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

37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

sciencedirect.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 410 posts

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#241

Post by thinkharderdev »

Adraghast wrote: post #100
mwattsun wrote: post #67

5 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…

> I assume that some people are just very lonely and need face to face Anecdata from Hacker News suggests this is true. A lot of lonely young men here freely admit their coworkers are the only people they regularly interact with in-person, and remote work takes that away from them.

I think a lot of it is the exact circumstances of you office as well. All else equal I think I would actually prefer working in an office assuming that:

1. It felt like a "real" space (i.e. not a beige cubical farm)

2. Was not excessively loud

3. I had a comfortable chair/workspace

4. I could walk there from my house in under 20 minutes

5. There was no dress code

6. There was nobody there who I found deeply annoying and also insisted on interacting with me regularly

And I think a lot of people (especially young people who live in cities close to where they work) actually do have something approximating that situation.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#242

Post by 29083011397778 »

hn_version_0023 wrote: post #227
silisili wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Seems not too long before people started really hating offices, offices started being designed to make you hate them. Open offices, no walls, 'island concept' which sounds all fun and tropical until you learn it just means you no longer even have your own desk. If companies want people back in offices, make them enticing. Have perks! Imagine everyone getting their own room, with a nice desk and maybe small couc…

My wishlist is: 1. Kill the panopticon (open offices) 2. Employers should bear the cost of ALL commuting The panopticon is truly dystopian, and whenever I’m in one, the hair on the back of my neck never lays flat. I feel watched (because I am) and it isn’t pleasant. Forcing employers to bear the costs of commuting would really up-end things. We’d all be working from home really damned quickly , and I suspect there’d…

You think removing a massive cost of ownership will reduce America's useage of large SUVs and pickups?

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#243

Post by long_time_gone »

Adraghast wrote: post #100
mwattsun wrote: post #67

5 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…

> I assume that some people are just very lonely and need face to face Anecdata from Hacker News suggests this is true. A lot of lonely young men here freely admit their coworkers are the only people they regularly interact with in-person, and remote work takes that away from them.

Interesting how you automatically assigned a gender. My wife has worked from home for 4 years and can't wait to get back into an office. I like to think that some people just have different preferences.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#244

Post by UncleOxidant »

mwattsun wrote: post #67

5 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…

> 5 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet

It's hard to imagine now how this could be done without the internet and a distributed vcs like git.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#245

Post by zozbot234 »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #88
mwattsun wrote: post #67

5 of us wrote Microsoft Works for the Macintosh while working at home from 1984 to 1992. Without the internet, we got together as needed to merge code, usually once a month, but sometimes once a week. We talked on the phone. We went to Microsoft once in awhile. It was ideal and worked very well. Maybe it was just our personalities that made it work, but I am astonished that any programmer would rather go into the off…

This is fascinating to me! How did you manage to merge code in the 80s? What tools were available? Did you have three-way merge tools or did you do it more manually? Or rather did you talk frequently and ensure that you weren't stepping in each other's files? How did you make changes to shared APIs?

> What tools were available?

"My Briefcase", in Windows. It was like cloud shared storage, but using removable media.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#246

Post by cwmoreiras »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #206
cwmoreiras wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a problem for the company to figure out, not the commuter.

That sounds like it would result in the company allocating more of the budget towards people who commute more than to people who commute less. As someone that commutes less, it means I get less pay, for no benefit to me.

The benefit to you is that you don't have to commute as far!

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#247

Post by ecshafer »

thinkharderdev wrote: post #241
Adraghast wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume that some people are just very lonely and need face to face Anecdata from Hacker News suggests this is true. A lot of lonely young men here freely admit their coworkers are the only people they regularly interact with in-person, and remote work takes that away from them.

I think a lot of it is the exact circumstances of you office as well. All else equal I think I would actually prefer working in an office assuming that: 1. It felt like a "real" space (i.e. not a beige cubical farm) 2. Was not excessively loud 3. I had a comfortable chair/workspace 4. I could walk there from my house in under 20 minutes 5. There was no dress code 6. There was nobody there who I found deeply annoying…

Being able to walk there from my house in under 20 minutes is a big thing for me. If I am a 1-3 miles walk/bike ride, I would go to the office all of the time. Assuming its a safe comfortable commute. I hate driving in rush hour personally, any amount of distance.

Also feeling like a real place is nice. I actually don't mind a cubical, though an office would be nicer. I really hate open office though, and open office makes me never want to go in. If it felt like a cozy coffee shop, or a college campus that would be ideal.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#248

Post by bboylen »

commandlinefan wrote: post #151
WYepQ4dNnG wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but also very sad. I am lucky enough to have a lovely wife, kids and just enough good friends. And that's all I care about. I don't really miss at all the office, let alone my co-workers. Working remote is just what I need, and I am way more productive.

> lucky enough to have a lovely wife Me too, but I met my wife through work (we didn't work together, but I met her through a lady I did work with). I think a lot of young people - not just men - are hoping to interact with potential romantic partners through work.

This is true historically but the culture does seem to be moving away from the idea of it being OK to date coworkers. I know a lot of younger people (like me) would be quite nervous about the prospect of coming onto someone in the workplace. Even with good intentions there is potential for miscommunication or making someone uncomfortable.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#249

Post by chasd00 »

lbriner wrote: post #72
kreeben wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not?

We are going to have a massive problem with taking on juniors, particularly younger people. Without many people visiting the office, there is a lack of banter, encouragement, confidence building. Imagine you were 16 and your introduction to the world of work was sitting in your own bedroom! Honestly, I don't know how we deal with it unless we create a schedule where there has to be certain people in the office on cer…

young people are very well acclimated to social isolation and only "connecting" using online means. The younger generations are more mentally equipped (or handicapped) to wfh than any other.

Re: 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at home

#250

Post by Apocryphon »

spookthesunset wrote: post #148
lbriner wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the mayor also cares about local businesses that get their income from city workers as well as the transport networks which need all the money they can get. Maybe they care about the tourist buzz from a busy city or the saftey in numbers. You don't always have to assume the worst of someone just because they are powerful.

Don’t forget the suburban sprawl this sort of stuff will cause. Eating further and further into our natural habitats building giant houses for wealthy, privileged tech workers.

The solution to that is improved urban planning, not to reduce the demand for housing.
Post reply on HN