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I hope work from home continues

ryanmercer.com

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Re: I hope work from home continues

#101

Post by csomar »

benbristow wrote: post #11
mikece wrote: post #6

While the cross-pollination of ideas from different teams and departments is lost, along with interesting and serendipitous discussions, I'm also in the boat of hoping I never have to go back to an office. Not having a commute, being able to spend more time with my kids, not eating less-healthy fast-food rather than home-cooked meals, being able to spend my (lunch) breaks working in my garden... I never want to go ba…

Lucky you. I live in a top-floor apartment so don't have the luxury of a garden and I'm isolated by myself as I live alone. It's not the same for everyone.

You have the city though, no? I understand it's pandemic conditions now, but when things open back again, it should become fun again?

Re: I hope work from home continues

#102

Post by dblooman »

I wonder how much of the split is going to be down to parents vs singles. As a single person, I have seen more pushing from managers with kids to go remote, singles or DINKs who live in small apartments in cities are more open to a flexible life style. 3-2 weeks, 60%-40% weeks, whatever people end up calling them seem to be quite a good compromise, but i can see many working 5 days in the office.

There are still a lot of people who treat work seen in a higher regard than work complexity. Someone who is proactive and seen to be, pair programming, mentoring, conducting interviews etc. This can all be done remote, but there might be an advantage to going to the office.

As much as I want to believe that people will work together and both approaches can work, office types will most likely cut out remote types if it isn’t easy to get on with work. I have seen this before COVID, I can see it happening again.

When it comes to it, if you pr whole team is remote, would you feel forced into staying at home and vice versa?

Re: I hope work from home continues

#103

Post by benrbray »

dleslie wrote: post #66
benrbray wrote: post #33

Those of you who think that remote-work-by-default would be a good thing, can I ask how your companies are handling career progression and collaboration, as well as mentorship of junior developers? Listen to Adam Savage [1] talk about his early career as a prop-maker. I just don't see how that sort of deep collaboration is possible remotely. As a recent graduate whose first full-time job has been full remote due to t…

Sure. The company I work at has always been remote-only, and I've been at it for over 5 years. We pair new hires, regardless of ability, with a mentor. They have access to a full checklist of on-boarding tasks and an actively maintained Basecamp. Perhaps the key point is that we do not have "hidden" discussions. Even the voice discussions have notes taken and recorded, and planning sessions are done via a recorded Mi…

Thanks for sharing, I think the "no hidden discussions" idea is important. I had a few internships in the before times, and I learned the most by pulling up a chair to other engineers / researchers who were already talking about something, and just listening to how they talk through problems. In my remote job I don't really get a chance to eavesdrop on someone's zoom call.

I think there are a lot of "implicit" benefits of being in-person that remote companies need to make more "explicit" to be successful. It sounds like your company has the right idea!

Re: I hope work from home continues

#104

Post by Fiveplus »

l-p wrote: post #58
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #12

What kind of office was this person working in? Having to breathe jet exhaust fumes while suffering through 85 degree indoor temperatures and drinking algae-filled water is nowhere near normal. The company he’s describing is severely broken if everything he’s describing is true. Most of what he describes are not normal office problems. Some of them are even health and safety violations. Working from home will only di…

> Having to breathe jet exhaust fumes while suffering through 85 degree indoor temperatures and drinking algae-filled water is nowhere near normal. I was told to suck it up and do at least 50+ hours (35h paid) when working at temps over 42c (110f). Both are illegal here, they don't care, they will always find a poor sucker in a dire situation needing the job.

>was

I hope you left that shithole company and glassdoored their management hard.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#106

Post by randomopining »

Being in an office is useless unless you:

-Need to synthesize lots of stuff daily -Truly enjoy being around your coworkers -Have a terrible homeworking environment

If you just have jiras and you sit down, drink some coffee, music, code, chat people once every few hours to ask about something... it's useless lol.

Think of all the wasted energy going to and from the office, to do the same thing but less efficiently. So dumb.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#108

Post by steveBK123 »

Ocerge wrote: post #80
dleslie wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. The company I work at has always been remote-only, and I've been at it for over 5 years. We pair new hires, regardless of ability, with a mentor. They have access to a full checklist of on-boarding tasks and an actively maintained Basecamp. Perhaps the key point is that we do not have "hidden" discussions. Even the voice discussions have notes taken and recorded, and planning sessions are done via a recorded Mi…

Any time I read "flat hierarchy" in a job posting I feel the urge to run. That may be true contractually, but there is _always_ a hierarchy.

Yes, and it comes with the opposite problem of hierarchy - working for a manager who has 30-50 direct reports and no time for you or anyone on the team.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#109

Post by globular-toast »

> Do not have to go to work sick, because they act like you murdered 30 children if you call in sick. > Do not have to be exposed to multiple sick coworkers at any given time.

This is a really important one and something that occurred to me recently. Now that we've all established that we can, in fact, work from home just fine, we should at the very, very least stop the ridiculous practice of coming into work sick. Prior to COVID it was perfectly acceptable for someone to be in meetings or sitting next to you with a cold in full flow. This wasn't something you could complain about. In fact, it was more likely someone would complain if they took time off for having a cold.

I agree wholeheartedly with all of the author's other points. At this point, going back to the office every day would be an enormous regression. I don't want to work for such a place ever again.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#110

Post by decafninja »

I am wondering what kind of companies and office environments people who prefer working at the office are at.

I work somewhere that requires a ~1.5 hour miserable commute to get to; unresolvable without paying significantly more for smaller/older/inferior housing closer to the office.

The office itself is your typical dystopian Dilbertesque environment - I'd say this is par for course for most "old school" companies where tech is a cost center. Atmosphere itself is pretty dreary, everyone must wear at least business casual (dress shirt, dress pants, dress shoes).

I've been to the offices of some Silicon Valley style tech companies and the atmosphere and environment could not be more different from mine. I know grass is greener from the other side, and eventually work is work, but I could imagine myself enjoying being at the office much more in such a place.

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