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Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

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141–150 of 371 posts

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#142
I'm currently living alone, and while not currently working, the idea of working from home feels like being stuck in solitary confinement all day. I've tended to have offices I biked to, where I worked with people I liked, so I generally enjoyed going in. The separation of work from home I find really nice too. I've worked from home before, but always had roommates or a partner living with me. Of course all that being said at this point in my life the idea of being forced to be in an office Monday - Friday sounds like torture too. I guess I can't win.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#143

Going to an office to write software is absolutely insane. I like going on fridays and leaving early to drink beer with coworkers.

The absolute absurdity of sitting in an open office, and pretending to program the full 9-5. That's just not how work like this happens. Why do companies pay their developers high salaries, but then tie one hand behind their backs like that. For me? Never again.

This is true, with exception of Japanese people programming the full 7am - 10pm and pretending not working.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#144
I like working from home.

I like living close enough to office that I can go there to meet people without advance planning.

I like the idea of having an office day once a week, but I don't like waking up early enough and completing morning routines in a hurry to actually go there that often.

So I guess it's the "daily/weekly mix" option.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#145
Work from home with the option to meet with colleagues face to face (without obligation). I had a choice between a 100% WFH job and a semi-WFH job with more pay and I would've really liked the flexibility of 100% WFH, but with the housing market going the way it's going here I had to sacrifice that for more pay.

Given the chance, I'd go for a 100% WFH option again in the near future.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#146
post #117

I'm an EM who went from full onsite, to hybrid, to full remote. This is my favorite topic. Throughout the pandemic we surveyed employees and they largely preferred to WFH. A lesser but significant cohort preferred a hybrid setup. Almost nobody at all was in favor of full-onsite. I was in the hybrid camp. I thought I could have the comraderie of the workplace and the dynamism of a bustling city, plus enjoy the comfort…

> Commuting is literally wasted life Commuting is not the same as setting time on fire. The distraction endemic negates the advantage and makes it worse. The forced time in the car with limited options lets me use it somewhat productively, notably makes me do one thing. I spend that time thinking about work, taking phone calls, sometimes listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I have read zero books, but finished 2 aud…

I take your point but this is more of a self discipline issue. I don’t think that the way to get things done is to be stuck in traffic so that you can’t goof off.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is almost exactly contrary. At home, I get a "guilty" feeling if I don't work 100% effectively for the whole day. At the office, I never felt pressured to "code" the full eight hours, as I could see nobody was doing so (in Slack it seems everyone else is always green/present.) At the office, I'd fill the day with conversations, lunch and coffee breaks, and other meaningful interactions with other progra…

I guess this is a good example of different people's work styles, and why it's probably important to give people the flexibility of choosing. I don't feel that type of pressure when WFH, but do when I'm in an office. When WFH I'll often just check out for multiple hours in the middle of the day. Go on a walk, take a nap, whatever... Sometimes I'll just do more hours later that night to make up for it, or sometimes I'…

Indeed. Unlimited remote option with no pressure to attend the office works the best for everyone. We had this already pre-Covid due to being a distributed team between two cities.

Re: Poll: Do you prefer the office or work from home?

#150
We went to temporary work from home at the beginning of the pandemic. Well it's been 2 years now.

I have hated every minute of it. I used to have a 15 minute commute which was a nice bit of time to get my thoughts in order. Now I roll out of bed when my alarm goes off and do daily stand-up on zoom in my home office literally 5 minutes later. My brain is literally still asleep.

I miss people, I miss spontaneous interactions, I miss interactions with people who are not in my department. With very rare exception, I have not spoken to anyone outside of my department of 15 people in 2 years. There are over a thousand people in my company.

My wife works nights and I work during the day, which is the worst of all worlds. I hear her TV shows, TikToks, etc through the walls and they really distract me. I have noise canceling headphones, they only go so far.

When I worked at the office, my brain knew it was work time and could focus. At home, my brain is like "oh you should do the dishes", "what was that loud bang, you should check the basement?". My output has completely crashed.

My friends all had kids and moved to the exurbs, so I've seen them a couple times since the whole thing started. I'm genuinely losing my mind from lack of social interaction.

I want to go back to the office so badly.

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