I hope work from home continues • Hacker News Board

Re: I hope work from home continues

#271

Post by DrBazza » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:11 PM UTC

blunte wrote: post #64

Wow, the author has a pretty miserable company :(. That said, I share most of the opinions even though I quite like the office environment of my company. I abso-fking-love choosing where I work (and to some degree, when). Being able to take my laptop and go sit under a canopy in my back yard when the weather is nice, seeing my rabbits hopping around the yard, my cats avoiding the aggressive she-rabbit, hearing the bi…

Unless that company is government owned, the owner is, in the US vernacular an "ass". Better facilities equals better hires equals better productivity equals more profit equals more money to invest in better facilities. It's a virtuous circle.

I work in London, and the lack of commuting by train, stuffed with a hundred other people, has been the equivalent of very hefty pay rise, and an improvement in my health, such that I haven't been ill, at all, since Xmas 2019.

I want to go back, but only for a couple of days a week if possible. I know I've signed a contract with my employer stating my place of employment and so on, so I'm resigned to the fact that it will likely be 3 or 4 days.

But I agree with only a few of the original author's sentiments. Not having to share an open plan office with a hundred other people has massively improved my productivity and health.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#272

Post by blunte » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

fiftyfifty wrote: post #234

protonimitate wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. Cost issues aside, I've always maintained that the absolute best experience is a hybrid/flexible schedule and location policy. I'm currently full time remote (I'm on the East Coast working for a West Coast company). My previous company had its main office in my current city, but allowed a super flexible choose-where-you-work…

The company I work for actually suggested getting rid of our office and going 100% remote for our group. We actually voted on whether to keep leasing it after Covid or not. We voted to keep it as we generally like our office and it's nice to have a place to meet face to face sometimes. Since we voted to keep it corporate has told us we have to come in at least 3 days a week after Covid. So for us it's less an issue o…

That's a good approach.

I think a lot of companies are going to downsize their office space in the future. Having a company place to meet is a good idea. I predict there will be some variants of WeWork which will focus on this concept, basically providing rotating company spaces - possibly complete with branding and decorations which would be swapped out each morning for the "company of the day".

Re: I hope work from home continues

#273

Post by mumblemumble » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

protonimitate wrote: post #143

blunte wrote: post #64

Wow, the author has a pretty miserable company :(. That said, I share most of the opinions even though I quite like the office environment of my company. I abso-fking-love choosing where I work (and to some degree, when). Being able to take my laptop and go sit under a canopy in my back yard when the weather is nice, seeing my rabbits hopping around the yard, my cats avoiding the aggressive she-rabbit, hearing the bi…

I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. Cost issues aside, I've always maintained that the absolute best experience is a hybrid/flexible schedule and location policy. I'm currently full time remote (I'm on the East Coast working for a West Coast company). My previous company had its main office in my current city, but allowed a super flexible choose-where-you-work…

> I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office.

Hot take: There's a whole way of communicating and handling team organization that grew up around 20th century business management culture, and it just doesn't work well with remote teams. Methods that do work well with remote teams, though, don't work well with traditional deeply hierarchical management structures. At best, they tend to make all those management layers somewhat superfluous.

This means getting people back into the office may be a matter of self-preservation for career managers, whether they realize it consciously or not.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#274

Post by folkrav » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

csa wrote: post #237

folkrav wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And for the social aspect, weekend or week-long dev retreats are ideal. As much as I appreciate (most of) my coworkers, on nights and weekends I want to close my computer and spend quality time with my family, not see and talk to the same people I am already forced to talk to 35-40h a week. They might be ideal to you, but you're assuming quite a lot about everyone's situations if you think they work for everyone.

GP post was referring to retreats for 100% remote workers, which would be work with a f2f element rather than merely socializing during your free time. These could happen during the week or (depending on the retreat) the weekend, with weekends probably being given comp time in lieu. If you think that a modicum of face time throughout the year for a remote team has no value to a group or team, I’ve got news for you. I…

I am 100% remote. Some face to face is desirable, sure. Do it in core work hours, and don't assume I want to work outside those.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#275

Post by sokoloff » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

splatcollision wrote: post #215

JackFr wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office Informal communication, informal collaboration, a culture of apprenticeship. To the extent that the organization values these they are all served much better in person than remote. All companies and all people are different. There isn't a one size fits all. But it's not like there are no benefits to in person.

