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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?

#121

Post by mLuby »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #59
zelphirkalt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, you got a point, but consider: Saying a few words at lunch time can become a kind of automatism quickly. Perhaps inviting people to social time going out to eat somewhere will leave a more lasting memory. It might not be for everyone. For example people having children and all that. But it does give people a chance to be in a setting outside of work, but with people from the job, which might give a chance to bo…

> I think there might not be the perfect reward/thank you for everyone There is actually. It's called big stacks of money. Oddly, companies don't seem to want to reward people with it, the one universal thing that basically everyone could appreciate and is the entire reason anyone works anywhere in the first place. Crazy. It's almost like playing relatively small amounts for a big expensive catered meal saves the com…

I value a $50 gift or experience with my team far more than an extra $50 electronically added to my account. Presentation matters.

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

#122

Post by hparadiz »

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.

Stop assuming people like to drink.

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

#123

Post by _carbyau_ »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #59
zelphirkalt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, you got a point, but consider: Saying a few words at lunch time can become a kind of automatism quickly. Perhaps inviting people to social time going out to eat somewhere will leave a more lasting memory. It might not be for everyone. For example people having children and all that. But it does give people a chance to be in a setting outside of work, but with people from the job, which might give a chance to bo…

> I think there might not be the perfect reward/thank you for everyone There is actually. It's called big stacks of money. Oddly, companies don't seem to want to reward people with it, the one universal thing that basically everyone could appreciate and is the entire reason anyone works anywhere in the first place. Crazy. It's almost like playing relatively small amounts for a big expensive catered meal saves the com…

I am so bitter regarding this.

1. historically low wage growth 2. historically high difference between CEO and salaried employee wage 3. billions in dividends

How can people not see this as an issue?

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

#124

Post by brutal_chaos_ »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #79
gajjanag wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, the ability to tune out of useless meetings by muting audio/video is great.

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

Ubuntu Desktop: Settings->Sound

There you have per application volume control

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

#125

Post by NoPicklez »

codingdave wrote: post #117
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.

I can absolutely say that at the firm I work, we're moving to a hybrid model following COVID's WFH model. Surveys from across the business show that some people want to WFH all the time, some want to work from the office sometimes and others (like me) want to work in the office all the time.

We're having this conversation and discussion around what is best when it comes to WFH, but there's no perfect fit, it depends entirely on the type of job you have, your home situation and also your social needs.

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

#126

Post by Spooky23 »

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?

Some people will bitch and complain about anything. You could hand out $20 bills to everyone you see and in a big enough group someone will gripe.

Imo the key is making sure you don’t create a perception that you punish or bully people for not participating. As evidenced by this thread, it’s easy to do even inadvertently.

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

#127

Post by sytse »

Remote work shouldn't mean working from home. Not everyone can do that physically (having space) and mentally. At GitLab we pay for an office if you decide you want to work outside your home. Most people end up working from home but before the pandemic many opted to work a few months from an office to make the transition more gradual.

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

#128

Post by neilv »

In the early 2000s, when I was sharing a really dumpy student apartment, and had no office, I often spent the day working around town, mostly from parks and cafes.

Cafes can be distracting, but they had power for charging old laptop batteries, for the cost of a coffee, and sometimes had free WiFi.

Probably most productive were park benches, and sitting under particular trees.

I carried a bag with a laptop, a high-power WiFi card, a camera, and (nod to Douglas Adams) a towel.

This was the first laptop for working all over town, and I learned tricks for conserving battery power, including keeping disk spun down, and using the LCD passively (non-backlit) at times. https://www.neilvandyke.org/linux-thinkpad-560e/

The towel had multiple purposes, including: (1) wrapping the laptop in towel inside shoulder bag, for impact padding, which once saved laptop; (2) for sitting upon grass when it's wet or geese/ducks go there; (3) extra cover for laptop when caught in rain.

Today would be even better, with better laptop batteries, and with fast Internet from my phone.

Now that I have my own place, I usually prefer WFH over WFNH, for immersive work. But there's something to be said for "fresh" city air and sunlight, and speed-walking all over town for hours a day was good exercise.

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

#129

Post by egypturnash »

spiderjerusalem wrote: post #84
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,…

very much this, I'm a very restless person and I _need_ to move every 2-3 hours. Cafe hopping is very very important to my general flow. I also need noise and general life happening around me. Offices are too artificial an environment and my apartment is too silent.

also you need regular targets for your bowel disruptor gun, I am sure :)

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

#130

Post by ivarv »

Angostura wrote: post #93
kristjansson wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Try Let’s knock off at three today. I'm going down the pub - anyone care to join me? I'm buying."

An argument could be made that non-pub goers are still excluded from some kind of reward or compensation. If the buyer was spending their own personal money that might be one thing, but more often than not the funds come out of company expenses.
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