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The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

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Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#411

Post by Salgat »

brandmeyer wrote: post #395
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't say anything about preference, they merely said output. Does people preferring to work from the office mean they are so much more productive so as to make up that cost? That's the question that we're faced with, and if the last few years are any indication, the answer seems to be "No".

This is definitely not universal. Our team switched to a soft hybrid model whereby we almost always work from the office, but use WFH for deliveries, snow days, kid sick days, etc. We did that as soon as the vaccine became widely available and it completely turbocharged our productivity. We delivered more in the first three months after coming back than the preceding year of fully-remote work.

That sounds like a red flag for a poor remote work culture. Our company saw improvements in productivity going full remote.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#412

Post by greedo »

tokai wrote: post #168
iso1210 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My office is between my kitchen and the bathroom so the commute isn't exactly onerous However when the sun is shining I'll take a 20 minute walk a few times a day through the country, or I'll take an 40 minute long walk to a nice cafe for lunch. If it's pissing it down then I won't. Working from home doesn't stop me from choosing to go for a walk, or run, or bike ride, or horse ride, before starting work.

Is it not possible for you to go for a walk from the office?

My office is next other office buildings, with a few scraggly trees planted in the parking lot. Not exactly a great area to enjoy nature.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#413

Post by robomartin »

fluoridation wrote: post #359
dljsjr wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people don't have a choice, in Florida during the summer time if you aren't running your AC full-time the humidity and heat will ruin your home. It stays in the 80's even overnight (both temp. Fº and Relative Humidity %).

Sounds similar to the climate here in Buenos Aires, maybe slightly warmer. To my knowledge people generally don't keep AC's running when they're not around, in the summer. I've never heard of a building being ruined by environmental humidity.

Homes in Buenos Aires don’t have hollow walls made from wood and flimsy drywall panels. One good plumbing leak can destroy a house in the US.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#414

Post by jdrc »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #317
fartcannon wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll be nice when the serf mentality of finding meaning in your job is finally gone from the world.

> when the serf mentality of finding meaning in your job is finally gone from the world Emperors, scientists and other productive members of the elite have done this since age immemorial. If anything, the average person finding their work meaningful (versus simply toil) is a recent phenomenon.

Those are 0.001% of the population. Most people work because they have to

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#416

Post by brandmeyer »

taylodl wrote: post #407
brandmeyer wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely not universal. Our team switched to a soft hybrid model whereby we almost always work from the office, but use WFH for deliveries, snow days, kid sick days, etc. We did that as soon as the vaccine became widely available and it completely turbocharged our productivity. We delivered more in the first three months after coming back than the preceding year of fully-remote work.

That's interesting - and quite the opposite of what I've personally experienced and heard. Are you saying then that when the lockdown happened and your team was sent home your productivity tanked? What happened? What wasn't it addressed? What's caused your team's productivity to soar now?

We're building a highly specialized product (GNSS Radiooccultation). Its specialized enough that we have to rely on hiring people with generic skills and then developing the specialized skills to work in the domain. In essence, we are relying on internal on-the-job training to build up our team. Remote work failed for us for the same reasons that remote education has been failing everywhere: 1/4 to 1/2 of the job is adult professional education.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#417

Post by taylodl »

brandmeyer wrote: post #416
taylodl wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting - and quite the opposite of what I've personally experienced and heard. Are you saying then that when the lockdown happened and your team was sent home your productivity tanked? What happened? What wasn't it addressed? What's caused your team's productivity to soar now?

We're building a highly specialized product (GNSS Radiooccultation). Its specialized enough that we have to rely on hiring people with generic skills and then developing the specialized skills to work in the domain. In essence, we are relying on internal on-the-job training to build up our team. Remote work failed for us for the same reasons that remote education has been failing everywhere: 1/4 to 1/2 of the job is…

Makes sense. Seems like we can generalize this to if you're working in a niche area requiring lots of training to bring new hires up to speed then perhaps WFH isn't the best of environments? Going forward maybe your team needs to think through how to best do your onboarding. Maybe you would need to get together for a couple weeks (or have "high touch" time) and then go back to primarily working from home? It's something to think about.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#418

Post by greedo »

wmkn wrote: post #109

Looking at the comments and article, I almost feel like a freak for actually not minding going back to the office. My commute to the office is about a 10 mins walk - maybe that’s the difference with many others here. Either way, I like the separation between work and home. I also believe that online meetings and chat are not a great substitute for actually talking to people, especially when you are building something…

The thing about meetings is that it's increasingly rare to have all parties in one physical location. Maybe for very small software shops, but even then, that's going to hurt the business in the long run in terms of recruiting top talent. Any company that expects all of their IT staff to be local is foolish. Even Apple, notorious for not allowing remote work is hedging. It's simply a fact of 21st Century IT employment now. Whether it's WFH or remote offices, you'll have people spread out across different regions, and you'll need to accommodate this in your meetings.

I have a friend who's entire company is remote. Employees in the multiple states, as well as multiple overseas companies. Extremely successful, top tier company in his field. This is the model for most tech companies for the rest of this century.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#419

Post by marcosdumay »

afiori wrote: post #268
Spooky23 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 propertie…

Do we actually know if it has any effect at all?

Locking your door looks more like an historical artifact from the time the police wasn't ready available for policing the neighborhood of normal people.

Re: The worst part of working from home is now haunting reopened offices

#420

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jdrc wrote: post #414
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when the serf mentality of finding meaning in your job is finally gone from the world Emperors, scientists and other productive members of the elite have done this since age immemorial. If anything, the average person finding their work meaningful (versus simply toil) is a recent phenomenon.

Those are 0.001% of the population. Most people work because they have to

> Those are 0.001% of the population. Most people work because they have to

That's the point. People finding or striving to find meaning in their work are far removed from the "serfs."

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