I hope work from home continues • Hacker News Board

Re: I hope work from home continues

#361

Post by bcrosby95 » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #318

kibleopard wrote: post #293

A pattern I notice (not necessarily directly related to this article) is that the people who loudly exclaim “I don’t want to go back to the office ever again!” are usually older folks who: > have a house > have a family As a 20-something who lives alone in an apartment, I don’t get the luxury of having a nice backyard to go work in (like someone mentioned doing in another comment thread here). I don’t get the luxury…

Parents with small children at home often prefer the office because it provides some context switching. It’s really difficult to explain to a toddler why a parent is home but cannot play with them for half of the day. That said, you’re not alone in preferring to work in an office. It’s actually very common outside of Internet forums for people to prefer working in an office. It’s just not a popular opinion online rig…

> It’s really difficult to explain to a toddler why a parent is home but cannot play with them for half of the day.

I've worked from home through 3 toddlers, and very rarely had a problem. But I've worked from home for their whole lives.

This is probably something harder to transition into. Kids only really know what you introduce to them. If you've worked from home their whole lives they don't know anything different. If they're used to mommy working from home and them not being able to play with her, then they pretty much accept it.

We never tried to explain, we just said: mommy is at work, you cannot play with her, you can see her at lunch/after work.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#362

Post by randmeerkat » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #330

trentnix wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. I doubt it lasts, at least in software. Talented people are going to have lots of remote options making it harder to find good people willing to show up for daily cubicle warfare. I was someone who preferred to be in the office every day prior to the pandemic. But after adjusting, I really, really like working from home. Tru…

> Talented people are going to have lots of remote options making it harder to find good people willing to show up for daily cubicle warfare. I worry a lot about how this cuts the bottom rungs off the ladder for junior developers. Senior developers can be very productive without frequent access to in-person help, and are valuable enough that they can get work-from-home if they want. But junior developers have more fr…

When I was a junior engineer I preferred remote work. It was easier to screen share with a senior and talk about the problem over a computer screen where I could actually see the code, than it was to squint from over their shoulder. It also gave me the chance to drive and for the senior to correct my mistakes / give me feedback.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#363

Post by noisy_boy » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:42 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…

Having worked on multiple monitors for so long, I would find just having a tiny laptop screen too restrictive. Being able to glance at multiple windows to collate information without having to Alt+Tab is priceless.

I bought a 43" (4K 3840 x 2160) and put an older (rotated) 24" right next to it - the setup works perfectly contrary to my initial worry of the main display proving to be too big. Advantage of the 43" display over an ultra-wide is that I get plenty of vertical space as well in addition to the horizontal space. That means easily having 4 80-column tall IDE windows side by side for reduced scrolling. Another advantage is that videos play full screen without any black areas on the sides. The smaller monitor is split between Slack and email - both always visible but not too distracting due to being in the peripheral vision.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#364

Post by npsimons » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

hiq wrote: post #84

jonnycomputer wrote: post #45

Things I miss: - interacting with my colleagues, going out to lunch - the very high-speed and reliability of being on the network wire - dedicated work-space outside of my home where home-chores don't press on my mind while I'm trying to work - my commute: I cycled into work, and the daily exercise was great - a clearer separation of work and home life Things I don't miss: - interacting with my colleagues, when i don…

> - my commute: I cycled into work, and the daily exercise was great This one is not like the others, it's completely up to you to have a bike ride e.g. at lunch time around the block when you WFH.

Exactly! You can go both ways with this: at my house, I have exercise equipment, up to and including a barbell and plates. If I feel like grinding out some sets real quick, I can. There is absolutely no comparison to working in an office.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#365

Post by CoastalCoder » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

dexterdog wrote: post #265

riscy wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the founder’s dream: gaining familial power over young people’s entire lives to further your start-up, before they realize they should develop a life of their own outside of work to avoid complete burnout.

I can almost hear his "Our Incredible Journey" post already.

IIUC, you're saying that the GP's approach is a recipe for failure. Can you elaborate?

