Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 371 posts

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

#221

Post by klodolph »

Salgat wrote: post #210
ketzo wrote: post #13

At the start of the pandemic, I knew I would miss working with people in person, but thought I would be totally great with WFH. Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy. It's a motivational thing for me. I thrive on solving problems for and with other people, and there's an "out of sight, out of mind" effect for me over zoom. It's just harder for m…

I think the biggest issue is that people are lonely due to the pandemic, and are conflating that with working from home. You can have a strong social life and working from home. For others, unfortunately the only socialization they can get is forced interaction with coworkers at the office.

Conflating those concepts may be appropriate here, for many people. I don't think it's only a matter of how strong your social life is outside of work, or a matter of people leaning on forced socialization at work. That's an overly reductive look at it.

I would like to talk about it but I'm kind of sick of seeing the discussion framed in term of people who only socialize at the office.

The fact is, in the office we have many in-person interactions spread throughout the day. Socialization isn't fungible, we can't simply replace interactions in one context with interactions in another context and assume people will be happy with it.

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

#222

Post by tastysandwich »

I'm torn between the two.

On the one hand, I feel like working in the office makes me more productive and is better for my mental health. It's a change of environment, and I'm working around colleagues who keep me a bit more focussed (less likely waste 30 minutes watching YouTube if a coworker is right beside you).

Also, on the hour-long commute I tend to read, which is terrific. So many of these books have changed my life for the better. When I'm at home I find I have too many distractions. You make a cup of tea, the cat meows and you let her in, she meows again and you let her out. You decide to read outside. Then you realise it's too sunny and grab a hat. Before you know it you've burnt through 30 minutes.

On the other hand, since working from home during the pandemic I've filled the time saved with a lifelong dream of mine - learning to play guitar! I'm absolutely loving it.

So a mix is a pretty good compromise

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

#223

Post by wutwutwutwut »

TOMDM wrote: post #171
Dobrila wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if a candidate said that, how would that influence your hiring decision?

Would probably depend on the role and team culture right? There are good and bad fits for that attitude

When is not wanting to have conversations with colleagues unless there's a prearranged meeting a good fit?

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

#224

Post by ketzo »

JohnBooty wrote: post #194
ketzo wrote: post #13

At the start of the pandemic, I knew I would miss working with people in person, but thought I would be totally great with WFH. Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy. It's a motivational thing for me. I thrive on solving problems for and with other people, and there's an "out of sight, out of mind" effect for me over zoom. It's just harder for m…

But man, I miss people. For me, working from home gives me more time to spend with family and friends, so that's been the tradeoff and it has mostly worked. I also get more exercise/sunlight. Even if it's just a walk with the dogs during lunch, or mowing the lawn. Although, it's doubly tough when things aren't good at home. Because during those times, the office provided some solace. But overall it's been positive. H…

Yeah, my work-life balance has been great as a result, and I've been able to spend a lot of time with friends and my partner. So that's something I'm actually very grateful for.

But at some point I realized that I really missed work people! I got into software engineering because I love talking about engineering with other really smart engineers. Took me a while to realize that was what was missing.

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

#225

Post by erik_seaberg »

catsarebetter wrote: post #44
User23 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open concept offices are awful. As someone who is more vulnerable to interruptions than most, being able to control my work environment is a godsend. Everyone is different, but my ideal work environment is library quiet. No music and certainly no overheard conversations or people constantly walking past. I’ve never worked in an office that was willing to provide such an environment, but I have it at home.

Totally agree, used to wear enormous noise cancelling headphones but I would have to pay music to completely block out noise from the office, but then there would be loud music playing in my ears. Real challenge there

Noise cancelling responds to droning, repetitive sounds, while a big chunk of plastic responds to everything. Not to sound like a shill, but there’s an old headphone model (HD-280 pro) I’ve always sworn by, and I was pleased to see that same model was in Google’s “stuff” catalog for any employee to request.

Another colleague reused his earmuffs and earplugs from the gun range, but I think most of those are pretty uncomfortable.

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

#226

Post by CephalopodMD »

WFH and prefer WFH with one major caveat. I've said this before, but really, 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 came back in for full time (I had interned there with my own office as well), 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 gone. I hated this change of scenery immediately, but I guess I got used to it after a few years.

Working from home took me back to that zen. I didn't even know how much I had missed it - how much I needed my own space to feel productive.

I've since changed jobs, and I kinda dread having to go to the open office nightmare once this is all over. The facilities are way nicer than my last job, but it's still an open office.

Open. Office. As. Implemented. In. Our. Industry. Is. Stupid.

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

#228

Post by croh »

tastysandwich wrote: post #222

I'm torn between the two. On the one hand, I feel like working in the office makes me more productive and is better for my mental health. It's a change of environment, and I'm working around colleagues who keep me a bit more focussed (less likely waste 30 minutes watching YouTube if a coworker is right beside you). Also, on the hour-long commute I tend to read, which is terrific. So many of these books have changed m…

Agree with this. And as day passes, pressure gets built to finish work and if you don't, you can't enjoy remaining day & night. At least with office setup, once you leave it physically, you also leave it mentally but with work from home setup that is not possible. Still it is good to have wfh option for emergencies. so yeah mix of both.

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

#230

Post by rzz3 »

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…

Everything you just says is a great advocacy of a hybrid environment. I’m diametrically opposed to ever working in an office again. I’ve never worked in an office where I felt comfortable. I’m wonderful at focusing from my home office and my productivity nearly doubled. I’m literally never going back. That said, it doesn’t work for you it seems, and that matters too. Hybrid is the answer, as one size does not fit all.
Post reply on HN