LOL, I'm gonna need to go ahead and come in and sit in the office all day ... that'd be great.
It's more difficult for managers to low-level harass or intimidate employees who WFH, and it's auditable if they do.
The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
261–270 of 559 posts
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#262I love being back. The office is quite empty, but after two years of not being around 500 people every day I think it would be overwhelming to all be back together in one instant. I'm happy to be in that first wave of those returning. It's not just the office, it's the area I work in. I work downtown, I've forgotten how much I missed all of my favorite cafes, coffee shops, casual lunch places. They remember me too, i…
This is the best case. I took a remote job at a new company right after the lockdowns started in my area, and I've loved it but for the same reasons you love your office.
I live in a small town, on the main residential street in the old neighborhood. I have a family ( wife and two kids ) and we love our neighbors.
Before Covid, the commute was awful. The area where the office was located was insular. I watched my security cameras to keep up with my garden and family and feel connected to the world that mattered to me.
Now I'm able to walk in my garden and pull weeds between tickets/meetings instead of taking a lap around an exurban campus. I talk to my neighbors when they are out doing the same, or at the end of our days ( tag-team visiting Taco Tuesday gathering last night after the kids went to bed... )
Everyone is in different seasons, ( heck I might be looking for an office in a few years depending on the kiddos schedules, ) but community is the make-or-break factor.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How long until climate change or expensive gasoline forces people to just stay home?? Yes, this is just the beginning of the end. I would even say this is the beginning of the end for cities as we know them. I think 80-90% of all white collar jobs will leave cities and suburbia. This will really change the dynamics.
>Yes, this is just the beginning of the end. I would even say this is the beginning of the end for cities as we know them. I think 80-90% of all white collar jobs will leave cities and suburbia. This will really change the dynamics. This is actually a super interesting subject I haven't considered. What is the tenability of cities without fossil fuels? I think we do know, it's really the cities that collapse. Farmers…
Cities existed before oil. A city without cars can actually be a massive improvement
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not so easy. Changing jobs cannot be always the answer. In Europe there are not many "remote friendly" companies and also it's not that you will get a 20% pay rise every time you switch. On top, it is extremely hard to find software development jobs that pay around or above 100K. Most jobs are around 60-80K. A job change can also mean - inheriting someone else's problematic code base, new office politics and co…
>It is not so easy. Changing jobs cannot be always the answer. This. Everything you said is true about most of Europe, and even more so outside of major tech hubs. Companies call the shots and employees have to follow if they want to stay employed, because there are no good alternatives to go to, when all companies just act the same and pay the same. And most companies here don't give a damn about what their employee…
So, going with the Mexican dog analogy: the pain of working from the office is still less than the other scenario.
If I had two offers, and one was 20% less compensation plus WFH and the other +20% but working from office ONCE a day, I'd go for the WFH one.
Of course everybody's factors are different.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#265> Instead, a lot of people who have returned to their offices for some or all of the week have found that they’re the only ones there, or others are staying isolated in their offices, and all communication still happens over email, Slack, or Zoom. As a result, they’re spending time commuting to and from the office and dealing with all the hassles of in-person work but without any of the promised payoff.
Hahaha, like this wasn't true before the pandemic.
It sure as hell was for me, anyway.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#266I don't think there is anything else more illogical in modern society than waking up in building A, hopping in a car and fighting traffic for an hour to get to building B just to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours (perhaps with a few minimally productive meetings here and there), then commute back to building A 8 hours later. Building B sits empty for 16 hours a day while Building A sits empty for 10 with both be…
I was appalled to find our office lease was $20,000 a month. We could hire two FTEs for the price of that office, and we are not even in a premium space.
To your point about efficiency: I don't believe our office produces 2 FTE's worth of additional productivity across the whole org.
Leadership thinks it does, but assuming we acquire decent talent, that would be a net 10% increase in engineering. I don't believe the office could ever achieve a 10% increase in output.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#267"Emergency" WFH at my workplace have been slashed, everyone back in full since the start of the month. No reason publically given, been privately told "not about people like you, but some others have taken a 2 year vacation so management is fed up". I have emails from the CEO personally thanking me for my commitment in going way over what was expected when basically saving the institution during lockdown, so now I al…
I got anxiety reading this. I hope are able to find something else, even if (judging by your last sentence) you don't want to.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
"...not about people like you." My wife, who spent much of her career in corporate HR, would often note: "People who want to work, will work wherever you put them. People who don't want to work will find a way not to work wherever you put them." The people who used WFH as a "2 year vacation" are the same people who will wander the office engaging in random conversations and scrolling Facebook the remainder of the day…
It’s a level of friction that discourages the worst behaviors. You probably lock the front door of your house. The reality is, it’s not a meaningful thing in most cases, as a moderately in shape middle aged man, I could likely kick or pry it in in seconds. We do it because it keeps honest people out and increases the friction for the bad guys - kicking the door down in itself becomes a felony. (Burglary) Likewise, pe…
Since the door/lock analogy is widely used I would like to point that they have 2 other major advantages
1: they have the effect of warning you of unauthorized access: you can maybe break a door/window in a matter of minutes but you wont catch me napping nor you will be able to make it look like nobody broke in.
2: they keep unmotivated attackers out and can move the attacks off to you and on less protected properties.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Money doesn't solve every problem.
Money will solve the problems at the top of most people’s lists. By the time money stops solving problems you’re pretty well off.
In this context money will not solve hating your job, unless they pay you enough to retire.
Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Yes, this is just the beginning of the end. I would even say this is the beginning of the end for cities as we know them. I think 80-90% of all white collar jobs will leave cities and suburbia. This will really change the dynamics. This is actually a super interesting subject I haven't considered. What is the tenability of cities without fossil fuels? I think we do know, it's really the cities that collapse. Farmers…
> What is the tenability of cities without fossil fuels? I think we do know, it's really the cities that collapse. I walk everywhere. It's suburbs that collapse without fossil fuels. > How does public transit work? Generally speaking they are all diesel. Do we have a plan to spend a trillion $ converting this all to electric? Our subways have always been electric. Our street cars are electric, and have been for a cen…
>I walk everywhere. It's suburbs that collapse without fossil fuels.
I think shooting from the hip the suburbs hurt without fossil fuels for a short time. However, who are the people buying teslas it's rich folks in the suburbs. Who in 10 years will be driving the gasoline toyota econobox. It's the poor in the cities.
>Our subways have always been electric.
That doesnt cover everything. Not all cities have a subway. Not all subways are electric, the danger of frying people made a number of subways diesel. My understanding is that much of NYC subway is still diesel for various reasons.
> Our street cars are electric, and have been for a century, before that they were horse driven. All new buses are electric.
I'm not sure I follow. This is certainly not true in the general sense. Perhaps true where you are? Where are you?
>The consequences of NOT following these actions will horrific.
That's the big debate there. Climate change isn't even important to the discussion.
If we fast forward ~75 years. We know without question that we are going to run out of fossil fuels. If we do nothing to switch now, it's a certain collapse of society.
Clearly we must do something. The sooner we begin, the less painful it is in the long run.
However, we cannot ignore the consequences. We must address these issues.