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Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

economist.com

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Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#401

Post by timr »

dSebastien wrote: post #181

There's no going back to the legacy reality. I don't know why some people can't seem to cope with the idea that reality is something that changes over time. I wrote about this a while ago: https://medium.com/management-matters/going-back-to-work-no-...

I'm already seeing the opposite. The folks who are coming back to the office are at a distinct communication advantage. This advantage compounds over time. Maybe it works for "remote only" companies, but even there, most such companies are particular business models that work well with remote (i.e software). Most companies aren't software companies.

If we're going to bet on the future, I'm betting on ~all of human history, instead of a 2-year sample of exigent circumstances. Humans are social animals.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#402

Post by Steltek »

evenhovercraft wrote: post #349

Very grateful that my employer has committed to remaining flexible with remote work. Full time in the office, hybrid, or full time remote. It’s up to the individual. Full time remote has done wonders for my health - instead of a 2 hour commute I get to exercise. Instead of coming home stressed, annoyed, and sitting in front of the TV, I go outside for a solid hour+ after I close my laptop. I travel more liberally now…

Just as a contrast, I think I've had the exact opposite WFH/lockdown experience as you. My quality of life has tangibly and significantly degraded across every positive point you listed. Even if my employer began offering office access, I don't think it will ever be the same as what I had before.

I used to bike to work, a productive 2 hours of exercise that kept me very healthy, mentally and physically. I got to see other people, even if they weren't strictly friends. Hell, I went outside on a regular basis!

Now I'm gaining weight (although not enough for a booster), lonely, and overworked as the involuntarily designated quasi-stay-at-home parent.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#403

Post by koboll »

There is literally no possible in-office benefit that can ever top never having to commute, or eliminating all time-sinks of office life and replacing them with casually doing chores, taking naps, and cuddling and sex with my partner (who also works from home) scattered throughout the day.

That's why I'm never, ever going back into an office under any circumstances. Are there drawbacks? Absolutely. You're damn right collaboration is harder over Slack than in person. But my home has benefits the office can simply never beat, benefits that vastly outweigh those of the office in terms of quality of life.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#404

Post by goodpoint »

koonsolo wrote: post #212
nirui wrote: post #210

> ... There is a more intriguing possibility, however. Work that is largely done remotely may be more efficient compared with an office-first model. I don't think in-person real-time communication is always effective. No, I personally think it's one of the least method of communication that can happen in an office environment when the topic gets slightly complex (that is, if the topic is complex enough for you to wri…

If the other people in the room are also knowledgeable, you will come to an even better conclusion much faster face-to-face. In my experience, having "group reasoning" is faster and with better results.

> In my experience, having "group reasoning" is faster and with better results.

Speed is not a proxy for decision quality. It's almost always the opposite.

Very few technical topics require quick forth and back. Writing is more effective communication.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#405

Post by znpy »

Steltek wrote: post #402
evenhovercraft wrote: post #349

Very grateful that my employer has committed to remaining flexible with remote work. Full time in the office, hybrid, or full time remote. It’s up to the individual. Full time remote has done wonders for my health - instead of a 2 hour commute I get to exercise. Instead of coming home stressed, annoyed, and sitting in front of the TV, I go outside for a solid hour+ after I close my laptop. I travel more liberally now…

Just as a contrast, I think I've had the exact opposite WFH/lockdown experience as you. My quality of life has tangibly and significantly degraded across every positive point you listed. Even if my employer began offering office access, I don't think it will ever be the same as what I had before. I used to bike to work, a productive 2 hours of exercise that kept me very healthy, mentally and physically. I got to see…

> I used to bike to work, a productive 2 hours of exercise that kept me very healthy

Just go and bike for two hours around the block and don't bother people fine with wfh.

It's literally something nobody is preventing you from doing (besides yourself).

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#406

Post by goodpoint »

koonsolo wrote: post #251
istarial wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had mixed results. I've felt like "group reasoning" in person is more like getting people on the same page to execute on an idea, which doesn't equate with the merit of that idea. Once that discussion kicks off in a large-ish group, I've found it hard to pivot the direction of that conversation - if you think there's a better, independent solution that's not aligned with the group train of thought.

