A Hybrid Approach to Work • Hacker News Board

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#111

Post by hinkley » Thu, May 06, 2021, 5:38 AM UTC

throwaway197812 wrote: post #82

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The government will compensate participating businesses for any higher costs incurred by the changes, such as the need to hire additional staff This is strange. They're paying companies to hire extra workers so everyone can work fewer hours? Sounds more like a jobs program than anything.

Two birds with one stone? Unemployment in Spain is crazy high.

Isn’t that the justification France used when they went to 37 hours and aren’t they down to 35 now? Fewer hours means a couple more positions to keep an eye on things, even if productivity doesn’t drop for everyone else.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#112

Post by joshuamorton » Thu, May 06, 2021, 5:59 AM UTC

anonporridge wrote: post #103

joshuamorton wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We still don't have any hard evidence that the vaccine stops transmission. It's possible that it keeps you from getting sick while being an asymptomatic spreader. Yes we do. I'm not sure that we have peer reviewed published A/B studies yet (but I think we do have some initial ones). But there is absolutely hard evidence that trasmissions rates decrease among vaccinated populations. We saw this with population level…

https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/2021032...

From the article:

> Preliminary data points to substantially lower rates of transmission among vaccinated people. [the article then cites a study in Israel, which I was also referring to]

That is some hard evidence. It may not be absolutely conclusive, but yes its evidence. We don't yet have a randomized controlled trial, which is the gold standard, yes. But we do have hard evidence.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#113

Post by riffraff » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:02 AM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #64

remir wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well 60% of their workers chose to come back to the office. I guess not everybody likes working from home full time. Google can't really ignore that.

Anecdotally, as a Googler, I think I've talked to maybe one person on the teams I've been on in the past year who really wants to stay remote. Nobody else really likes it, and misses the office and being around people. The new team I'm on is better, as we have a daily standup and more frequent interaction. But I still miss the face to face interaction, spontaneous brainstorming, and ability to just tap someone on a s…

I agree 100% with the idea that not everyone enjoys remote work, and I think actually the majority of people won't.

But I'd like to point out that working from home this last year (with forced kids at home, no chance to travel, services closed etc) was not the common experience people had in non-pandemic times.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#114

Post by asdff » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:11 AM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #105

softwaredoug wrote: post #21

> They’re testing new multi-purpose offices and private workspaces, and working with teams to develop advanced video technology that creates greater equity between employees in the office and those joining virtually. It just doesn't work when half of the team can walk by each other's desk, do some impromptu planning, and the other half are spread out across the world effectively uninvolved in these conversations. Nob…

If people in the building have private offices, and the buildings have floors, there are a lot of psychological barriers that people either didn’t notice of have forgotten about because we’ve been trying to do our best imitation of a feedlot. I’m not going to go across a building and up steps to ask someone a question unless I am out of other options. I’m not. You’re not. I’ve done too many 5 Why’s where one of the a…

There's definitely a balance. I shared an office with one other guy before the pandemic. It was great being able to go, "Hey fred, are you busy? you seen something like this before?" and instantly have the coworker fix some super specific issue they faced before related to our setup that would have taken an afternoon or more stringing together the right generic stackoverflow questions.

Now I have to find time in our day loaded with zoom meetings with other people with just as convoluted zoom meeting schedules to zoom with Fred for ten minutes. We might not find a good mutual time to meet until next week.

Scheduling zoom calls vs. leaning back in your chair when your coworker has a second is an entirely different animal when it comes to workplace efficiency. I'd say I'm spending a lot more of my working time scratching my head than getting things done vs. before the pandemic.

There are good things about working from home, but this is probably one of the worst parts in terms of work. It's like studying alone in your cramped bedroom vs in the library with your buddies in college.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#115

Post by Hamuko » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

benrbray wrote: post #77

elliekelly wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure I completely buy that in-person conversations are a net positive. Constantly being interrupted with drop-in conversations definitely hurts productivity. The vast majority of the time those conversations could have been an email and our two minute chat is going to take me ten minutes to get back in the zone of what I was working on.

