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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#181

Post by shaunpersad »

rubyfan wrote: post #129

I’m convinced that I’m weird somehow because since the start of the pandemic I have very little in person engagement with anyone outside my wife and kids… and I’m totally OK. Most people I know are either seriously bothered by lack of in person interaction or they’ve said screw it and are living a pre-pandemic life now. Like people were depressed or otherwise in bad mental places and I’ve been overall better througho…

You're not weird. There are dozens of us! Dozens! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18419378

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

#182

Post by teirce »

dleslie wrote: post #18

Working from home means I get to see my wife and children for more hours of the day. It also means that I get to choose when I will allow myself to be interrupted, rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted. I've been working from home for over six years. I never want to return to the office. I will change careers before I return to a software development office.

> Working from home means I get to see my wife and children for more hours of the day.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a strong correlation between the number of people (partner,family,kids) and how much people enjoy working from home.

I live alone in my apartment and going the first year or two of the pandemic seeing people I know once every few weeks drove me mad.

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

#184

Post by georgeburdell »

Perhaps for selfish reasons, I prefer to work in an office. First off, I have small children who have a nanny, and so I get interrupted a lot at home (my office at work is relatively quiet). Second, I live in the Bay Area so I theorize that my compensation is implicitly tied to a need to go into the office.

The fact that my work is not WFH has the side effect of limiting the talent pool to those who can move to the Bay Area. I bet there are thousands of people world-wide who could do my job better and for less pay, if only they could immigrate to the U.S. I expect that paying Bay Area compensation for remote roles is transitory.

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

#185

Post by dmoy »

erik_seaberg wrote: post #168
rektide wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted. I think of the benefit of the office being the opportunity for continuous partial attention. It affords the ability to be aware of what's going on about you, to learn & see a lot more. But one has to be attentive-ish, have some receptivity, to benefit from this. I feel like I can work without interruption in an office. But it's a ris…

I don’t believe I can write useful software while following someone else’s conversation. Certainly my best work has been after everyone else left and I suddenly realize I’m hungry or thirsty or uncomfortable and haven’t really moved for hours.

> Certainly my best work has been after everyone else left and I suddenly realize I’m hungry or thirsty or uncomfortable and haven’t really moved for hours.

Exactly this.

The "hmm I should get lunch WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S THREE O'CLOCK? CRAP" days are the most productive.

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

#186

Post by techsin101 »

Working from home can get to a point where you feel like you are stuck in some time loop and going crazy, but it's better to take time off and go around and be in different env, than to be required to commute daily and sit in meetings you have no say or impact on you at least with remote you can mute yourself and relax.

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

#187

Post by MattGaiser »

dymk wrote: post #106
MattGaiser wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in my case, praise has often been given out based on time of work rather than work. I am a hard worker because I send 2AM emails (which I may have scheduled in advance to give that impression).

Does "praise" mean "cash" or "promotion" (and if so, does "promotion" mean "more cash")? If not, why would you care about praise?

Benefit of the doubt if something takes longer than I estimate or if I decide to casually take an afternoon off to go talk to my aunt.

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

#188

Post by rendall »

alecbz wrote: post #151
twayt wrote: post #111

I find that I get more emotionally jerked around working in person and can insulate myself from it working from home. Coworker acts curt to me as though they are superior and more productive than me? Rage ensues and I get an ungodly amount of work done. Come across an inspiring/encouraging coworker or get recognition for something? I feel great and feel like I take more risks. Coworker types super loud or acts incons…

Totally just my 0.02, but this reads a little like "opting out" instead of addressing issues interacting with other humans. Like yeah, humans are sometimes great, sometimes make you feel not great, sometimes are genuinely bad. I think life is learning to address and navigate all of that.

Speaking as someone who has at times felt the same as OP, some people's empathy or emotional reactivity is just amped up higher than average for whatever reason. You can argue that they shouldn't, or mustn't, or should do something else, but navigating all of that is simply more distracting and exhausting for some than others.

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

#189

Post by tmmx »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #137
dleslie wrote: post #18

Working from home means I get to see my wife and children for more hours of the day. It also means that I get to choose when I will allow myself to be interrupted, rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted. I've been working from home for over six years. I never want to return to the office. I will change careers before I return to a software development office.

> It also means that I get to choose when I will allow myself to be interrupted, rather than sitting in an open concept office and being _continually_ interrupted. This is extremely situational. When I was in a larger house and had no kids, WFH was an easy way to avoid interruptions. Moving to a smaller house (more expensive city) and having kids flipped the situation around. Avoiding interruptions at home was extrem…

When I want to focus, I pause slack notifications. Slack provide a way to still send it, but in my workplace people tend to respect that setting unless it is a real emergency.

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

#190

Post by ChuckMcM »

When I first came to the Bay Area I was thrilled that California law stated unequivocally that I could work on, and profit by, my own stuff on my own time and equipment. I exploited that law by consulting on other projects while I worked for Intel.

But what I discovered was that since I had made "home" as much an office as "work" I didn't have anywhere to go that wasn't "work." That was very stressful for me since sometimes you really do need to get away.

After that experience I became much more judicious about working from home. A trick I used to help maintain mental sanity was to "set up" a home office for doing work when I needed/wanted to work from home, but then taking it down when I was done. That it wasn't there was the important bit in allowing me to not get stressed out about it.

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