I can see your point. I think it works best when there needs to be a solution where no single expert knows enough to come up with the best idea. So a group of complementary experts where the solution is more important than individual ego's :). But when it's kind of decided already, so more 1 way, written communication works better. I was in some situations where there was long emailing back and forth between people.…

> I think it works best when there needs to be a solution where no single expert knows enough to come up with the best idea

...then you have an organizational problem that should be solved.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#407

Post by nicoburns »

macintux wrote: post #344
fendy3002 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've encountered this and I thought of some reason: - it's easier to be distracted - it's harder to read gestures and expressions, worse with group meeting - with normal keyboard and mouch / touchpad even touchscreen, it's harder to sketch - while small, there is latency and it can be distracting enough IMO it's easier if the communication is one way at a time, not both at the same time.

The bandwidth, latency, and resolution of an analog whiteboard beats the pants off anything digital.

Yep, especially the latency.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#408

Post by tristor »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #277
nirui wrote: post #210

> ... There is a more intriguing possibility, however. Work that is largely done remotely may be more efficient compared with an office-first model. I don't think in-person real-time communication is always effective. No, I personally think it's one of the least method of communication that can happen in an office environment when the topic gets slightly complex (that is, if the topic is complex enough for you to wri…

One reason I have found real-time communication ineffective is that it favors the narcissists and egoists in the conversation who are comfortable talking over everyone else. Guess what happens in this situation – Bob spends 40 minutes talking out of the hour's meeting about how his way is right, interrupts everyone, and by the end of the hour meeting the boss is saying “Well, why don't we do a proof of concept with B…

Assume good intent on the part of others. This is generally good advice, but especially true in the work place.

I have been “Bob” some times, but it was not out of ego.

Sometimes a meeting is called because there is a problem that doesn’t fall neatly into existing organizational buckets and the company is doing a scavenger hunt to identify existing domain experts. If you’re that domain expert, your role in that meeting is to quickly establish that fact and work to bring everyone to a shared understanding of the issue, possible causes, and possible solutions.

Also, sometimes meetings are not called for a conversation, they are called for an information broadcast that requires people’s undivided attention because alignment and understanding needs to be established before work can continue.

I have been on both the receiving end of “Bob”, and stuck being “Bob”. But, to your point having a good agenda is crucial, partly to frame things ahead of time so meeting participants know if this is a broadcast, a conversation, or a scavenger hunt. For the latter, most importantly because maybe “Bob” knows that “Linda” is the foremost expert on X and should have been invited.

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#409

Post by b20000 »

repiret wrote: post #394
lend000 wrote: post #169

Not mentioned enough on this topic: not all engineers are software engineers and not all software engineers never need to touch hardware. If you plan to work on/with web frameworks, advertisements, data science, or pure CS topics for your whole career, then there's probably no excuse to force you to come into the office 5 days a week. But good luck doing that as a software engineer at a company like SpaceX, Tesla, In…

I e done firmware development from home for over a decade. I need help once and a while from someone in the lab to push buttons or make connections or do reworks or whatever. But I have no trouble getting most of my work done from anywhere I have a half decent internet connection. The oscilloscope runs Windows and I can VNC to it. The (very old) logic analyzer runs HP-UX and connects to an X server to present its UI.…

awesome, for what company do you work?

Re: Remote-first work is taking over the rich world – research hints at why

#410

Post by wirrbel »

znpy wrote: post #405
Steltek wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as a contrast, I think I've had the exact opposite WFH/lockdown experience as you. My quality of life has tangibly and significantly degraded across every positive point you listed. Even if my employer began offering office access, I don't think it will ever be the same as what I had before. I used to bike to work, a productive 2 hours of exercise that kept me very healthy, mentally and physically. I got to see…

> I used to bike to work, a productive 2 hours of exercise that kept me very healthy Just go and bike for two hours around the block and don't bother people fine with wfh. It's literally something nobody is preventing you from doing (besides yourself).

Stop bullshitting. As a parent the dynamics are totally different especially with Covid measures still in place. My child has not been to pre school for 4 weeks due to sickness and daycare group being closed because of Covid incident. And that must be like the 4th month within this year. It’s hard to maintain any routine in this ever changing emergency.
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