I hope work from home continues • Hacker News Board

Re: I hope work from home continues

#541

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

edoceo wrote: post #505

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we remove and automate away as much red tape as possible, is the remainder really that bad we still need a dedicated manager over a hybrid? Will somebody of the team not feel the urge or the will to pick it up instead? Do we still need a manager who has power over the developers and partially decides which jobs exist, giving them not only an incentive to create extra work, but have a trump card on anyone who would…

Manager as facilitator works awesome. Manager as controller sucks. One path gives the team power, the other gives the boss power.

Managing a highly self-motivated team of engineers is different than managing a team of undermotivated slackers.

For the former, a great manager will regularly ask, "What can I do to help you do your job well?" This person fights the political battles that need to be fought, takes bullets for the team, gets the team the resources they need, removes roadblocks, recruits, etc. The team already wants to work hard, wants to do their job well, and "manager-as-controller" is absolutely the wrong way to lead.

But when you're managing a team of undermotivated people doing more dreary work (which, honestly, might be most people and most jobs), a great manager will occasionally pick up a hammer and do some of the hard work themselves to boost morale. They'll find and remove the major pain-points of the day-to-day, improve training so the team is more productive, cheerlead a bit, try to improve compensation, make sure the team's major wins are visible to upper management so they can get the resources they need, etc.

But critically, this second type of manager ALSO needs to be able to crack the whip once in a while to make it clear that being deadweight won't be tolerated, and complaining won't be rewarded. When the work is somewhat painful, you really want to foster a kind of contagious, optimistic busy-bee state where everyone is eager to do their part and help one another, and you'll have to put on your "manager-as-controller" hat once in a while to get there.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#542

Post by blunte » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

rabidrat wrote: post #482

blunte wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a depressingly accurate assessment of the last 30 years. The only hope I hold is that people with shared creative interests will eventually prevail. The pessimist in me also considers that the allowed monopolies will then buy up those creative successes.

As long as they are paying decent prices for those creative successes (so the creators can have a comfortable retirement with healthcare in the US), this is not the worst outcome.

But my wish is that the really creative, motivated people don't lose their motivation. F*ck You money is a great idea, but after a couple of years of coasting, spend some energy and funds to make something really cool happen.

Unfortunately, some people go through such a traumatic experience which happens to result in FU money that they burn out and stop creating. That's a great shame for us all.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#543

Post by TuringNYC » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

kritiko wrote: post #394

TuringNYC wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Your trade assumes that none of your employees will want to live in a high cost of living area if given the opportunity to WFH. If their age / hobbies / etc. make city living attractive you will need to compensate them appropriately or be unable to attract them. I love living in the city. If work wants to keep me remote, I need an extra bedroom or dedicated office space.

>> Your trade assumes that none of your employees will want to live in a high cost of living area if given the opportunity to WFH. If their age / hobbies / etc. make city living attractive you will need to compensate them appropriately or be unable to attract them.

This is a fair point. Not sure if you're from the US, but I'll note that the weighted majority of all US technology job opportunities are in cities and major metro areas. If someone wants to live in a high-cost-of-living area, thats a great problem to have, because probably half the tech jobs are already there in the Bay Area especially. There is also no shortage of compensation in such high-cost-of-living areas.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#544

Post by NikolaNovak » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

arcbyte wrote: post #441

NikolaNovak wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oooh BOOOOY is that a self-unaware statement :-> While I will give full marks for your agency and initiative if appropriate, to think ANY of us (myself and all of us included) don't have a large amount of probability/luck/circumstance involved is hilarious. Heck, I'm a refugee from a civil-war country who came to Canada with literally nothing but a loan for the ticket; I could try to make the claim that I "made it on…

Meh, the network of choices and outcomes you took couldn't have been pre-planned, but the attitude and work ethic that made you work on the skills, capabilities, mindset, etc and made you take action despite major setbacks had nothing to do with luck. To think otherwise is to deny your own agency.

