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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

#321

Post by tester34 »

minimaul wrote: post #242
aba_cz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In my experience, public transport is great in europe if you're in a capital city . If you're not, then it is very patchy, and you end up having to drive everywhere.

As a counter-experience

I've been traveling 40km in 65mins each way using a train from the village "at the end of the world :)" that has a few thousands ppl, so definitely not capital city

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

#322

Post by thevagrant »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #315
thevagrant wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may depend on the company and the team. In the office I get asked questions or interrupted frequently. I enjoy talking to colleagues and it seems productive. However the bulk of my important work is done alone in longer uninterrupted blocks of time (at home). If I'm forced into an office then unless the team around me is really good/organised, I end up working at home at night to get those uninterrupted blocks of…

> Collaborating with others works as well for me over a video call as it does in person. This is just fundamentally untrue. Depending on your office culture, processes, personalities of the people involved, and any number of other things… it can be _good enough_. But you are always going to make compromises to communication and collaboration by all working in completely different locations. I think this is one of the…

I didn't reject your original post.. I was merely giving my experience. I did preface what I wrote stating that it may depend on the company and team.

I have found video calls can help me and others keep to the point. It certainly may not be the same for everyone.

I'm certainly not 100% against office meetings or working some days in an office.

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

#323

Post by Zababa »

joelbluminator wrote: post #172
bilog wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That goes both ways though. It also means that you can get hired by some company on the other side of the world that possibly offers better conditions than anything local.

Well yes it's great for Indians / Africans. For people living in U.S, U.K not so much. I think it also means people should go deep, way deep in their stack. Don't switch too much. You know PHP? Become great in PHP. Know Ruby? Stick to Ruby and become a real expert. Generalists may become a commodity...just my personal opinion. You will have to set yourself apart somehow. What is your strategy in this brave new world?

> For people living in U.S, U.K not so much.

If you live in San Francisco or London, probably, but there are lots of places where the cost of living is lower.

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

#324

Post by siva7 »

midev wrote: post #17
savant_penguin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or that's someone that spends 3h/day commuting

Like I said, it's ok to have a preference. People that whine about it are toxic.

but how is that different what you are doing now?

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

#325

Post by cycomanic »

simonh wrote: post #281
carlmr wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did remote work expose that managers are managing people? The issue I see exposed is rather the top-heaviness of many modern companies where there are too many managers and too few people that do actual work. If you're a manager and doing low level work you're doing it wrong. Your role is to remove the interpersonal roadblocks, get people to pull in the same direction, inspire with your vision, hire the right peo…

I'd say another role of a manager is protecting the team from external interference and time-draining activities. You don't get to see that side of it as a team member, or shouldn't if your manager is doing a good job.

So much this! Unfortunately instead of keeping unnecessary work away from their team many managers instead delegate the work they don't like to do to their team. Thus they essentially decrease the productivity of their team.

Being a good manager is actually a thankless job, because you have to deal with all the crappy stuff, like keeping office politics in check, shield your team from budget and bikeshedding discussions, order equipment etc to keep your team productive etc..

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

#326

Post by thefz »

ohhnoodont wrote: post #160
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…

This may just be my experience as a young person in San Francisco / Silicon Valley, but it's very common for office life and social life to be highly intertwined. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. Many of us moved here and joined competitive, demanding companies. People bond in these situations. I really look forward to being back in the office and having a significant part of my social life return. Don't…

> it's very common for office life and social life to be highly intertwined

Until there's a conflict of interest between the two zones or between two colleagues and it all goes to shit.

Trust me, keep work and friends separated.

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

#327

Post by vineyardmike »

IvanAchlaqullah wrote: post #170
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.

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

Oh i would NEVER. That sounds horrible.

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

#328

Post by itronitron »

Zababa wrote: post #310
itronitron wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if wearing a reflective face shield would be a more effective deterrent to interruptions. If people can't see your face then they would probably be much less likely to engage in conversation. You could just take a normal face shield and put reflective sunscreen window film on the inside.

I think this would work the opposite way because people would think it's a great conversation starter.

You make a good point. Maybe it would need to also be worn with hearing protection until the novelty wears off. And adding a chin strap would prevent other people from removing it.

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

#329

Post by vineyardmike »

mobilemidget wrote: post #313
amdelamar wrote: post #44

> The best part is that the cubicle doesn't have tall walls so I can literally see/hear everything, including other people's monitors. Open offices are awful. In my experience most people end up wearing headphones all day, and I did too. My ears would get red and irritated after a while. But I'd keep them on because it was like an unspoken social rule; that if you looked busy and had headphones on, people won't inter…

I'm bit puzzled what sound a monitor makes?

You can't hear it but you can see it.

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

#330

Post by kanzenryu2 »

joelbluminator wrote: post #172
bilog wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That goes both ways though. It also means that you can get hired by some company on the other side of the world that possibly offers better conditions than anything local.

Well yes it's great for Indians / Africans. For people living in U.S, U.K not so much. I think it also means people should go deep, way deep in their stack. Don't switch too much. You know PHP? Become great in PHP. Know Ruby? Stick to Ruby and become a real expert. Generalists may become a commodity...just my personal opinion. You will have to set yourself apart somehow. What is your strategy in this brave new world?

As somebody who's quite a bit of a generalist, I really don't see this happening. IT is just such a huge field that knowing enough general stuff to be useful is still pretty hard.
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