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

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

#531

Post by mLuby »

disposablex wrote: post #428
amyjess wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not care about being competitve. I work so I can draw a salary to fund my life. That's it. I don't care about constantly climbing a ladder. I don't care about advancing my career for the sake of advancing my career. I just want to enjoy my life, and working for a living is just my means to that end. If I'm making enough to be comfortable, I don't care about chasing a promotion or getting ahead of people. I can't…

Just had this conversation with my parents today. They asked why is working from home so wonderful? The number one reason I had was, because everyone can just be them, it's a lot different than in the office. The job can and should be a lot more inclusive and diverse when you're working in your own space -- home office, cafe, etc. You find what works for you, without having to worry about messing with someone else's…

Exactly.

Remote work promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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

#532

Post by pmkiwi »

rubicon33 wrote: post #251
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…

This is what most of the newcomers to WFH don't understand: There is a big different between WFH for a few months where EVERYONE else is also WFH ... and WFH for YEARS where some, or most, of the others are in office. The latter is years upon years of feeling disconnected, left out, and sidelined. The vast majority of companies even if they allow remote are not remote first. Remote first involves actual structural an…

This is exactly my experience. I am the only one in my team working in another city and this is just ridiculous how many times I am feeling exactly these feelings (disconnected, left out, and sidelined).

I am dealing with an insane amount of issues that would have never happened if everyone was in the same office.

It really depends on the culture of the company and the team, and it appears that mine has not managed to change enough (whatever they claim).

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

#533

Post by foepys »

deanCommie wrote: post #445
heavyset_go wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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:…

You don't have to commute. You chose to commute. You maybe did it for a larger house. Or maybe for cheaper rent/mortgage. We're not talking here about folks on minimum wage who can only afford to live 2 hours outside of the city they are working in. The highly paid software engineers on hackernews could absolutely afford to live 5 minutes from the office, 30 minutes from the office, or 2 hours from the office. They c…

Please remember that not everybody here works for FAANG or similar companies.

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

#534

Post by bartvk »

randycupertino wrote: post #347
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.

> Nobody buys prepared food every day, I know many people who don't cook at all and live solely on prepared food.

Do you see more-than-usual overweight people in this group?

(Never cooking is very, very rare here in The Netherlands so I'm curious about any anecdata here).

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

#535

Post by bartvk »

insaneirish wrote: post #341
calvinmorrison wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spend 150$+ per month on AC and heat because of the pandemic. I spent ~30$ in gas a month commuting. I could even walk if my bike didn't work. Personally I like the free AC. Once you optimize your job to be close to your home, many of the benefits of wfh disappear.

> Once you optimize your job to be close to your home, many of the benefits of wfh disappear. LOL.

What's funny about parent's remark?

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

#536

Post by mLuby »

ryandrake wrote: post #487
lsllc wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Tim's "missing the hum of activity, the energy, creativity and collaboration" then he's not paying attention to his employees.

Whenever an exec waxes poetically about the “hum of activity, the energy, creativity and collaboration,” I can’t help but believe what he’s really enamored with is the physical act of surveying his fiefdom, watching and hearing all his serfs shuffling to and fro acting busy and looking like they are doing things. That’s what these guys get a rise out of. The vast number of soldiers under their command and behold! The…

They should just get everyone together for an annual parade—it's what any good autocrat would do.

Think WWDC but with scrum teams in matching hoodies marching by Cook's podium.

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

#537

Post by mLuby »

pjerem wrote: post #484
nojito wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at Apple but my company's internal data shows productivity is better as a hybrid vs pure WFH/In Office for many departments

In my company we are now in some unofficial hybrid approach where everyone works where they want or where they need to. It works really well. There is enough people at the office for it to be a sufficient socializing place, and enough people who WFH to « force » the remote way of work.

That sounds nice. I'm surprised "work where you want" hasn't gotten more press time. Hybrid is so much weirder.

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

#538

Post by square_usual »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #91
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 had a stronger work/life separation. I rarely turned on my work laptop at home. This is imho the worst part of WFH. Some people come to work at 6:00 and go home at 14:00, some come at 10:00 and leave at 18:00, and some even later. If you're in an office, the latecomer can just check the early birds office, "oh, you're here, can we ..." / "he's not here anymore, this will wait 'till tomorrow". With WFH it's cons…

The unfortunate part of this is that once people start responding to e-mails at 12AM, suddenly everybody is expected to respond at 12AM. It's a race to the bottom when separation from work and home life isn't really mandated.

I've faced this first hand as I switch from one company to another. In my previous place, we enforced a hard limit on when we could be expected to respond, and nobody ever messaged me on slack/ sent me an e-mail after that. At my new place, people are constantly e-mailing and messaging into the small hours of the night. It's tiring to watch.

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

#539

Post by blevin »

heavyset_go wrote: post #410
ashtonkem wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commutes also cost the one thing we can't get back; time.

Sometimes people say they're making a time trade off for more money, and plan to use that money to buy more time. While money is fungible, time is not. You can't buy more time with your kids while they're young if they're already grown. You can't buy more time with someone who has passed away. And you can't buy your way out of missed opportunities in your personal life, once they've gone they're gone.

We talk about the time-value of money; perhaps there’s also a time-value of time.

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

#540

Post by root_axis »

twothamendment wrote: post #507
KingOfCoders wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$60? Wow, happy to not be in the US. I'd say I spend <$10 a day on food with good quality organic local ingredients.

Not everyone spends that much. If have to guess that most people don't. I'm in the US, and spend less than half that much to feed a family and we don't eat cheap, boxed junk.

> If have to guess that most people don't

Most people definitely don't, at $1825 a month that's already more than the median cost of rent in the U.S.

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