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What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

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Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#111

Post by peterburkimsher »

Foxfox12 wrote: post #97
egypturnash wrote: post #19

This has been my life for years except without the “renting a place” part. I work in cafes. I work in parks. I work sitting on a bench taking shelter from the rain on my way to somewhere else. I work anywhere I have space to take my Wacom tablet out of my bag and plug it into my laptop, and the desire to spend more time working today. I also work at home in my studio but getting away from the distractions of home is,…

I have considered this but it seems too inconvenient. A cafe doesn’t seem like a great place to work unless it’s consistently quiet and mostly empty so you aren’t taking a table an actual customer could have. The library seems like the next best place after home but it doesn’t seem to provide a whole lot of value over just working from home since I have a pretty good setup there. Currently my current and ideal situat…

I worked remotely in 2011 while in Vancouver on a Working Holiday visa. While watching the sunset at English Bay, I met a Starbucks barista who had 5 free drinks per shift and was willing to give some to me. Sure enough, I now had a café-office!

Finding a nice desk with good WiFi, power socket, and a view was always challenging. Outside isn't ideal because of lacking WiFi/power socket. Free WiFi in backpacker hostels is sometimes limited to a few hundred MB. The Apple Store has a fast connection, but blocks everything that's not port 80 (which means no connecting to our SQL database on Amazon RDS). University WiFi worked well, thanks to a friend's eduroam.

Libraries are wonderful, but need to have longer opening hours in Western countries. The KHOP prayer room in Kaohsiung was excellent.

I wish there were a place I could go after work that isn't the office or my room. As it is, I get a lot done while sitting on a bus, but WiFi, power, and a view would make that much more pleasant.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#112

Post by alexeldeib »

david_van_loon wrote: post #110
devoutsalsa wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Zoom had an in-app mute button. I'd love it if I didn't have to mute the entire computer. EDIT: For MacOS, I found this: https://github.com/kyleneideck/BackgroundMusic

If you're on Windows, the app EarTrumpet provides easy access to per-app audio controls. It should really be included with Windows.

I don't use EarTrumpet, but I think (?) right clicking the volume icon -> volume mixer has a similar effect, and is included with the OS.

I use this to tune windows system sounds all the way down, and content up. Or balancing audio levels of different apps when they don't have good in-app controls on level (increasingly rare).

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#113

Post by wott »

kristjansson wrote: post #45
cujo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic comment missing the point that not everyone needs or wants the social interaction with their work mates.

Not everyone of course, and one should be attentive to and accommodating of teammates that feel that way. But surely “let’s knock off at three today and go down the pub, thanks for all the hard work” is a positive for most people?

> But surely “let’s knock off at three today and go down the pub, thanks for all the hard work” is a positive for most people?

Definitely not.

1. I am not fond of drinking with workmates. An occasional, incidental, one-on-one or not much more: OK. In groups ("teams"): no thanks, this isn't school, we are not students, so no pseudo school party.

2. I abhor having drinks with people who have any kind of hierarchical power upon me.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#114

Post by lamontcg »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #85
JohnWhigham wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic HN missing the point of social interaction and the benefits it provides.

I think the problem with something like (specifically) Happy Hour is that it's really welcome by some employees, and really hated by others. Imagine being one of the few Mormons, observant Muslims, or recovering alcoholics at a company that "rewards" your team with Happy Hours. Or being someone who's been sexually harassed or assaulted at previous events where coworkers drank too much. I'm not suggesting that it's ea…

Imagine just being someone who is an introvert and feels exhausted after hanging out with people 8 hours a day in an office, who really can't put up with being around other people for 12+ hours a day...

I'm much better with a long lunch + socialize and then piss off early from work as a reward.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#115

Post by XorNot »

dcolkitt wrote: post #57
leecarraher wrote: post #22

I think we will soon see a dip in productivity.whenever assessing trends, you should never base conclusions on outlier events and we are basing too much of the wfh success on this past year. A year when you couldn't go out and do things, when people feared for their jobs amid a global crisis and felt a call of duty to keep on working.

A lot of managers seem to have an unshakeable convention that as soon as workers are no longer cattle-penned into an office that they'll turn into lazy slobs. As if the only thing stopping them from vegging out on the couch, eating ice cream and watching Jerry Springer during the work day is the watchful and benevolent gaze of their adult supervisors from across the open office floor plan. Believe it or not, most pro…

There's a disturbing number of managers who's only metric for success seemed to be "well they're in the office on time".

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#116

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

Working remote and not from home:

- Do you need to take a call, and don't want to be that person with lots of background noise? Good luck, other than renting out a private office or meeting room. (Seriously, if you're at a busy Starbucks at 9AM during your stand-up call, just type it in the chat...)

- Cell signal is finally getting fast and available enough that remote work can be done on top of a mountain, but you do need to be within reach of a decent cell tower.

- Is the sun out? Good luck reading your screen. Is it going to rain? Better go find a place indoors.

Offices are convenient for work. You really can get a lot done quickly by grabbing 3 people and working out something in person. You can find quiet space, you can have good lighting and a good desk and decent climate control, you can have coffee and a bathroom and security.

Flexibility is definitely great to have, but let's not kid ourselves. Offices are there because they're useful.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#117

Post by codingdave »

leecarraher wrote: post #22

I think we will soon see a dip in productivity.whenever assessing trends, you should never base conclusions on outlier events and we are basing too much of the wfh success on this past year. A year when you couldn't go out and do things, when people feared for their jobs amid a global crisis and felt a call of duty to keep on working.

WFH people were more productive before the pandemic. There were just fewer of us. If anything, as everyone else learns how to be remote and to do it well, and the stress of the pandemic subsides, performance should increase to match those of us that have been doing it for years.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#118

Post by bigbillheck »

JohnWhigham wrote: post #24
nomoreplease wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would reward them with HH and dinner/late meal. Maybe your team would appreciate a $200 gift card instead of HH + dinner/late meal, especially when some people don't drink or prefer healthy meals instead of steakhouses.

Classic HN missing the point of social interaction and the benefits it provides.

When I was single and in my 20s / early 30s I was a big fan of the happy hour / dinner option, but I'm old now and have a partner and a dog and even when I like my co-workers I'd rather just go home and be with them.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#119

Post by dr-detroit »

kristjansson wrote: post #45
cujo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic comment missing the point that not everyone needs or wants the social interaction with their work mates.

Not everyone of course, and one should be attentive to and accommodating of teammates that feel that way. But surely “let’s knock off at three today and go down the pub, thanks for all the hard work” is a positive for most people?

Surely you're joking. Cracking a beer at 3:00PM is a classic sign of alcoholism.

Re: What if remote work didn’t mean working from home?

#120

Post by symlinkk »

legerdemain wrote: post #82
cujo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic comment missing the point that not everyone needs or wants the social interaction with their work mates.

THIS, 100% this. I don't want to be "social" with you, I don't want to "bond" with you, and I don't care about you as a human being. You are 100% just a queue of work tasks and a source of pay checks. The less I see, hear, or know about the other people on my team, the happier I am and the better off they are . WFH forever, don't mess with a good thing.

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