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Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

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Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#711

Post by marcosdumay »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #631
lolinder wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This argument is an appeal to authority that I just can't buy. You don't have to be a stupid person to succumb to your own biases, you just have to be human, and plenty of executives make irrational decisions based on their subjective feelings.

FWIW, I read GP's comment as more an elaboration of incentive structures rather than an appeal to authority. You're still right that plenty of people make irrational decisions under whatever incentive structure they're in, but I think that the steelman version of GP's argument would probably go something like: If we see a large % of companies going full-RTO, then maybe there's something to be said for the bet that RT…

It's quite safe to say that whatever companies do next year or the following one is purely due to executives bias or lemming effects.

If there is a very strong impact on competitiveness, maybe we will notice in about a decade, if companies don't collude in stopping it.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#712

Post by aworks »

watwut wrote: post #634
65 wrote: post #342

I'm in my 20s. I live alone in a city where I don't know anyone. Remote work destroyed my mental health. All I wanted was to be able to go into an office and talk to a real life person. I would go weeks at a time not talking to a single person in real life. I don't think people understand the plight of the young office worker until they've experienced the torture of solitary confinement. Day in, day out. All alone. I…

> Day in, day out. All alone. I don't have a girlfriend, friends, or a life in this city. You expect to find a girlfriend on the job? I don't mean it as a snark. But in office means that work and communiting takes even more of your life. Unless she comes from the job, which is unlikely in male dominated profession, being with team won't get you girlfriend.

I met my wife and all my previous girlfriends at work. Only one was a software engineer but they were all smart...

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#713

Post by christophilus »

ttul wrote: post #60

Employer here. We had a fancy brick and timber office. It was beautiful and centrally located. I let the lease expire in 2021 after everyone went remote for the pandemic. There has been no sign of any decay in productivity. It is true that hanging out in person develops a sense of human connection that feels good. But is that needed for effective work? I’m not so sure. Brainstorming and creative collaboration activit…

Regarding brainstorming, I was reading “Quiet” recently, and the author quoted a study that indicated that brainstorming worked better on almost all metrics when it was done in isolation, and then the group discussed the ideas afterwards.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#714

Post by missedthecue »

downrightmike wrote: post #221
skhameneh wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the environment. If your team is open to casual conversations and comfortable going off topics, then this likely isn't an issue. But, if your team is very metrics focused, you may not see levels of casual conversation that build rapport and build on ideas that come up on conversation. Sometimes a casual conversation is all it needs to hook a random thought into successful action. I like having casual talks…

You need to get a life and actual friends. Coworkers are NOT friends.

I see this all the time on HN. Why not? I like my coworker friends.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#715

Post by thisarticle »

nmeofthestate wrote: post #526
thisarticle wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are reasons people work together in offices and not from their homes, there are economies of scale, and there are efficiencies that happen. Such as?

Well you see, at home everyone has their own fridge, but in the office there's a single fridge for 50 people. And it's got free drinks in it to make up for the extra (say) hour a day spent travelling to get there.

Oh boy. I can save $.50 after spending $5 to get to work and $5 getting home in my car. Yay.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#716

Post by thisarticle »

junofan wrote: post #299
moneywoes wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not have the ceo in latam as well? What’s the US advantage?

Access to capital.

So… have the capital moved. Can’t be that difficult and VCs will make even more money. Win win.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#717

Post by jxidjhdhdhdhfhf »

Johnny555 wrote: post #313

At my company we have the worst of both works with "hybrid office". Employees need to come to the office 3 days a week, each team picks one day for the entire team to be in-office, the employees can choose the other days. The team day is mostly consumed with in-person meetings with others on your team, so no individual work gets done that day. The other in-office days are either spent heads down with headphones tryin…

Or just provide actual offices to people, the kind with doors that shut. Make the office actually an attractive place to work.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#718

Post by pxue »

TomSwirly wrote: post #607
pxue wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C'mon that's just bullshit. Once working, you spend 8h a day with a group of people. It's by far the easiest way to make friends since the needed repetition of making contact (a minimum requirement for friendship) is already solved by going to work together. Making friends as an adult is hard. Work is the easiest shortcut in establishing meaningful relationships with strangers. Edit: addressing some of the comments b…

> It's by far the easiest way to make friends But I generally have nothing in common with the people I work with. I'm friends with people who share my world outlook, my moral and philosophical and aesthetic views, and there's no correlation between that and working with people. > Friend just means someone you have established a platonic relationship with right here right now. NO, that's not friend, FFS! That's an acq…

OK. i'll give another example.

I played WoW for a good 8 years everyday through high school and college, became great friends with some of the people I played the game with.

When I finished school, I hung up my WoW character and said good bye to my friends in the game.

Although I no longer keep in touch with any of them, those were some of the best 8 years of my life and I am truly fond of the memories I made playing the game and working together.

Is that not the same as a work place?

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#719

Post by jxidjhdhdhdhfhf »

josefrichter wrote: post #2

Not an employer. But I believe most employees simply put in less hours when working from home, and most employers aren't very good at rewarding people for their results, not their hours.

I've definitely been on the other side of this. If I have a 5pm train home to catch and a 45 minute ride to disconnect from work, I'm not likely to log on later and get more work done from home. With remote, there is at least the temptation to continue working longer, especially if I have a lot of work to get done or a deadline.

Re: Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office?

#720

Post by spacedcowboy »

Gigachad wrote: post #461
herghost wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but I have to disagree. I'm happily married, children, dog, several distinct groups of friends, great job at a great company, lovely house in a nice village, etc, etc, etc. I worked from home for about 4 years as a freelancer and found it incredibly isolating (but lucrative, so endured it) but finally had enough and get a permanent job back in an office. This was 5 weeks before what would be the first of sever…

You have to go back to the office. All my friends and coworkers who have tried it haven’t gone back to remote work. People weren’t meant to sit alone all day.

I am very happy not going back to the office. Perhaps I'm a sociopath, I don't know, but I would rather retire than return, and my boss is well aware. My company is on "mandatory" 2-days-a-week in the office, but I haven't been asked to return, and still sit in my shed. Which is awesome.
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