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The Birth and Death of the Office

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Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#91

Post by heurisko »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #43
mahathu wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i like hanging out and talking to my coworkers, it's fun:)

Nowadays people will try and convince you you're weird and wrong if you say you enjoy seeing other people and not working in silence at home. I like the office environment. The only thing I don't like is the commute. This is why I think the future is local shared working spaces within towns so that they're in walking distance. I'd much rather have a 15 minute walk to work than a 30 minute drive.

I agree regarding shared working spaces. I had a look at a WeWork and it seemed like a good choice for a remote job.

The best I find it hybrid: a mixture of quiet home time and office meetings to talk with people.

I've never had a horrendous commute, however.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#92

Post by rinze »

synu wrote: post #77
osigurdson wrote: post #21

I 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’ve heard stories of people getting up, driving to the office, turning on their computers and sitting in zoom meetings all day from their desk. Who thinks this is a good idea?

Real estate investors.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#93

Post by distances »

glouwbug wrote: post #74
hexis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m happy to go to a bagel shop in my neighborhood.

I just get my own bagels from the grocery store. Society relying on bagel up-sellers is largely a symptom of office life

My sandwich café sells sandwiches with such a variety of fillings that me trying to replicate that would lead to a lot of wasted food. Everything from asparagus, pickled carrots and smoked cheese to avocado, broccoli and burrata.

Plus, there is something about just going to a breakfast where you can just people-watch the passersby without food preparation or cleanup.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#94

Post by ninesnines »

ciphol wrote: post #72
aylmao wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but I don't think the problem is so much "the office", but rather how poorly cities are designed in the USA; - The lack of mixed use zoning makes it just that much more likely that one live so far from their workplace. The choice is too often "a house far away from everything" or "a high-rise close to the noise, smells, and un-pretty sights of town" - There's so little space to build offices cities end up ha…

It is inherently impossible for most people to walk/bike to an office job, that is not due to a choice of urban design. The point of office jobs, and cities in general, is that agglomerating huge numbers of people lets you choose workers from a larger pool, which leads to more specialization and higher productivity. These huge numbers of people will need to live across a large area, so wherever you put the office, at…

I think it's important to note that it is inherently possible for most people to walk/bike to an office in the US. Many European cities (I live in Copenhagen, for example) make this an extremely viable option. Honestly, if you take your car or the metro to work, it is usually slower, more expensive, and you don't get a nice workout! But many European cities are designed in order to pedestrians to be able to get around easily. I've also lived in Boston, and the bike accessibility there could be possible, but right now its a bit too dangerous to make it a viable option for most people.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#95

Post by shlurpy »

88913527 wrote: post #33
999900000999 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is to keep local economies alive. It's not about us, it's about the guy who delivers lunch, or the girl who owns the bagel shop. However, offices are straight up abelist , if you have mobility issues it's absurdly hard to commute. Commuting isn't really needed here, if I was in a wheelchair I'd take this to court. Full tin foil hat time, if remote work was the norm the entire commercial real estate sector w…

Why can't I have lunch delivered to my house or visit the bagel shop from my house?

This is location specific, but one reason is because American cities were irreparably ruined by suburbanization.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#96

Post by ozim »

smackeyacky wrote: post #27

From the article: "He constructs an office in his flat and whiles away his days copying and amending letters – he even ‘commutes’ via a walk around the block every morning. He dies ‘happy’: at his desk, halfway through penning a final document." I've worked from home for the last 5 years (startup founder). It bled into everything at home. At one point during covid, half of the upstairs of this house was filled with e…

I do dress up for work from home and I keep my morning routine just like I would be going out from home because when I "just rolled out of the bed" I was just tired after one week and totally demotivated.

Dressing up is still casual, but I consciously pick t-shirt or polo shirt for the day.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#98

Post by brtkdotse »

aylmao wrote: post #44
osigurdson wrote: post #21

I 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 agree, but I don't think the problem is so much "the office", but rather how poorly cities are designed in the USA; - The lack of mixed use zoning makes it just that much more likely that one live so far from their workplace. The choice is too often "a house far away from everything" or "a high-rise close to the noise, smells, and un-pretty sights of town" - There's so little space to build offices cities end up ha…

> I agree, but I don't think the problem is so much "the office", but rather how poorly cities are designed in the USA;

It’s the same in Stockholm, despite laxer zoning laws. Companies tend to cluster in particular places and housing around them becomes more expensive. We chose to settle down in a less expensive (as in 50%) area but on the other hand I had at least 50 minutes one way commute to the nearest job cluster.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#99

Post by ozim »

burade wrote: post #15
esotericsean wrote: post #11

WFM is the greatest thing of my life.

As someone with lots of weird quirks, and who is very likely on the autism spectrum, working from home may have literally saved my career.

Isn't it long term doing more harm?

By no means I am on autism spectrum but interacting with people or having to deal with strangers takes my energy away.

Staying at home is nice - but then I build up so much social anxiety that when I really have to go out and do something with people it is just awful.

Putting myself out there for "training" helps so my issues don't build up.

Re: The Birth and Death of the Office

#100

Post by KronisLV »

Roritharr wrote: post #82
travisgriggs wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This mirrors my work experience over the years somewhat. I had a pretty unique experience as a college student when I was permitted to take one of the company’s HP 720 workstations with me two states away and work remotely. I used dial up and kermit to transfer files. It was very exciting at first. I did engineering up at campus, worked at home, consuming all of tiny toons and animaniacs while I worked on nuclear fue…

> I hated that I felt like I worked half time all the time. I could step out of work any little minute. But every little minute, work was only an “open up the laptop in the office” away. It was like being an on call dad and an on call worker simultaneously 100% of the time. This describes my current situation 100%. It feels both my duties at home and in the office are exaggerating themselves because I am seemingly av…

> It feels both my duties at home and in the office are exaggerating themselves because I am seemingly available to both of them all the time.

Personally, I just set boundaries and stick to them. When I'm working, I'm unavailable to anyone else at home (except for emergencies) and will help them with whatever they need later. When I'm done with my work, I'm unavailable to the team, no Skype/Slack/Teams on my phone (though they have my phone number for work emergencies).

Admittedly, this works because I do not have kids currently, given that healthily establishing borders then could be a lot more challenging, at least in a positive manner.

That said, if I do make the choice to work longer on something really important, I can do so at a decreased personal expense to myself (no being stuck in commute late in the day), after letting everyone know so that I may leave faster on another day to not burn out.

And taking breaks is suddenly also more healthy due to my own enjoyable surroundings and nobody to care about how I spend said breaks - lazing around the couch, going outside to spend some time with my pets or going for a walk in fresh countryside air (of course, applicable in a limited set of circumstances, depending on where you live).

The environmental impact is also a nice thing, though something that's less of an important point to me - the more noticeable benefit is the lack of having to waste my time commuting.

It all very much depends on what your life circumstances are, though, as well as what your personality is like, which environment is better for you etc.

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