I hope work from home continues • Hacker News Board

Re: I hope work from home continues

#431

Post by zikzak » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

lvspiff wrote: post #91

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…

I worked at a building that was right next to the runway under the flight path for a major international airport. We could wave to people in the windows. Our AC went out (In las vegas - it gets to 120+ some days in summer) and they brought in portable A/C units that were louder than the planes. Then they took our bottled water away. While these issues aren't normal they are out there and they are replicated by employ…

I'll bite. Why did they take away the water?

Re: I hope work from home continues

#432

Post by dunefox » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

necrotic_comp wrote: post #367

munificent wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> having a video conference open all day with everyone in

This sounds absolutely horrible.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#433

Post by dheera » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

claudiulodro wrote: post #257

dheera wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> weekend or week-long dev retreats are ideal When you do retreats do keep in mind that not everyone will want to spend a week or weekend away from their family, and that retreats with a bunch of people who can be social nonstop for 12 hours can also be the worst nightmare for introverts. Keep it optional, make sure it's clear that it's optional, make sure junior employees don't feel pressured :)

I think it works fine as long as you're up-front about it when hiring e.g. > We get the whole company together once a year for seven days so that Automatticians can create bonds that influence them all year long. So far we’ve done Grand Meetups in San Francisco, California; La Paz, Mexico; Oracle, Arizona; Breckenridge, Colorado; Mont-Sainte-Anne, Québec; Seaside, Florida; Budapest, Hungary; San Diego, California; Sa…

Although mildly off topic I found this interesting tidbit on their sustainability page [0]:

> Since our company consists of a distributed workforce, the majority of our employees work remotely from home, reducing the need to commute daily to a central workplace, and greenhouse gas emissions as a result. Employees at Automattic are invited to share the distance of their previous commute. On this basis we are able to calculate that we save approximately 18,207 kilometers of travel every work day.

> However, we also believe that it’s crucial to meet together in person several times a year, and those flights can have a very large impact. We don’t have exact data yet, but our rough estimate is that each Automattician is generating about 2,500kg of CO2 per year for work related flights.

Considering that they have 1424 employees listed on the map on their about page [1], let's do some simple math:

1424 employees * 2500000 g/employee CO2 = 3,560,000,000 g CO2/year

is the company's actual current footprint of the air-travel meetups.

Suppose a car emits around 200 g CO2 per km,

200 g/km * 18207 km/day * 365 days/year = 1,329,111,000 g CO2/year

if they forgo the meetups and do on-site instead. (And that's the worst case scenario of everyone driving their own car to work and zero public transportation use.)

Conclusion: Remote + air travel meetups is NOT necessarily more sustainable! In this case the CO2 emissions of remote work is almost TRIPLE.

[0] https://automattic.com/sustainability/

[1] https://automattic.com/about/

Re: I hope work from home continues

#434

Post by throwaway3699 » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

zamalek wrote: post #339

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…

> I have a hard time wrapping my head around why companies are mandating 100% return to office. Beliefs and dogma. Amazon's justification was "Amazon is an in-office culture." That ultimately boils down to circular reasoning; the key decision maker (whoever they are) has demonstrated an immense lack of critical reasoning. Continuing this practice is in the same realm as continuing other hostile workplace traditions,…

> We need conference rooms as an API.

Is this not pretty much how things work on Google Calendar or Outlook?

Re: I hope work from home continues

#435

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

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…

As a WFH advocate, I totally support you having the option to work from the office. A lot of people really like the office and have been having a really bad time this past year and you should totally go back.

We just want the choice, too!

Almost no WFH advocates are asking to force everyone to WFH. They just want the option to do what works best for themselves. The people pushing to return to the office, however, tend to want to force everyone back to the office. That’s what we’re complaining about.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#436

Post by glitchcrab » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

folkrav wrote: post #151

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…

> 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.

I think it depends on how you view your colleagues, and also on your working conditions and location. My entire company is remote (albeit with a small office in a co-working space a few local people sometimes use), and we have two week-long on-sites every year (recent times notwithstanding). There is no pressure to attend, but the entire company is always there (unless they have scheduling conflicts etc) - that says a lot to me.

It helps that the most important aspect of our hiring process is about culture-fit - so much so that the final stage of the (pretty relaxed) hiring process is a presentation to everyone in the company who wishes to attend (regardless of role). Those presentations typically see 40% or more of the company attend. Crucially, every person in that presentation gets the opportunity to vote on whether the candidate is hired.

I've made friends for life at this company.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#437

Post by kharak » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

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…

Doesn't relate with me. While not 20 anymore, I live in a solo apartment and Covid has killed all my social life. Still never want to work in an office ever again. And I'm not going to. Despite the commute, everything about offices feels and is restricting. At home, I can work however I want. Way more productive. Way more hours of the day to myself. Never understood people who have their social life at work. You work there all day, interactions are limited, polite, professionell, uninteresting. The fun starts afterwards with people of your choice.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#438

Post by blunte » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

CoastalCoder wrote: post #388

noisy_boy wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" disp…

Sorry for the tangent, but I'm considering replacing my current home-office monitor. Mind sharing which 43" monitor you have, and any other thoughts on its suitability for coding?

Keep in mind that at some point (depending on your distance from the screen, which tends to be 18-24 inches for developers), the size of the screen grows beyond what you can see without intentionally looking off at an angle.

I would argue that 32" is enough. Maybe 35-40 if it were curved. Of course, if I could have a 1:1 aspect ratio screen which was spherical, that would be ideal. Even so, you only get so much benefit from larger size.

My primary monitor is an LG 27UD58 "4k". It is fantastic in terms of visual quality and even gaming. But as far as I can tell, there's no good upsize option. I'm hoping for improvements in VR style glasses which would allow me to look all around and see a virtual big screen on demand.

Two monitors are nice, but then you're always looking a bit to the left or right. Two stacked monitors are nice, but then you're looking significantly up or down. There's no good answer :/, other than a neural interface which does not yet exist.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#439

Post by matwood » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

spurdoman77 wrote: post #201

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…

Trust issues. While 80% of employees could be more productive remote, 18% could have serious issues with productivity and 2% might actually turn nefarious while remote (steal company IPR or something like that). Or I would imagine thats what the fear is.

Your made up numbers could be said for people working in an office. I had one exec ask me years ago when I was pushing to transition to remote friendly, "how would we know if someone was working when they are at home?" My response, "how do you we know they are working now?"

Re: I hope work from home continues

#440

Post by stareatgoats » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

Some backward companies will call their employees back to the office. They will lose: maintaining on site employees in high-cost cities will be so much more expensive than recruiting from a vast global pool of people that don't require an office at all.

The sentiments of the employees won't matter much (many will prefer remote work, many won't). Bottom line is that the companies that develop remote work routines and strategies will win.