Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 479 posts

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#141

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

foxes wrote: post #99

Seems like their life would be dramatically better if they didn’t have some horrible car hellscape based commute. Pity cities are designed and spread out so because of cars. Then making the office more comfortable and flexible without people micromanaging would be the next thing.

Rush hour sucks though even if you use the metro/tram/bus/train. The idea that the majority of the adult population should be travelling either in or out of the city centre at the same time seems quite preposterous now.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#142

Post by alexchantavy »

kazinator wrote: post #78

This person has never worked in an office, and has a quiet environment at home. Ah, young and childless.

This is another interesting way to split the WFH vs WFH divide. Senior workers are more likely to have kids than junior workers, and they have the ability to set rules for their workplace and therefore prefer WFO so they can avoid the noise at home.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#143

Post by xmprt »

robertwt7 wrote: post #80

I've read this post a week ago (gee I browse reddit too much) Not sure how I feel about this, maybe flexibility is the real answer? Some days I woke up and I don't feel like working from home. It feels good to go out and walk to our company's cool office. If I don't feel like it, then I'd just stay home.

I think it depends from company to company. Originally I was dreading working from the office and I still don't prefer it now, but there are a few benefits that make the analysis a lot less black and white. Office has free food, socializing with coworkers, and they've decked out the entire place with really good monitors, standing desks, a stocked kitchen, etc.

I think it's up to the company to make the office experience worth it and even then it might not be enough for some people so flexibility should be offered as well.

It's also nice now that it's voluntary so the commute is shorter and meeting rooms are empty. I only go about once a week so far (will start going 2-3 times soon).

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#144

Post by jasondclinton »

vinni2 wrote: post #112

One thing I noticed is that while more experienced people are productive working from home, it is devastating for fresh starting employees. Work from home eliminates learning through osmosis. If anyone has a work around this let me know. I am surprised no one else has mentioned it here.

The solution is obvious: structured training and mentoring. When the pandemic hit, I was hiring a team of 5 new engineers. What was I going to do? Throw up my hands?

I implemented a weekly technical training program that morphed into the 250 person org official onboarding. Weekly, I literally just get someone on a VC for 30 minutes and record having a conversation about a technical topic at a noobie level. 16 months later we have 50+ training videos on every topic.

We implement mentors and formal onboarding processes with screen sharing and remote whiteboating sessions, too.

It's not hard.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#145

Post by erik_seaberg »

Kosirich wrote: post #106

To be fair, it seems like he works in a really shitty place. I guess lot's of us have better conditions at work. Also "having to wait to reheat your prepared lunch in the canteen" sounds idiotic. If people have to bring their lunch, at least have enough microwaves in the office....they are like 100$.

At a kilowatt each, a kitchen with more than two or three microwaves needs dedicated wiring like a whole aisle of desks would use.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#146

Post by decodebytes »

suzzer99 wrote: post #122

If your work is so locked down they give out cards that take 2-4 hours to jr. devs, then working from home is probably just as productive if not more than the office - for the reasons eloquently laid out in the reddit post. But if you want to work on new technology with a ton of unknowns (which I personally get more job satisfaction out of), in my experience you need that human connection and in-person collaboration…

I disagree.

Right now some of the most cutting edge technology is developed within Open Source communities, predominantly resourced by geographically spread folks from different companies / independents - all using tools to communicate / collaborate.

I think this is a case of argue your limitations and they are yours.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#147

Post by veltas »

midrus wrote: post #85

In my company the only ones that want to go back to the office are those engineers and managers that spend most of their day just walking around, talking to everyone about non important stuff, inviting you to have a coffee, and making jokes until 5pm. Just the people that have nothing to show at the end of the quarter. The most productive engineers, and the ones I enjoy working the most are the remote ones. The only…

That's not my experience. I've seen the more productive engineers prefer WFH and not WFH. I didn't really notice a correlation in my office.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#148

Post by thefz »

midrus wrote: post #85

In my company the only ones that want to go back to the office are those engineers and managers that spend most of their day just walking around, talking to everyone about non important stuff, inviting you to have a coffee, and making jokes until 5pm. Just the people that have nothing to show at the end of the quarter. The most productive engineers, and the ones I enjoy working the most are the remote ones. The only…

I observed the same thing here. Sadly, some people's only friends are at work and they have not much social interaction outside of it.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#149

Post by tshaddox »

watwut wrote: post #101
tshaddox wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't need find a meeting room You have to pay for your own. > you don't need to worry about making too much noise Unless other people live in your home. > you don't need to worry about adding one person from another location suddenly changing the entire dynamic. That’s comparing all-remote to some-remote, which is a different comparison than all-remote to all-in-office.

> You have to pay for your own. You have to do it anyway. The rent did not went up due you being at home during day.

Either you paid for more space or you lost space at your home during the 8 hours you were previously working at an office.

Re: I went to the office for the first time. I fucking hated it

#150

Post by tehjoker »

cgsmith wrote: post #135
tehjoker wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time is something being stolen from employees. We have one life to live. A company isn't even alive.

Are you retired? Employees pay you for the time it takes on a job. If you're retired then maybe you are waxing philosophically about the fleating nature of time.

Profit comes from the difference between the hours you work producing value the cover your own salary and the excess hours that go to the company. It is simple extraction like bee keepers taking honey from a colony. We're the bees.
Post reply on HN