My point/perspective is that it's not a binary proposition. It's not all luck/circumstance, or all agency; it's a combination of the two.

The OP to which I replied implied that ONLY their agency mattered; I disagree with that sentiment vehemently. This is not to say that agency that does not matter - I'm not a fatalist and certainly enjoy my personal freedom and take personal responsibility :)

Re: I hope work from home continues

#545

Post by stunt » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 8:05 PM UTC

Saving commute time is the only reason I don't want to go back to an office unless it's less than 20mins away from my home.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#546

Post by mywittyname » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 8:10 PM UTC

bad_username wrote: post #527

shard wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The absolute best thing about WFH: naps whenever I need it. No more slogging through the post-lunch mid-afternoon slump. I take a 15 minute nap and am good to go for the rest of the afternoon. Also, early meetings at 6~7AM scheduled to work with European coworkers can be followed by a short nap afterwards as well. This has done wonders for my energy throughout the day.

Power naps are glorious. In China taking a nap after lunch, right at your desk, is common and accepted practice.

So are the 996 work weeks.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#547

Post by chenning » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 8:21 PM UTC

Working from home definitely has advantages, but I've been absorbing costs e.g., heating, cooling, electricity just to name a few. I think if given the option I would prefer a majority WFH situation, but these other costs do affect one's total compensation.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#548

Post by mywittyname » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 8:27 PM UTC

duckfang wrote: post #191

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…

> We're a flat hierarchy, and we encourage team members to be vocal about what they want to work on. The entire team plans quarterly targets and goals. To be quite sincere, I've heard this before. And it ALWAYS ends like Animal Farm. Some are "more equal" than others, especially if your company has the usual upper management.

This is the frustration I have with my current role. The company is great and the team is awesome. But getting to work on anything that interests me is impossible. All of the great, fun projects go to other team members. The issue compounds itself because now that I don't work on the stuff that I'm good at / want to do, people on my team have pigeonholed me into Team Garbageman (person who does the projects that nobody else wants).

Re: I hope work from home continues

#549

Post by sologoub » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 8:29 PM UTC

srg0 wrote: post #284

sologoub wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pandemic is the only thing preventing organized lunch with coworkers. Nothing about wfh prevents it - just agree on a place and time. Internet is a problem, but a solvable one - assuming you are in the US, we need competition for ISPs. I had ATT fiber for a while and it was for all practical purposes as good as office (symmetric gigabit). Cycling has been covered :) Separation - door closed to the space I work in wor…

> just agree on a place and time It would require a commute longer than that of going to the office. An average employee has already organized their life around the necessity of commuting to the office. Office is probably a central location. Most workers will be found within a circle of the tolerable commute time (isotropy assumption). Let for simplicity assume that all workers live at the same distance R from the of…

So meet by the original office location? Why is it always being positioned as a choice - it’s completely a false dichotomy.

Re: I hope work from home continues

#550

Post by sologoub » Tue, Apr 06, 2021, 8:32 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #489

sologoub wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pandemic is the only thing preventing organized lunch with coworkers. Nothing about wfh prevents it - just agree on a place and time. Internet is a problem, but a solvable one - assuming you are in the US, we need competition for ISPs. I had ATT fiber for a while and it was for all practical purposes as good as office (symmetric gigabit). Cycling has been covered :) Separation - door closed to the space I work in wor…

Before the pandemic it was hard enough to get people to stick around for a few hours after work to grab a beer. I can't imagine having people drop what they are doing for over an hour just to have a half hour lunch in a central spot. Adult coworkers do not drop everything in front of them for a short good time like college friends would have.

Sounds like those coworkers weren’t really looking to socialize and had other priorities.

But again, it’s being setup as a false choice - if it’s important to your orgs culture all you need to do is setup pre-arranged times for it, much like you pre-arrange a working schedule and have expectations on when people are in the office. It’s just not every day.