> Informal communication, informal collaboration, a culture of apprenticeship You're right of course, those qualities don't naturally occur remotely. However, and I know I'm slightly taking your use of "culture" out of context, but "Culture" is often code for any number of implicit biases in a workplace. Known or unknown. If you don't fit in, for whatever reason, can you still not be a productive asset in the corpora…

“A culture of apprenticeship” shares the word “culture” but isn’t at all the thing that you’re concerned about.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#276

Post by gidam » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

wow you work in a pretty bad place...

Re: I hope work from home continues

#277

Post by elliottkember » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

grep_name wrote: post #235

jmkni wrote: post #23

I’m completely the opposite to be honest. I’ve found working from home lonely and isolating, and am badly missing the structure of getting up, showered and going into an office! For people at a certain stage of life, I’m sure working from home is great, but have some empathy for those of us it sucks for.

> For people at a certain stage of life Nobody seems to discuss this, but yeah for me working from home means working from my bedroom, the only room I can really work in in my small shared apartment. It definitely affects my productivity. On the other hand, I've basically stopped getting sick. Open office plans are very bad for certain types of people, and not just those who struggle with distraction, so still a net…

The long-term effects of not getting sick might be an issue as regular exposure helps the immune system.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#278

Post by greedo » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

HWR_14 wrote: post #140

blunte wrote: post #64

Wow, the author has a pretty miserable company :(. That said, I share most of the opinions even though I quite like the office environment of my company. I abso-fking-love choosing where I work (and to some degree, when). Being able to take my laptop and go sit under a canopy in my back yard when the weather is nice, seeing my rabbits hopping around the yard, my cats avoiding the aggressive she-rabbit, hearing the bi…

I'm thrown by people working on a laptop. Do you have a battery powered second screen? Is there some workflow tips I should adopt to make it work better? I'm quite jealous of people who can work on laptops. I wonder the degree to which people enjoy WFH is the same as the degree to which they enjoy working on a laptop. Even the people I know with a dedicated room for work set up want to go back to the office if they p…

I used to hate laptops, and chafed when they were provisioned for my team. We all worked in the office, and docked them. We rarely needed to use them from home until COVID.

Yet the last year has changed my mind. I have a 15" MBP from 2015 that is fine. My home office has an iMac, so I really don't want a second monitor crowding my desk. I just use the laptop's display and keyboard. Less stuff to worry about finding space for, or keeping the cats from fucking with.

And best of all, when work is done, I log out of the VPN, and close the lid. Of course I have Teams/Outlook on my phone if there's an emergency, but there's also a clear delineation for my family to recognize; if the laptop is open, I'm still working. If it's closed, then they can talk/pester/joke with me without worrying about my work. And it also helps me remember to not overwork.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#279

Post by TuringNYC » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #173

protonimitate wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. Cost issues aside, I've always maintained that the absolute best experience is a hybrid/flexible schedule and location policy. I'm currently full time remote (I'm on the East Coast working for a West Coast company). My previous company had its main office in my current city, but allowed a super flexible choose-where-you-work…

The companies mandating 100% office time are doing so because their particular executive teams are nuts about it. See Netflix.

To me it is a cost issue. Living within 5-day-a-week commuting distance to an office is expensive for the weighted majority of technology jobs. You are trading space/rent for facetime.

That is fine, but the salaries for 5-day-a-week-from-office jobs need to compensate for this -- not just for execs, but also for normal workers.

Living in a 1br was charming as a 25yo, and not so much for someone with a family. Driving for 1hr+ is also not so charming.

As a former co-founder, i'd happily take this trade --

1. Not compete on city salaries

2. Employees 100% WFH, work from wherever you want. NO salary grading based on metro area (that is so unfair)

3. Quarterly on-site, paid for by company

4. Invest in processes to enable good WFH productivity

Re: I hope work from home continues

#280

Post by JMTQp8lwXL » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

BitwiseFool wrote: post #51

Covid WFH is a real issue for our new developers. Especially the ones who are fresh out of college. They're missing out on so much institutional knowledge transfer. Especially the kind of monkey-see-monkey-do experience you need to build confidence using tools such as git. They're also hesitant to ping coworkers and ask for screen sharing time because they can't sense if the more senior developers are working on some…

My $BIG_CO has access to third-party online training materials for things like Git. I've shamelessly used them to learn quickly about new topics, like GraphQL. They'd be a great tool to fill the gap for junior developers. Even for mid-level developers who want to brush up.