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Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

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131–140 of 185 posts

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#131

These remote-vs-office discussions where nobody discusses the actual work involved are fairly pointless. Disregarding the obvious scenarios of presence-required in order to work (i.e. manufacturing), the question applies: what is most productive for "information work"? In my personal experience, I've found collaboration conducted face-to-face far more effective than doing so in a distributed/online way. There is a hi…

Does anyone give more than the minimum effort when they find themselves with a 2% to 4% raise, if any, in their yearly reviews, even if they are in the office?

Yes, the are many Clueless [1] in the world

[1]: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I don't like frozen pipes. Heating can't be shut off during winter.

Obviously this is highly dependent on where you live…which gets back to my original point that there are so many variables it probably isn’t possible to declare one option better for the environment. Fwiw, in the UK I actively turn heat on and off depending on when it’s needed. It would never, ever, be on when I’m out, unless I was going out of town for a while and had to consider things like frozen pipes.

It also depends on the type of heating. Heat pumps are not responsive enough for big daily setbacks, while fossil fuel-burning heating systems are.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#133
post #117
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had great coworkers but they were not my friends. Saving 1-2 hour per day of commuting and using my breaks to do chores frees up time to see the people I chose to see.

Colleagues are not 'friends', they are still good for your mental health. Often better than friends since they are forced to behave.

I think you may need to re-evaluate your current friendships.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#135
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone give more than the minimum effort when they find themselves with a 2% to 4% raise, if any, in their yearly reviews, even if they are in the office?

Yes, definitely, for professionals anyone needing to ask the question might consider some introspection.

It seems from your answer that you have a self-image as a "professional" and that motivates you to work hard even though it may have minimal impact on your compensation. Have you considered the economic rationality of that stance?

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#136

These remote-vs-office discussions where nobody discusses the actual work involved are fairly pointless. Disregarding the obvious scenarios of presence-required in order to work (i.e. manufacturing), the question applies: what is most productive for "information work"? In my personal experience, I've found collaboration conducted face-to-face far more effective than doing so in a distributed/online way. There is a hi…

Why should employers care about whether or not an employee is giving their all or their minimum? As long as the work is getting done, should it matter?

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#137
post #133
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colleagues are not 'friends', they are still good for your mental health. Often better than friends since they are forced to behave.

I think you may need to re-evaluate your current friendships.

I have many lifelong friends who are effectively 'kin' aka almost extended family and I don't drop friends because sometimes they might grind a bit, or as we age we see some things (very) differently. Frankly, some of them are a bit odd and have very few friends of their own - they're not going to be 'ejected' because they are not always in support of my sanity.

I don't keep 'fairweather friends' who suit my current lifestyle, mood and social status.

I enjoy the company of my work colleagues a lot, it's friendly without having to be too intense, and we can talk about 'work stuff' which I enjoy.

So you might also want to contemplate a different definition of 'friendship'.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In other words, how do we (the employer) ensure our employees aren't moonlighting on our team and only giving the minimum level of effort with us? The tools for properly determining this are no different remote vs in an office at least for IT work. Most dev teams work in sprints and each sprint comes with a commitment from each developer. It is very noticeable even in remote work if a developer is either: - Not mak…

> The tools for properly determining this... This isn't a logically-evaluate-output scenario. It's low-trust between employee and employer. The bullet points listed are highlighting situations where someone isn't delivering. What do you do if they ARE delivering, but not delivering as much as they could be? The "Not making a reasonably sized commitment" is implicitly an assessment of trust in someone. (I'm trying to…

> What do you do if they ARE delivering, but not delivering as much as they could be?

Isn't this the role of line-managers? Employees are happy to do more when adequately motivated (money, prestige, opportunity or being acknowledged). The problem is that employers want to maximize on employee potential without giving anything in return.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#139

These remote-vs-office discussions where nobody discusses the actual work involved are fairly pointless. Disregarding the obvious scenarios of presence-required in order to work (i.e. manufacturing), the question applies: what is most productive for "information work"? In my personal experience, I've found collaboration conducted face-to-face far more effective than doing so in a distributed/online way. There is a hi…

> In other words, how do we (the employer) ensure our employees aren't moonlighting on our team and only giving the minimum level of effort with us?

..by evaluating their performance? Do you not regularly evaluate the performance of your employees? Or perhaps your performance evaluation process has implicitly relied on the sacred ritual of magical hallway conversations?

Anyways, I find this to be a tired, capitalist argument. The anti-remote argument often boils down to squeezing every ounce of productivity out of “human resources” (PC term for cogs). Let’s not get into how butts in seats never actually correlated with productivity.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#140
post #137
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may need to re-evaluate your current friendships.

I have many lifelong friends who are effectively 'kin' aka almost extended family and I don't drop friends because sometimes they might grind a bit, or as we age we see some things (very) differently. Frankly, some of them are a bit odd and have very few friends of their own - they're not going to be 'ejected' because they are not always in support of my sanity. I don't keep 'fairweather friends' who suit my current…

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