Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#411

Post by analog31 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:34 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #379

staticassertion wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Dropbox served food I valued it at 50k, ie: in order fro a company to poach me, given they don't have food, that's 50k they'd have to make up for. While I don't spend anywhere near 4k a month on food, there were a few things to consider: a) 3 meals prepared for me saves me time and money. I love to cook but I don't have tons of time anymore and I don't have a a good kitchen. If I want to save time via delivery I…

I guess I just can't comprehend a mindset where 3 meals a day at a company is this huge win. On the occasions when I went into an office with a non-free cafeteria, I didn't even always eat lunch. ADDED: This subthread to me is such a bizarre look into a certain bubble of SV. [See also apparent disagreements with the statement that spending $60/day in restaurants is somehow abnormal.]

Indeed, as a Midwesterner, I'm fascinated by the sheer logistics of having to bring a sandwich to every computer programmer in San Francisco, every day. It's one of those features of "how cities work" that you never even think about.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#412

Post by zebnyc » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:35 AM UTC

Nbox9 wrote: post #51

I work for another company that is going to do a partial return to office. I will be looking at options for companies that offer full in person office (or 90% in person office) after things settle down. I have worked full remote for a total of 5 years of my career, and I believe working in the office is a competitive advantage. * Overhearing hallway conversations (and joining them) helps spawn invocation. * I often d…

WFH has been much better for our lives and I am not looking forward to going back. These are how WFH has benefited us:

The wife: Does chores / cooking and baking while she is just a participant in a meeting. Go for a run before picking up the kid from daycare

Myself: I can drop the kid off at daycare, do chores around the house, do HIIT workout multiple times during the week. Try body hacking like intermittent fasting / prolonged fasting

We take naps to recharge if we are tired. We also go enjoy nature & hike practically every week which is naturally therapeutic.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#413

Post by geodel » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:36 AM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #196

Nbox9 wrote: post #51

I work for another company that is going to do a partial return to office. I will be looking at options for companies that offer full in person office (or 90% in person office) after things settle down. I have worked full remote for a total of 5 years of my career, and I believe working in the office is a competitive advantage. * Overhearing hallway conversations (and joining them) helps spawn invocation. * I often d…

> I save money by spending less on food, drinks, and electricity. For those of us who have to commute, it's not exactly the norm to be saving money while commuting. Commutes are responsible for a 10% drop in hourly wages[1], and the median commute time results in spending 10 full days commuting a year. The average commuter in one of the largest metro areas in the country will spend over 13 full days commuting a year:…

> The average commuter in one of the largest metro areas in the country will spend over 13 full days commuting a year:

This might be technically correct. But realistically I'd count only working hours. 200 working days and roughly 2 hr commute for me a day. So it is about 400 hr commute to work/home i.e ~50 work days spent in commute.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

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Post by dcolkitt » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:38 AM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #101

Nbox9 wrote: post #51

I work for another company that is going to do a partial return to office. I will be looking at options for companies that offer full in person office (or 90% in person office) after things settle down. I have worked full remote for a total of 5 years of my career, and I believe working in the office is a competitive advantage. * Overhearing hallway conversations (and joining them) helps spawn invocation. * I often d…

My enjoyment of remote work has varied heavily based on the company culture, the type of work, and even my own evolving life circumstances. Having gone back and forth between in-office and WFH and between IC and manager in both circumstances, I have no doubts that in-office work is more productive than WFH. The only exceptions are when the office environment is truly terrible. WFH is more productive than being in an…

The academic research does not validate your gut assessment.[1] Remote work in 2020 was associated with a significant increase in worker productivity.

[1]https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/...

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#415

Post by ryan93 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:38 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #261

koolba wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s plenty of pointless and counterproductive things we insist our children do that we do not mandate for adults.

Wearing a mask when around others during a pandemic is neither pointless nor counterproductive.

There is a vaccine

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#416

Post by itsokimbatman » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:41 AM UTC

Buttons840 wrote: post #256

swiley wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are also plenty of people who like their coworkers and enjoy spending time with them You can do this without forcing them to be around you. That's apparently a new concept to a lot of people.

Yes, I very much enjoy my co-workers. Several nights a week I find myself lying in bed and notice I'm grinning while thinking about some jokes or fun we've had together. We all work 100% remote.

Right?! My company was mostly remote pre-pandemic, and we've gotten more remote friendly during the last year. We share memes, conversation, movie reviews, etc. all over Slack/Zoom/Signal/etc. I'll just get random weird texts from one of my co-workers.

It helps that a lot of us have worked together through multiple companies, but even the ones that haven't... I've honestly never met my manager in person just due to timing issues and the pandemic. Literally all of our interaction has been online and we have a really good relationship.

As long as I have the choice, I will never go back to an office on a regular basis. WFH works for me.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

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Post by max46 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:42 AM UTC

ashtonkem wrote: post #382

pochamago wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also plenty of people who like their coworkers and enjoy spending time with them each day. I don't think everybody finds work to be an unfulfilling drain on their leisure time

My coworkers are great, but do you know who is better? My family and friends.

then get a job that requires less hours and/or less transit. Don't try to work at a place that requires a very high dedication with a lot of hours and then use wfh as a way to lie to you boss to spend more time with your kids when you are supposed to work.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#418

Post by Aeolun » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:42 AM UTC

I think it’s interesting that it appears ‘coming back to the office’ and ‘get vaccinated’ are apparently two different requests.

How does that work for unvaccinated employees coming back to the office? I certainly wouldn’t want to share a space with them.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

#419

Post by travisjungroth » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:43 AM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #367

mFixman wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Google Employee working from home could save $200/day versus getting a fancy limousine to go to work. Nobody buys prepared food every day, and the costs of food are negligible for a Google employee.

I know Googlers who literally never buy groceries because they eat all of their big meals at the office, grab a bottled smoothie on their way out the door, and get restaurant food on the weekends. It is cheaper to get groceries than to buy prepared food, but there’s a lot of spoilage that happens when you’re only cooking 2 days/week.

There’s a big jump that happens when you have no food in the house. No spoilage, no dishes, no pantry to stock. I didn’t even work for a company and this is how I lived immediately pre-covid in Mexico City. I kept the ingredients to make a protein shake, and had one at 11am after the gym every day. Then went out for dinner. That was the distinct downtime. If I wanted a snack, I walked to the corner store and bought one. It was a sweet setup.

Re: Apple asks staff to return to office 3 days a week starting in early September

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Post by rhodozelia » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:44 AM UTC

slavapestov wrote: post #186

emc3 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect more of that competitive advantage, too! Most people don't want to give up Working from home[1] and/or are only interested in "working" to collect a paycheck[2]. If the future because of in-office work mostly consists of ambitious people like yourself, opposed to the latter, then I'm actually more interested in joining. Thanks for the perspective. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wfhjobs_wfh-workfrom…

What are you doing your job for if not to collect a paycheck?

I learned new skills and experienced personal and professional growth through the different projects I worked on and situations i found myself in.

I made friends and together we did an amazing job, made happy customers, and helped build a business, which gave me great personal pride and satisfaction.

The pay cheque showed me the work i was doing was valuable To the customer, yes and bought me a house etc, but I can’t imagine being at a job that I also didn’t enjoy and see some purpose in, some utility that I was bringing to the world.