What remote work does to engineering productivity • Hacker News Board

Re: What remote work does to engineering productivity

#41

Post by deathanatos » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 11:06 PM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #34

deathanatos wrote: post #31

This is an ad, Hacker News: > [More sophisticated tools] can understand these aspects' in-depth impact on your productivity, catching the unseen blockers and pain points that remote work has brought. Then, based on that data, you can implement changes and measure the results. … which links to their product. The submitter/author is the co-founder. > Not only have office interruptions increased; for many engineers, hom…

> and in most of the data I've seen, rent:wage is high in any geo. "SWEs are paid more" is true, but it doesn't change the cost of a house. In other words, worker compensation has not kept up with increases in the cost of living, and even engineers are not exempt from this trend.

Yeah, and one of the big questions I have is, how can you convince companies to share their profits with their employees? Its seems that nowadays, it's just not in our values as a people to do that. Nothing in the law demands it.

I'm not sure raising corporate taxes is the right solution — that would just seem to share with the government. I am in favor of raising the minimum wage; in particular, the graph of minimum wage adjusted for inflation is what convinces me: we're near a low point, for minimum wage, presently[1]. I am in favor of better collective bargaining. (E.g., unions, but this seems to be highly contentious; and I would ban forced arbitration & non-competes, but IME most people are either completely ignorant on these issues, or misunderstand what is meant by "forced" to mean "all arbitration"…)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_Sta...

Re: What remote work does to engineering productivity

#42

Post by drewcoo » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 11:07 PM UTC

The author then goes onto tell us about "actual data" without backing that claim up from the first sentence:

> remote work is currently at the peak of its hype cycle

And after infographic-y content, the author ends by claiming that we should run experiments (presumably because there's not enough data). Followed, of course by a plug for product.

This is garbage content!

A

Re: What remote work does to engineering productivity

#43

Post by ldbooth » Sun, Mar 14, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

I have worked from home self employed since 2016.

Prepandemic WFH was amazing. During the pandemic, it is bad and ruined the experience at this point, I doubt I will do it after, but I hope it is just my current impression because the benefits and freedom were so fun.

The difference is hard to pinpoint but it had a lot to do with the assumptions on the other end of the phone.

Re: What remote work does to engineering productivity

#44

Post by geoduck14 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 12:57 AM UTC

philmcp wrote: post #29

geoduck14 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are some very real cultural limitations around a 4 day (10 hr) work day. For one, my kids need to be picked up from school and they need to eat dinner. Perhaps in 18 years, when I'm an empty nester, I can revisit this opinion.

Sorry, I wasn't talking about a compressed 5 day week. I was talking about 4 x 8hr days @ 80% of salary. There are many companies starting to offer this, some at full salary.

Oh, I hadn't considered that!

Re: What remote work does to engineering productivity

#45

Post by anilgulecha » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 3:43 AM UTC

angrais wrote: post #37

philmcp wrote: post #22

I think offering positions on a 4 day week (e.g. 32hrs) is one possible solution. Developers are more burnt out than ever whilst needing less money to live. Remote work generally reduces living costs: no travel expenses, no expensive lunches, no expensive coffees etc. A 4 day week reduces burnout at a time when many developers are spending less. Of course, the best outcome would be 4 day roles @ 100% salary, but ofte…

I get it and agree that four day work week would be nice for mental health, potentially productivity, etc. My question to you: why 4 days? Why not 3? Why not 2? Seems as arbitrary as 5.

Seems like the least threatening option to the status-quo.