. Like many people, I'm nowhere near prepared to have a good home office, the house is way too tiny. Which was fine when I didn't WFH more than a few days a month. But I could easily solve that by moving to a cheaper area where I could get a house with enough spa…
>An interesting factor is how this is dependent on how confident we can be to continue WFH.
I had this problem and spent a few months working on the couch before buying a desk and office chair - I dropped a few thousand on these things alone. What gave me the confidence was the introduction of a WFH allowance and news a few people around the company had moved to the countryside.
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#353This is ironic coming from Stanford, who is currently fucking up every single aspect of their handling of covid, as many Stanford students will attest to. Colleges are basically scammers at this point. The whole benefit of going to college is being able to meet like-minded smart, young people like yourself. Remote college isn't a thing and never will be. College is about people, as much as it is about learning. The u…
It is perfectly logical if your thinking is conspiratory, but on HN only logical thinking is allowed, so it really makes no sense.
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#354I'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 disagree with all the points, except (1). If one has a hard time creating a social life outside of work, working remotely is terrible.
Are work friends actual friends? Seems to me in the vast majority of cases once a person switches jobs he switches his work friends as well...which happens about once in 3-5 years...
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#355This is ironic coming from Stanford, who is currently fucking up every single aspect of their handling of covid, as many Stanford students will attest to. Colleges are basically scammers at this point. The whole benefit of going to college is being able to meet like-minded smart, young people like yourself. Remote college isn't a thing and never will be. College is about people, as much as it is about learning. The u…
I went to a German university and fortunately most universities here still believe that their job is to enable learning and that university is as much about learning to learn and learning to live than it is about the content. In contrast to school this means the motivation has to come from the students and there is no mandatory attendance. I for one was glad that I didn't have to sit in lectures that I can learn in l…
> Not attending class doesn't mean you have no human interaction
Well currently that's the case either way
> there are tons of other options for human interaction like sport clubs.
Yea but you won't meet people there who are into the same field of study as you are.
At Uni you get to meet people who have chosen the same path as you have, often people very much alike you. You are working together on tasks, explain the materials to each other and have lunch together.
You just don't have all that remotely.
Also students usually live in a single room apparent, so it gets really hard to separate study and private live.
I find it much harder to stay focused on a video lecture than on a live one inside a lecture hall. You could also go to the library to learn or work on a project if you want to avoid distractions, this is also not currently possible.
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
My productivity probably doubled when I moved to remote working last year. In the morning, I don't need to commute an hour to the office, giving me an extra hour of sleep. My workspace is also superior to what I'd ever get in the office. But the biggest boost in my productivity has come from the lack of distractions when working from home. If I'm trying to focus on something, I can set my status as busy and mute noti…
> My productivity probably doubled when I moved to remote working last year. Everyone who claims this is lying to themselves.
My productivity is possibly 20-50 % higher now. Am I too lying to myself? Or do you draw the line somewhere else?
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#357This is ironic coming from Stanford, who is currently fucking up every single aspect of their handling of covid, as many Stanford students will attest to. Colleges are basically scammers at this point. The whole benefit of going to college is being able to meet like-minded smart, young people like yourself. Remote college isn't a thing and never will be. College is about people, as much as it is about learning. The u…
> Humans need interaction in person, and they do their best work when they are working with people who they see on a weekly basis, especially young 20-somethings.
I dont if you have ever been in uni but in my time it was all about putting 200 students in huge amphitheaters with one lecturer not caring at all about their audience. It has to be the worst way to learn anything.
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#358This is ironic coming from Stanford, who is currently fucking up every single aspect of their handling of covid, as many Stanford students will attest to. Colleges are basically scammers at this point. The whole benefit of going to college is being able to meet like-minded smart, young people like yourself. Remote college isn't a thing and never will be. College is about people, as much as it is about learning. The u…
Speak for yourself!
When I was young and starting college, I was poor and lived in a semi-rural area. So getting back and forth to all the classes was very difficult. Not to mention I had to work two jobs to support myself at the time.
I would have fucking loved to be able to do my classwork remotely and just hung out with other students as my schedule allowed. Of course it was not an option back then.
I have recently went back to university to advance my degree and it has nearly all been online. Much better! Frankly I met many more people than I did back in the day through the online tools and the fact that the classwork can be flexible around my life, versus the other way around was very convenient!
I can see how this might not work for labs, but for most other classes it seems to be a very viable alternative.
Also, I think you might be surprised about how much value people of any age put on being near other people at the time of learning. It obviously is very valuable to you, but I would expect you will find just as many that couldn't care less about that aspect of it.
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Working together in person has to be 10 times more effective. Major doubt that anyone thinks remote working is actually more effective from the companies perspective. The only argument I ever here is that antisocial people prefer not seeing other people and getting their work done alone.
I'm an engineering manager, and I can say my teams are just as productive today (100% remote) as they were pre-COVID (100% in-office). I do have very high performing teams, though, and I'm sure that plays a role. I think one "secret" is that we have small-ish teams (3-5 engineers), each with a very engaged and technically savvy leader. I've known other managers to have up to 20 IC reports. I can see that kind of stru…
> my teams are just as productive today (100% remote) as they were pre-COVID (100% in-office).
How much of this is the result of working with an established team that existed before you moved to work-from-home? Do you think the same will be true for teams that are created in a work-from-home setting from the start?
I ask, because I am worried about training and retaining new people. A lot of work is not satisfying in itself. Part of my motivation comes from working together with a group of people I've come to known well. Often I care more about the people I work with than the problems I am working on. I consider this people aspect part of my intrinsic motivation to work.
I fear that once we're all working from home, our motivations become more and more extrinsically. After that, why bother working for THIS company or problem? Can I trust myself and my colleagues to be involved enough to finish anything in the long run? Or should I start to expect anyone to jump ship anytime?
Re: Why Working from Home Will Stick [pdf]
#360I'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…
> 4. For a huge swath of Americans at least, work is an escape from the drudgery of the home.
This is big. If I had a fancy apartment in a good quality building, I wouldn't mind.
But the place I currently reside in, is really frustrating to spend your whole day. I can easily hear my neighbours talking, their pets, screeching children or construction work many floors above. The ceilings are also quite low, which amplifies the cabin fever.
If I could escape, from time to time, to an office where my friends work, it'd be increase my life quality a lot.
And I'm saying this as a person who's not a fan of offices and forced asses-in-seats.