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Is going to the office a broken way of working?

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Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#41

Post by mgkimsal »

nzmsv wrote: post #26

All you need to know about requiring work from an office is this: the people selling the supposed benefits of increased collaboration, creativity, and productivity do not themselves work this way. There is no CEO or VC who spends their entire day sitting in a cubicle, even if they have a token one.

Well, their output is measured differently too, so I'd expect their work actions and locations to be different. If the ceo was expected to produce output that was suited to working in a cubicle, they would do that, but that's not how their output is measured.

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#43

Post by merpnderp »

sam0x17 wrote: post #10

Been remote for 5+ years and I feel more connected with my co-workers than I did when I worked 9-5 in an office.

This. While in the office we communicated almost entirely over Slack or Discord. Now after being remote 1.5 years, we've never been this productive or happy. If we need to collaborate, it's a million times better to do a Discord video call and screen share, rather than hovering over them at their desk trying to read their screen while they lean away trying to avoid your coffee breath.

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#44

Post by jdavis703 »

chrismcb wrote: post #19
Ancalagon wrote: post #8

I’m gonna go against the HN grain here and, despite having been fully for remote work for the first year or so of the pandemic, come out and say that life has really gotten a lot more repetitive and frankly disappointing since covid and the death of the office. I kind of miss meeting people in the office. I was in the unfortunate position of having moved to a new city for a new tech job where I knew nobody just seven…

Working from home during the pandemic is different than working from home during normal times

I had a remote gig about a year before the pandemic. In some regards it was easier. But I always found remote work isolating and cross-team collaboration lacking. The isolation was semi-fixable with a WeWork. But there’s not really a good solution a line-level worker can do to improve collaboration if other folks don’t also want it.

EDIT: I suppose the lack of collaboration could’ve also been company culture. Be cautious when the sample size is small.

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#45

Post by nafix »

jedberg wrote: post #17
Ancalagon wrote: post #8

I’m gonna go against the HN grain here and, despite having been fully for remote work for the first year or so of the pandemic, come out and say that life has really gotten a lot more repetitive and frankly disappointing since covid and the death of the office. I kind of miss meeting people in the office. I was in the unfortunate position of having moved to a new city for a new tech job where I knew nobody just seven…

Isn't that more an effect of your local social scene being shut down though, and not lack of commuting to an office? If all the local bars/clubs/libraries/whatever you like to do were open, wouldn't that solve the problem?

The workplace is a social hub for many people, although it seems many on HN don't care to socialize at work much.

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#46

Post by taurath »

Ancalagon wrote: post #8

I’m gonna go against the HN grain here and, despite having been fully for remote work for the first year or so of the pandemic, come out and say that life has really gotten a lot more repetitive and frankly disappointing since covid and the death of the office. I kind of miss meeting people in the office. I was in the unfortunate position of having moved to a new city for a new tech job where I knew nobody just seven…

I think you're correct, but one thing that is really missing nowadays, especially with phones and the internet, is active communities that exist in real life outside of work. Stuff like the elks lodge, rotary, bowling leagues, etc are just not as common anymore as I believe they used to be. Certainly there are many things that exist, but in a way societally it seems like they don't have very much cache, even as far as for people to opine "only very lonely people go to those".

I tend to think its a good thing for people to have a bit more distance from work, but if we don't figure out ways to fill in that social need, societally, people will find themselves feeling even more isolated than they have been.

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#47

Post by mrtranscendence »

jedberg wrote: post #11

My friend runs a company that is remote first in the way described here. They have employees all over the world, but they all get together at some random place on the planet (pre-covid) about once every two months. The employees love it because of all the free trips around the world (and often tie their vacation to the beginning or end of a meeting so they can explore that place on their own) and it's great for the c…

Interesting idea. Every two months seems like it could be prohibitively expensive, though, depending on the org. My company has a yearly event that's mandatory for every employee throughout the country, and a common complaint is just how much it costs to put on. Granted, you could make it cheaper by getting rid of the c-list celebrity MC and free drinks, but renting a space for 1500 people, paying for travel, getting hotel rooms, etc, is all costly.

It's been all virtual for the past two years, and I genuinely wonder how much they've saved that way. It's also much more bearable for this introvert ... I despise that stupid event and resent having to attend. :P

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#48

Post by eecc »

Ancalagon wrote: post #8

I’m gonna go against the HN grain here and, despite having been fully for remote work for the first year or so of the pandemic, come out and say that life has really gotten a lot more repetitive and frankly disappointing since covid and the death of the office. I kind of miss meeting people in the office. I was in the unfortunate position of having moved to a new city for a new tech job where I knew nobody just seven…

Well, I think one shouldn’t compare the sudden curfew/lockdown situation determined by COVID with the mores of a finely tuned social machine such as the office.

Given enough time, people would start developing routines and habits around diffused WFH, invest and fine-tune in facilities and services to cater for such a customer base.

Right now we have a lot of stakeholders that just held their breath hoping for a quick return to “normality”.

Indeed, a different organization of our urban spaces would drastic reduce CO2 emissions and land consumption. We should think of it in terms of a sudden opportunity to overcome a local minimum we were stuck in, and search for a new optimum.

Re: Is going to the office a broken way of working?

#49

Post by downandout »

nzmsv wrote: post #26

All you need to know about requiring work from an office is this: the people selling the supposed benefits of increased collaboration, creativity, and productivity do not themselves work this way. There is no CEO or VC who spends their entire day sitting in a cubicle, even if they have a token one.

Yes, something tells me Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t spend much time in his cubicle. He also has the peace of mind of knowing that whenever he feels like it, he can have any of a number of places on campus all to himself. So going to work in a cubicle/public space isn’t nearly the same psychological experience for him that it is for regular workers there.
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