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

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

#301

Post by severino »

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…

> Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy.

That's the problem with people that doesn't want WFH: they also want their coworkers to work at the office so they don't "go crazy".

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

#302

Post by w_t_payne »

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'm the same.

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

#304

Post by raducu »

hansel_der wrote: post #300
cube00 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being able to stop by someone's desk and shoot the shit or see what they're working on So long as the other person feels the same way. One of the reasons I enjoy working from home is people can no longer wonder by and shatter my concentration because they're on a break. They can ping me in chat and I'll get to it in my break.

sure, obnoxious coworkers suck, but the 'oh noes, my concentration/flow' argument has been done to death imo. thanks to hybrid work, ppl can hide at home all they want. ps: pls also consider parents that get interrupted far more frequently when working from home.

> sure, obnoxious coworkers suck, but the 'oh noes, my concentration/flow' argument has been done to death imo.

But why do such people say such silly things if it's not true?

Do I think it's 100% true?

No, but it feels that way for them.

I f*king hate useless meetings where my time is wasted. I had a coleague express the same thing about a topic.

Business replied "well, we only had 4 meetings and at least 2 were really required so it was not excessive".

So who was right?

Everybody was right, business did not feel it was excessivez the developers felt it was excessive.

WFH works, 2 years of pandemic proved it does. Some people like it and some people don't, it's not about arguments but about preferences.

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

#305

Post by amir734jj »

I'm single unmarried and no kids. At the start of the pandemic I preferred working from home because it gave me flexibility to work on my part-time schoolwork and no more commuting to work.

However, my mom lives with me and recently she has been suffering from various health problems and I don't see myself going back to the office even now that I'm done with my schoolwork.

Stay healthy everyone.

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

#306

Post by rebeccaskinner »

I find almost everything about working from home nicer than going into an office. I have a larger desk, a more ergonomic workstation, better coffee and more options for lunch. I have a spouse who is also home and I live in an apartment building with sometimes noisy neighbors, but it’s still a better work environment for deep focus than sitting in an open office with hundreds of other people. The things you often lose with remote work, like opportunities for spontaneous collaboration and socializing with co-workers can be retained in a distributed team if the team wants to learn and puts in the effort.

For all of the benefits of working from home though, it’s really a tertiary concern for me when I prioritize remote work. Much more important are the larger set of opportunities I have not being limited to one particular region, and the greatly improved quality of life I get from not commuting.

As someone who lives outside of a tech hub, the value of having access to remote work can’t be understated. There is certainly enough work for a software developer in my city, and some of it pays well enough even if it’s a bit lower than what I can make doing remote work, but none of the companies locally are invested in technology as a business strategy. If I were restricted to local work I’d be stuck working as a cost center at a regressive thinking Big Corp adding features to a decades pile of technical debt. Even if I relocated to a tech hub, I’d be stuck with the startups in that particular city plus the companies large enough to open satellite offices around the world. As it is, working remotely I can stay in a town where I have friends and family and work at jobs that are interesting and let me stretch my skills wherever they happen to be.

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

#308

Post by raducu »

shashurup wrote: post #281
ketzo wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see what you're getting at, and I thought it was the issue for me, but I've come to realize that it's not a loneliness/lack of socialization thing. It's just that I really treasure in-person interactions with the people I am working on something with. I got into software engineering because I like solving problems, but also because I love solving problems with really smart people. Turns out that it feels really…

Interesting. I've never ask myself this question, but reading your post I have realized that I really don't like solving problem together in person with whiteboard etc. Realizing that this cannot be considered as a good trait from professional perspective I still cannot resist the bitter feeling of hours wasted that way. My memory definitely deceives me - it couldn't always be that bad, but I can't help the impressio…

> but reading your post I have realized that I really don't like solving problem together in person with whiteboard etc

I used to really hate it, now I just hate it -- like letting someone else sample my food.

I really hated it because of all of the pollitics and egos and because I was really passionate and brought a lot of insight to the table while 90% the time the others just brought their egos to the table.

Now I'm just jaded and I hate it because 90% of the time the solution really doesen't matter and people just waste eachothers times in endless meetings about details that really don't matter.

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

#309

Post by captainbland »

I mostly just despise commuting. It's a huge waste of time, money and energy and broadly pointless. Not to mention how uncomfortable and unreliable the situation can be regardless of mode of transport - your car can be stuck in gridlock, your train will be delayed/cancelled, your bus can get diverted...

I'd rather just go up sporadically for socials as and when they occur. If I could just walk into an office that would be great, but that's impractical because flats/houses in walking distance of major employment centres are really fucking expensive (or extremely poor quality for the price, you decide!). Not to mention that I have a partner who works in a completely unrelated field such that we wouldn't both be able to benefit from that arrangement.

And if everyone who works in an office or from home tried to benefit from living within walking distance of work, all at once, they wouldn't be able to because there's just not enough accommodation in those areas for it to work.

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

#310

Post by evandijk70 »

severino wrote: post #301
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…

> Now, I know that I badly need some amount of in-person time with my coworkers on a weekly basis, or I go crazy. That's the problem with people that doesn't want WFH: they also want their coworkers to work at the office so they don't "go crazy".

Yes, this is indeed the problem. I like the social aspects of work (work discussions, but also small talk) more than the work itself. Some people argue that that should not be their problem, and that as long as they get their work done, it's fine, which is probably true.

What I do know is that I did work from home for four months and I was miserable. Any job where the norm is at least three weeks at the office would be a huge plus for me, and if choosing between jobs that are mostly remote and jobs that are mostly in the office, I would take a paycut for the job that is mostly in the office. I realize it may be the other way around for other people and am really curious what the norm will be in the end.

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