Re: I hope work from home continues

#366

Post by aidenn0 » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

enriquec wrote: post #204

duckfang wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t choose to not care. It's all a matter of priorities. If caring means you lose your job, yeah, you're not gonna care. And losing your job in the USA means: hunger, homelessness, no internet, less chance of being hired with unemployment record, assumption that you did something terrible, low/no medical, etc. For many, especially those whom can't save a nest egg of appreciable value (6 months out of work kin…

Total, complete nonsense and lies. We have unemployment here - paid by the employer - and its substantial. I know several people who are even able to increase their savings while unemployed.

In many states if you leave your job willingly you don't qualify for unemployment.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#367

Post by necrotic_comp » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #330

trentnix wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. I doubt it lasts, at least in software. Talented people are going to have lots of remote options making it harder to find good people willing to show up for daily cubicle warfare. I was someone who preferred to be in the office every day prior to the pandemic. But after adjusting, I really, really like working from home. Tru…

> Talented people are going to have lots of remote options making it harder to find good people willing to show up for daily cubicle warfare. I worry a lot about how this cuts the bottom rungs off the ladder for junior developers. Senior developers can be very productive without frequent access to in-person help, and are valuable enough that they can get work-from-home if they want. But junior developers have more fr…

As much as people don't like it, our current culture of having a video conference open all day with everyone in (breaking out into smaller calls when necessary) brings down the level of "hey, can I ask you a question?" bc we can see if someone is at their desk.

I think this is something that would work for more junior people as well, and I'd be happy to break out / share a screen as needed.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#368

Post by ewmiller » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #330

trentnix wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. I doubt it lasts, at least in software. Talented people are going to have lots of remote options making it harder to find good people willing to show up for daily cubicle warfare. I was someone who preferred to be in the office every day prior to the pandemic. But after adjusting, I really, really like working from home. Tru…

> Talented people are going to have lots of remote options making it harder to find good people willing to show up for daily cubicle warfare. I worry a lot about how this cuts the bottom rungs off the ladder for junior developers. Senior developers can be very productive without frequent access to in-person help, and are valuable enough that they can get work-from-home if they want. But junior developers have more fr…

When I was a junior dev, my team was on the east coast of the US, but we worked daily with people from Ireland. This meant every meeting had a Skype link, and everyone was well equipped to screen share and collaborate remotely.

The benefit was this also made them amiable towards WFH situations. Big snowstorm? Everyone can WFH for the week. Want to go visit the west coast for a few months? Sounds great, we'll see you online.

Point being, as a junior dev I never felt left out in the cold. Some of the best pair programming sessions I ever had during that time were with a dude from Ireland while we alternated screen sharing. So as long as the team culture is supportive of remote collaboration, I think junior devs will be fine.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#369

Post by cainxinth » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

I was fully remote for several years before the pandemic. It’s the only way I ever want to work again.

I’m a copywriter, so sometimes I need time to marinate on an idea. If I left the office to take a 90 minute bike ride in the middle of the day, no one would believe it had anything to do with work. But that’s where I get a lot of ideas and generally just recharge my brain.

Same goes for power naps. Some offices have “nap pods” or whatever, but I would feel self conscious napping at work. Whereas at home, if I’m feeling run down, I can take twenty minutes for a nap or meditation whenever I need to.

My attitude has always been that if my work isn’t up to snuff or I’m missing deadlines, I would be open to suggestions about my workflow.... but as long as I maintain a high level of output and quality, I will continue doing things my way, bike rides, naps, and all.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#370

Post by greedo » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 4:44 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…

I think that this is something senior devs/admins need to try and influence. I've made it a goal to actively mentor the less experienced on my team (and even some senior admins) during COVID. Sometimes I phrase this as "Check out this stupid thing I did." That lowers everyone's guard, and then you can explain how you solved an issue, or how you dealt with a stakeholder in a professional manner. If us senior folks want to have WFH, then we have an obligation to other employees to help them adjust and learn.