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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?

#731

Post by jltsiren »

Volundr wrote: post #703
jltsiren wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, communism would work if everyone behaved like a good communist. They don't, because the default is acting in the interests of yourself and people near you rather than in the interests of the wider society. If you insist on communism, the whole society suffers, because most people take the default choice and do what's good for them. If social isolation during work is the default, people will have fewer friends,…

There is a certain irony to stating "Fundamentally, everything based on the idea that people should make different choices is doomed to fail." in an argument that everyone choosing WFH should either make different choices or be forced to. > If social isolation during work is the default, people will have fewer friends, because making friends takes more effort. I disagree. If these people were making friends by just b…

> I disagree. If these people were making friends by just being at work, they wouldn't be feeling so lonely right now. They would already have plenty of social connections that would not just evaporate because your not in the office anymore.

The issue is finding friends after relocating to a new area. That's easier for some and harder for others. With coworkers, you already have a pool of people to spend time with. Through them, you can meet other people and learn about activities that are available in the area.

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

#732

Post by squeaky-clean »

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.

Different folks, different strokes. I started working remote about 3 years before Covid and won't go back to the office.

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

#734

Post by giantg2 »

SpeedilyDamage wrote: post #700
giantg2 wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you even going on about? Discussing what to build isn't what we are talking about here. Mor to mention, my management doesn't talk about that. The business side does. And this topic is covered via meeting. Whether those meeting are remote or not do not matter. Now please stop trolling this topic.

So, a) we're not talking about how people decide what to build, as that has nothing to do with working remotely, b) managers aren't involved in determining either what to build or how well the plan to build something was executed, and c) the people who do decide those things have meetings which are irrelevant when talking about working remotely or in person. Am I understanding you correctly?

I've implied that I'm done with this conversation as it seems you're trolling.

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

#735

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

jonathankoren wrote: post #73
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just get rid of the office space and use the money saved to get people together twice per quarter for an extended period? I bet in almost every case it would be a significant cost savings for the employer. Unless, of course, there is some other reasoning than what you state in your comment, like for example, middle management feeling irrelevant or sunk cost fallacy on office space?

Mozilla used to do something similar. For background, at least half, or more of the company is fully remote. It’s so many, that the transition to remote work was met with a collective shrug. So MoCo used to have weeks (maybe twice a year?) where teams would fly in to the office to work. Later, in a cost savings move, it switched to fly every everyone in MoCo to some place for a week twice a year. It was called “All H…

I’ve been in the glass donut, and it is pretty sweet. You would probably sunk cost fallacy yourself if you were in there too!

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

#736

Post by calsy »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #695
mettamage wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital nomad here. I like being one. For me making friends, the best places are: Tinder (it took a lot of effort) and just giving compliments to people on the street (it took some effort to learn). Regarding complimenting people on the street and potentially turning it into a conversation, it takes some practice. 10 years ago when I did some solo traveling (before uni even) for the first time, I had the choice to st…

Contrary to the other person, i find you, at least through this interaction, to be quite likeable.

Disagreeing with someone doesn't mean you dislike them.

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

#737

Post by xs83 »

We don't - at least not all of us.

I have a mandatory 1 day in the office for the staff, the office is there for anyone to work from at any time - no one ever takes it up, they are very comfortable working at home.

And I get it - I prefer working at home too - I also love our 1 day in the office where we can have a laugh with each other, get lunch together and generally bond as a team, but as the CTO of a company where pretty much my entire dev team are introverted , its not a big priority for me to have to get people back into the office.

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

#738

Post by TheCleric »

pxue wrote: post #718
TomSwirly wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I think the larger point is if you can walk away from a relationship after 8 years without an attempt to keep in touch, you're not friends.

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

#739

Post by TheCleric »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #732
Gigachad wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Different folks, different strokes. I started working remote about 3 years before Covid and won't go back to the office.

Same. Both because I prefer it, and because it means my job opportunities aren't geographically limited.

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

#740

Post by Volundr »

jltsiren wrote: post #731
Volundr wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a certain irony to stating "Fundamentally, everything based on the idea that people should make different choices is doomed to fail." in an argument that everyone choosing WFH should either make different choices or be forced to. > If social isolation during work is the default, people will have fewer friends, because making friends takes more effort. I disagree. If these people were making friends by just b…

> I disagree. If these people were making friends by just being at work, they wouldn't be feeling so lonely right now. They would already have plenty of social connections that would not just evaporate because your not in the office anymore. The issue is finding friends after relocating to a new area. That's easier for some and harder for others. With coworkers, you already have a pool of people to spend time with. T…

I firmly reject the idea that I must go back to having a commute and give up all the QoL improvements of work from home just so I can sit around the office awaiting the day we hire someone from out of town, so that I can serve as tour guide and social matchmaker.

Furthermore a read through the comments on this thread make it pretty unambiguous that the problem is not restricted to people new to the area.

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