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

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

#161

Post by Apocryphon »

chrsig wrote: post #138
cgsmith wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realized that the OP can correct these actions himself. If he is in a useless meeting then he should speak up and work towards changing that policy. If he doesn't have good equipment he could work with management to lobby for better equipment or bring his own there. Instead of working for 4 hours then "doing whatever" he could make meaningful changes in the organization but he chooses not too. Maybe it isn't a terr…

Why is that a better option for the OP than finding a job that better aligns with how they would like to work? It's really better for everyone in the long run. Company has fewer malcontent workers and can replace the headcount with people that do want to be in the office, and OP isn't suffering in an environment they can't tolerate. Maybe neither are terrible. Maybe they're just poorly suited for each other.

Just as changing jobs tends to boost salary more than getting raises, changing jobs and disclosing all of one's grievances at the exit interview is probably a stronger signal than being the squeaky wheel while still in the company.

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

#162

Post by magic_carpet_ai »

benrbray wrote: post #136
sam0x17 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate that people keep framing it as a "preference" issue. There are HUGE economic and environmental costs that go along with working in and (often) commuting to an office. Not to mention the consistent 20-30% productivity drain working in an office seems to have across the board at most tech orgs. We don't need to destroy our planet, dramatically increase costs, and dramatically lower productivity just to appease t…

You are correct about the problem, but your solution is backwards. The solution is not for us to retreat to the suburbs and WFH forever. The solution is to build dense, walkable cities with good public transit, allowing for sustainable in-person work and strengthening local communities.

Dense cities with public transit: maybe not the best in times of pandemics

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

#163

Post by mewpmewp2 »

gregoriol wrote: post #124
sam0x17 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate that people keep framing it as a "preference" issue. There are HUGE economic and environmental costs that go along with working in and (often) commuting to an office. Not to mention the consistent 20-30% productivity drain working in an office seems to have across the board at most tech orgs. We don't need to destroy our planet, dramatically increase costs, and dramatically lower productivity just to appease t…

Well, there are also huge human costs that go along with working alone all day, and in the same environment as the rest of your life. For example, commuting, while not nice most of the time, has one great impact on life: it allows you to break from work, which is not happening when you have sleep/work/hobbies/life at the same place. I'm not saying you should spend 1h in traffic or subway, but 20min and walking would…

You can also go walking/running if you WFH, which I do. At any time I want. If I'm stressed of work mid day I'll just go running for an hour and will feel super. Couldn't properly do that if I worked from office.

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

#164

Post by bryanrasmussen »

RHSeeger wrote: post #39
hermitdev wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should the people preferring to work from home get preference, either? At the end of the day, like it or not, the majority of people working for a company of beyond a small size are going to be in some level of a collaborative environment. Logistically, it's easier to accomplish that in person. No dropped calls or poor connections or VPN drops or whatever. As an engineer, I sympathize with the poster. When I need…

> At the end of the day, like it or not, the majority of people working for a company of beyond a small size are going to be in some level of a collaborative environment. Logistically, it's easier to accomplish that in person. You say this like it's a foregone conclusion, a fact. I disagree with it completely. It's far easier to collaborate remotely. You don't need find a meeting room, you don't need to worry about m…

>You don't need find a meeting room,

maybe it's just because I've never been the meeting room finding person but in most places I've worked it hasn't been a big problem.

>you don't need to worry about making too much noise,

I've never had the problem that a meeting was being too noisy for the people outside a meeting, but I have had the problem that kids in the house were being too noisy for the online meeting and everyone has to laugh and talk about how wonderful having the kids is.

>you don't need to worry about adding one person from another location suddenly changing the entire dynamic.

Why wouldn't this affect remote meetings?

Obviously there are any number of things that can affect remote meeting quality. I would think for meeting quality an in person one is likely to work better as a meeting, although people might prefer the remote one for all sorts of other reasons.

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

#165

Post by ekianjo »

aba_cz wrote: post #110
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.

This is U.S. thing, right? People in Europe are using public transportation to get to work from the edge of the city with no problems. Come visit Prague to see how it's done :D

> People in Europe are using public transportation to get to work from the edge of the city with no problems.

In theory. When there are no strikes or public transportation issues.

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

#169

Post by arpa »

canadianfella wrote: post #19
cradcore wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should your preferences dictate what other people do? What makes your preference for having people in the office more important than their preference to want to work from home?

Work isn’t a democracy.

oh hi Jeff! shall i pee in the bottle?

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

#170

Post by IvanAchlaqullah »

CephalopodMD wrote: post #119

I just want my own office. That's all. I'd be pretty okay with going in if I had my own office with 4 walls. First job of my career, they told me I would have an office of my own. First day I come back do for full time (I had interned there too with my own office), they tell me they're switching buildings to go open office in about a month's time. I got a precious few weeks with a personal office, and then it was all…

Yes, working from home is much better than working at open office. However there is some scenario where middle manager can make WFH as hellish as working at open office: by mandating everyone to install invasive spyware so they can "manage" you remotely.

Bonus point if the company didn't want to give/loan company devices, so you have to install it on your own personal devices.

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