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Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

cnbc.com

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Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#181

Post by missedthecue »

benatkin wrote: post #37
someelephant wrote: post #28

Let's be real. The loser here is middle managers. Not all of them. Just the ones who feed off of the high they get from having control over the office environment.

This hinges on the following: > "Zuckerberg said employees who want to work in an office will be asked to come in at least half the time." I agree - part time remote work will be bad for micromanagers.

It will be bad for the permanent wfh employees. While they are eating lunch at home, their coworkers will be grabbing lunch with the boss, building those relationships, and getting all the promotions and raises.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#182

Post by Teknoman117 »

throw2932away wrote: post #179

I've honestly been thinking through what it would be like to have a second full-time job. And by that, I mean actually executing satisfactory work for two organizations for the long-term. I work in a relatively niche space and am able to operate at a more efficient level than the type of employee most companies are looking to hire for the salary the employer wants to pay. I make good money but if I ran at 100% capaci…

I have a friend who works for two unicorns remotely in different product spaces (with their approval) since he left school.

He essentially lives in a hacker commune, has been pulling in a half million a year, and plans to retire in his mid 30's and live off of the interest.

I envy his resolve, but it's certainly not the life for me.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#183

Post by [deleted] »

ipaddr wrote: post #128
skeeter2020 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if that's me, but I'm a engineering manager that focuses on personal relationships and remote has made my job harder and take way more energy. High fidelity communication is hard or impossible and the alternatives frankly, suck. I don't _think_ I get high from controlling an office environment (not sure what that means) but I sure miss white boards and in-person collaboration.

You know one way and doing anything different is difficult. It also will challenge you and make you a better manager and person. Do you really need a crutch like the white board? Do you really need that employee right beside you? Take all of that away and you can still be a good manager.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#184

Post by tayo42 »

magneticnorth wrote: post #12

I am really curious to see where we'll be in a year, two, three down the line wrt remote/office/hybrid work at major companies. This forced experiment has had some surprising outcomes about the effectiveness of remote workplaces, but working from home for only a year, in pandemic conditions, is clearly not the same as indefinitely in normal times. But there's reason to think that may go even better, not worse; I am r…

I wish society learned that there are things more important then corporate efficiency. Maybe optimizing for our quality of life should take precedence over squeezing out that last 10% of work effectiveness.

I recently read Russel Bertrand's essay "In praise of idleness", he made this observation that work efficiency dropped during the world war but life still went on. This was from switching to production for the world war over consumer stuff. His overall point was we should have kept the same amount of consumer work we were doing but get rid of the war production and just kind of chill and enjoy life. I think there's a parallel to the pandemic, where we made this big adjustment, maybe we were less productive, but with wfh quality of life went up in a way. Maybe we are OK with less effectiveness. The world as we can see didn't end, despite a decent effort.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#185

Post by stephc_int13 »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #159
stephc_int13 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same. Middle management is not always useful, they mostly have the role of herding dogs, but if the work is not dumb and soul-crushing I don't think most people need to be herded. (and I am talking as someone who built companies and led teams)

But most work is dumb and soul crushing.

In my opinion, people should not accept to do this kind of work, but I understand that societies tend to be structured in a way to push a lot of people to work like slaves with the illusion of freedom.

But that's an other story.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#188

Post by caturopath »

wokwokwok wrote: post #169
johannes1234321 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After working remote for ten+ years I disagree. There are things one can better understand about a person in a face to face meeting. When discussions become differently casual. Also some discussions are simpler in a completely informal circumstance ("random" meeting at the watercooler) than a virtual meeting of any kind. Of course ymmv but blunt "None" isn't right.

People talk online too; it’s different for people who grew up using text messages and social media where they’re accustomed to building and maintaining online relationships. I’m old, so don’t look at me, but when you look at the cohort of folk who are dealing with wfh successfully and productively, it’s, in my direct observation, younger folk. None is perhaps true for more people than you think. The ones who are stru…

Many of my best friendships were forged online, often in groups collaborating on doing real work.

I have not been able to get any such spontaneity during remote work with my group or division at a large tech company with mostly young coworkers. I haven't been able to figure out why.

> the “oh no! I despise slack” group

Chat can be super useful, but can also create a nasty interruption culture. I don't know what the tools are to turn chat into a value-adding thing, but I don't think they're in place yet.

It pains me to see the number of people who reply quickly to chat messages all day in order to show they're 'working' rather than doing their jobs.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#189

Post by cletus »

Speaking as someone who now works remotely permanently, this has been... life-changing.

So for 10 years I lived in NYC and--don't get me wrong--there are lots of things I liked about NYC but I'm so over the summers and the winters. Also bear in mind that I think NYC is infinitely better for most people to live in than the Bay Area.

But I now live in Florida. It's about the 182nd day in a row where it's been 70-80F. Sure it's humid and that may sound weird after the comment about NYC summers but NYC summers are a special kind of hell beyond the heat and humidity. Here there's usually a breeze. I've been here 6 months and I don't even use the AC.

Add to that that for the same price as my 50 year old 1 bedroom in NYC I now live in a 3 bedroom duplex apartment. I spend a ton of time outside and this has greatly increased my mood and wellbeing.

There are things I definitely miss: camaraderie with my coworkers, free food and the like but honestly I'm just over going into the office. I'm not sure I'll ever do that again.

The ability to live anywhere in the country just opens up so many possibilities.

It's worth noting that this doesn't enable a true digital nomad lifestyle if that's what you want. That's because you still need to be employed somewhere and you and the company are subject to the employment rules (and taxes) in that locale. Maybe that will change in the future.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#190

Post by newacct583 »

someelephant wrote: post #28

Let's be real. The loser here is middle managers. Not all of them. Just the ones who feed off of the high they get from having control over the office environment.

Terminology correction: control over the "office environment" (meaning bossing people around directly or whatever) is something you'd expect from the lowest level of manager. "Middle" managers are the next tier up, the people in the middle of the corporate hierarchy between the actual groups doing work and the VP-level senior executives.

Middle managers are famous for feeding off of email directives, I guess. Not control over the office environment to which they may not be local.

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