It's a matter of etiquette, and of boundaries. In-person conversations are definitely a net positive if your coworkers are well-mannered. Also, there's this new invention called "doors" that I wish companies would get on board with. I hear that "opening" one's "door" can be used as an invitation to chat. :)

>Also, there's this new invention called "doors"

Must be very new since our office had none bar for the meeting rooms.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#116

Post by vineyardmike » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:17 AM UTC

slavapestov wrote: post #60

tdeck wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to continue working from home, as I've found it allows me to better align my time with my priorities and to be more productive. Since I'm in a great relationship and keep up with friends, I don't feel isolated. I don't miss the 2 hours of commuting on the N each day. I didn't expect any of this to be the case - I thought WFH would make me depressed and lonely. That said, I know many people who really mis…

> Some of them have kids, Who takes care of the kids while they’re at the office though?

Teachers usually.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#117

Post by cpeterso » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:24 AM UTC

peder wrote: post #94

softwaredoug wrote: post #21

> They’re testing new multi-purpose offices and private workspaces, and working with teams to develop advanced video technology that creates greater equity between employees in the office and those joining virtually. It just doesn't work when half of the team can walk by each other's desk, do some impromptu planning, and the other half are spread out across the world effectively uninvolved in these conversations. Nob…

And this 3 days in the office business won't work well either. If not everyone on the team picks the same 3 days to be in office, then what are you gaining? How would it make sense if there's barely any overlap among team members? I don't think these companies have thought this through. Logically, the 3 days a week in office will slowly become 2, then 1. Or maybe teams will decide to only get together 3 days a month…

Sounds like teams (and other job factors), not individuals, decide which days will be in-office. The post says: “your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office.”

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#118

Post by vineyardmike » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:24 AM UTC

slavapestov wrote: post #65

anonporridge wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, if everyone is vaccines can we do away with mask requirements? We still don't have any hard evidence that the vaccine stops transmission. It's possible that it keeps you from getting sick while being an asymptomatic spreader. That's why we're still wearing masks even after vaccination until we have better understanding of how the vaccine affects transmission rates.

> We still don't have any hard evidence that the vaccine stops transmission. It's possible that it keeps you from getting sick while being an asymptomatic spreader. We absolutely do and such studies exist, and furthermore you can see a rapid decline in new cases in countries that have achieved high vaccine coverage, which would not have occurred if vaccines did not prevent onward transmission.

> which would not have occurred if vaccines did not prevent onward transmission.

If vaccinated people can't get it, then it will mean that spreaders have less people to spread it to.

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#119

Post by NoPicklez » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:32 AM UTC

koch wrote: post #12

> reset days I think it's time we admit that a five day work week is counterproductive. Even Google notices this but is probably too big to make that change to a shorter work week; the best they can do is "reset days." Smaller companies seem to be doing fine with a shorter week.[1] [1] Buffer comes to mind first, other examples on 4dayweek.io

I'm interested to know what the idea is behind it being 4 days, why not 3? Or why not a longer week followed by a shorter week?

If we make it a 4 day work week, once it becomes the norm whats to say that people wont want a 3 day work week?

Re: A Hybrid Approach to Work

#120

Post by edem » Thu, May 06, 2021, 6:45 AM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #48

softwaredoug wrote: post #21

> They’re testing new multi-purpose offices and private workspaces, and working with teams to develop advanced video technology that creates greater equity between employees in the office and those joining virtually. It just doesn't work when half of the team can walk by each other's desk, do some impromptu planning, and the other half are spread out across the world effectively uninvolved in these conversations. Nob…

> You either choose to be fully digital, and make digital communication the way work gets done, or you harm people out of the office. I say this as someone who managed mixed distributed / WFH teams: If in-person conversations are an advantage (and they are), no company is going to willingly surrender them for the sake of catering to the people who aren't in the office. That doesn't mean teams can ignore the remote te…

> there's no sense in reducing the efficiency of in-office employees just to level the playing field.

There is no sense in not teaching high level math to gifted children, yet it is still happening in the name of equity. Just watch and see in person meeting getting banned in the name of equity as we progress from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism.