Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#81

Post by tlear » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

akhmatova wrote: post #45

nimajneb wrote: post #15

I don't know if this answers your question, but my employer (engineering firm) just announced last Friday that starting July 5th being in the office Tue-Thu is mandatory. Then Sept 5th Mon-Fri is mandatory. Pre-covid there were very very few remote positions at my employer, we are going back to that I guess. I've been going in Mon-Fri anyways, so it doesn't really effect me.

My employer just announced last Friday that starting July 5th being in the office Tue-Thu is mandatory. Then you need to remind your employer that your presence on the team is not "mandatory", but rather optional. In the form of the 2-week notice you give once you have found a much better job that also respects your health and sanity.

It really depends where you live and work. I used to work for a startup few years back that was 15minutes bike ride from my apartment. So MUCH better for my mental health. Now I am remote with a company on a different continent, it is good and I have a home office but sometimes I just get my laptop and go to a coffee shop for no reason. Might get a permanent desk at a coworksping space. Even with dedicated space at home going outside makes me happier

Now if I had your typical 1 hours each way driving commute.. no way I am going to the office

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#82

Post by gkop » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #69

CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, a neutral wall in my 600 sq ft place? I have such limited layout options to put my desk, that would be an additional challenging constraint. Virtual backgrounds are popular in my workspace, and I think a more general solution to the issue. I'm not a huge fan of virtual backgrounds, they make things even more artificial, anyhow I would use them occasionally but for the fact that Google Meet does not support them…

A simple blur can be a good compromise if you want to hide your room. Although personally I just make sure it's tidy and allow people to see it.

Yep, simple blur seems most classy, thanks for mentioning that as it wasn't directly implied by "virtual background". To be clear, Google Meet does not support a simple blur on Firefox. (I could use a virtual camera, but as I mentioned in another comment.. I don't care enough)

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#83

Post by mech422 » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

idiotsecant wrote: post #68

recvonline wrote: post #27

I was looking for new work this year and found a company which hired me for +40% salary increase and remote/timezone free. Personally I have young kids and therefore prefer flexible times, fully remote etc. Being in Europe, I think fully remote is getting embraced. It‘s the third company where I get US level salary plus all the benefits (30 days vacation, unlimited sick leave etc). I see a strong trend from young fam…

I think remote work is definitely a double-edged sword. For the time being wage pressure is high but as large organizations find out that they can recruit talent that would have accepted a little bit less and done just as good of a job they will begin to lower wages for these remote positions, which will lead to people being willing to accept a little less, which will lead to lower wages, etc until an equilibrium is…

I heard the same thing when off-shoring was the rage, and salaries are higher then ever for tech workers. I also suspect that with declining birth rates in 'industrial' countries, the market for tech workers could get even more competitive as people retire.

I've also been fully remote for 20 years now, and it just gets easier/better all the time...

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#84

Post by iso1631 » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #56

idiotsecant wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can people really tell anything about your living situation from your teams call background, though? Just aim your camera at a neutral wall and you're good to go. You could be living in a giant palace or a inner city slum and nobody would know the difference.

Heh, a neutral wall in my 600 sq ft place? I have such limited layout options to put my desk, that would be an additional challenging constraint. Virtual backgrounds are popular in my workspace, and I think a more general solution to the issue. I'm not a huge fan of virtual backgrounds, they make things even more artificial, anyhow I would use them occasionally but for the fact that Google Meet does not support them…

If you're concerned just get a roll up picture or greenscreen for your background

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#85

Post by akhmatova » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

bityard wrote: post #73

akhmatova wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My employer just announced last Friday that starting July 5th being in the office Tue-Thu is mandatory. Then you need to remind your employer that your presence on the team is not "mandatory", but rather optional. In the form of the 2-week notice you give once you have found a much better job that also respects your health and sanity.

I think you missed the part where the parent said that they were going into the office _by choice_ every day anyway. You are demanding that they quit just because the company doesn't make it optional? There seems to be a hard-core "WFH or nothing" contingent here that refuse to acknowledge that a great many people prefer and even thrive working in a typical office environment.

It was a suggestion, not a demand. Anyone who reads stay/quit advice they read on the internet as a "demand" has bigger problems than I can help them with.

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#86

Post by timr » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:15 PM UTC

terminatornet wrote: post #74

timr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> decrease worker efficiency by encouraging repeated Covid exposure leading to both more short term leave due to sick employees and less effective employees in the long run due to long Covid PSA: this is wild speculation. There's no definition of what "long covid" is, and there's certainly no evidence that it is made worse by getting Covid more than once. If anything, the opposite is true: we know that repeat infecti…

https://www.transtats.bts.gov/homedrillchart.asp 59,033 and 34,793 flights cancelled in 2019 and 2018 respectively according to the US department of transporation. In 2022, we're already at 76,776 flights cancelled and not even halfway through the year, so nearly the amount cancelled in 2018 and 2019 combined. I'm curious if there's anything different that's happening this year vs those other two that would account f…

> Probably just people out with colds.

That's a leap. My understanding is that airlines are affected by the same thing every other employer is seeing -- they can't hire. It might be exacerbated by the fact that airlines reduced/eliminated their training pipeline. For example:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/15/us-pilot-shortage-forces-air...

> The pandemic exacerbated a pilot shortage by slowing down training, hiring and creating a wave of early retirements.

> Airlines offered pilots early retirements to cut labor bills during the depths of the pandemic.

> The process to become airline-qualified in the U.S. is lengthy and expensive, making the barrier to entry high.

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#87

Post by mech422 » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #59

lefstathiou wrote: post #24

Early on (during Covid) I made the decision that remote work was not for our company (SAAS for financial services) and two years in have zero regrets about it. We are clear about our expectations so there are no surprises to employees and new hires (or we filter out people that want it). Most of our clients in financial services have reached the same conclusion. One of my clients at a large bulge bracket said “if the…

> if these people insist on not being in the office we may just outsource the job for a tenth of the comp Hah, they can go ahead and do that. In fact I encourage it because it makes me more money in the end. When the software falls apart due to shoddy practices, they'll learn a very hard lesson when coming back to reality and end up paying people like me double (at best) what they would've originally paid to fix the…

Having lived/worked thru the off shore craze, I've never heard a good outcome from it for a large company...

I know several startups/small companies in the 0-50 range that have had awesome outcomes - but nothing larger then that...Between time zones and cultural differences, it just doesn't seem to work for large groups.

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#88

Post by bcrosby95 » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #39

ketzo wrote: post #18

This doesn't quite answer your trend, but personal anecdote: I recently switched jobs, and as part of my job interview process, I was pretty firm about only looking for companies that were working at least part of the week in the office. I just really thrive on in-person work. Fast forward a few weeks... and I ended up taking a job with a startup that was fully remote. I loved their product, loved the founders, loved…

I'm happy for you! Out of curiosity, did your current housing situation provide the space for a comfortable and productive home office, or is this unexpected development putting pressure on your housing situation? (If you're part of a trend, that has implications for preferred housing layout and square footage. And, of course people in different housing situations should be expected to respond differently to fully-re…

I've been remote since I graduated from college about 17 years ago, and I didn't get a dedicated office until 8 years ago. Before then my computer desk was in my bedroom. Sometimes a rather small bedroom.

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#89

Post by loudmax » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

bityard wrote: post #73

akhmatova wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My employer just announced last Friday that starting July 5th being in the office Tue-Thu is mandatory. Then you need to remind your employer that your presence on the team is not "mandatory", but rather optional. In the form of the 2-week notice you give once you have found a much better job that also respects your health and sanity.

I think you missed the part where the parent said that they were going into the office _by choice_ every day anyway. You are demanding that they quit just because the company doesn't make it optional? There seems to be a hard-core "WFH or nothing" contingent here that refuse to acknowledge that a great many people prefer and even thrive working in a typical office environment.

I don't think I've ever seen an argument from the hardcore "WFH or nothing" contingent saying that nobody should be allowed to work in an office if that's what they prefer.

But I have seen arguments from the hardcore "Butts in chairs or nothing" contingent refusing to acknowledge that a great many people thrive outside a typical office environment and may be even more productive that way.

Re: Ask HN: How is the remote vs in-person trend looking?

#90

Post by jrochkind1 » Mon, Jun 27, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #76

CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy for you! Out of curiosity, did your current housing situation provide the space for a comfortable and productive home office, or is this unexpected development putting pressure on your housing situation? (If you're part of a trend, that has implications for preferred housing layout and square footage. And, of course people in different housing situations should be expected to respond differently to fully-re…

I've worked remote for a long time. It's very common to see people working from their home bedrooms. First-time remote workers will often overthink their office, but seasoned remote workers don't really care. It's worth taking a minute to tidy up the room in your background, but nobody is going to be judging you for not having a dedicated home office. > I'm also a manager. My workspace needs for desk layout, equipmen…

Oh, I wouldn't think anyone would judge me, especially these days (plus there's blurred backgrounds etc).

But a separate room I use for work helps me keep work separate from personal life when working from home. If I didn't have/couldn't afford that, I'd at least have a separate desk I use only for work. If not that either... it would be harder for me.